MathGroup Archive 2004

[Date Index] [Thread Index] [Author Index]

Search the Archive

Re: Re: Technical Publishing Made Easy with New Wolfram Publicon Software

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg50292] Re: [mg50281] Re: Technical Publishing Made Easy with New Wolfram Publicon Software
  • From: DrBob <drbob at bigfoot.com>
  • Date: Wed, 25 Aug 2004 03:36:00 -0400 (EDT)
  • References: <cg20f3$od7$1@smc.vnet.net> <cgcicp$eo7$1@smc.vnet.net> <200408241022.GAA06691@smc.vnet.net>
  • Reply-to: drbob at bigfoot.com
  • Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

Thanks for doing all that research for us!

However, footnotes don't go at the end of a document--they go at the foot of each page.

Endnotes are getting to be the new standard, but they're far less useful to a reader.

Bobby

On Tue, 24 Aug 2004 06:22:23 -0400 (EDT), Steve Luttrell <steve_usenet at _removemefirst_luttrell.org.uk> wrote:

> I have already used Publicon to write several papers (I had a busy
> weekend!). It fills in a much needed gap that Mathematica itself doesn't
> cover, at least not without a great deal of additional effort on my part. As
> I see it, Publicon aims to do what Scientific Word does but in a way that is
> preferable to Mathematica users.
>
> The several papers I wrote in Publicon were translations from papers I had
> already authored in Mathematica, but which I wanted to convert to a form
> from which I could easily generate LaTeX (I wanted to submit them to
> arXiv.org) I found that I could NOT simply read a Mathematica notebook into
> Publicon and have it behave in the same way as a notebook I had created
> directly in Publicon (e.g. Save As LaTeX did NOT work cleanly). However, I
> did find that copying material across from a Mathematica notebook (using
> Copy As Cell Expression) worked very well, but I had to do recreate the
> hyperlinks (cross references) afresh within Publicon in order for them to
> work correctly there. If I didn't do this then "Gather Backmatter" (which
> appears to rely on the special way that Publicon creates its cross
> references) did not work correctly.
>
> It would save me a great deal of time if I could automatically generate a
> Publicon notebook from a previously generated Mathematica notebook, so that
> it behaves as if it had been generated within Publicon in the first place.
> Maybe it is possible to design a filter to do this conversion automatically;
> this should be possible because there were only a few fairly well-defined
> conversion problems I encountered, and which I fixed manually.
>
> I have found NO problems at all in reading a Publicon notebook using
> Mathematica. However, it seems that a notebook created using Publicon knows
> that it originated there, so that double-clicking on it (in Windows) fires
> up Publicon rather than Mathematica (and vice versa for a notebook created
> in Mathematica).
>
> Publicon DOES support footnotes. You do "Insert Note" followed by "Gather
> Backmatter". The various footnotes (and references) are collected at the end
> of the document as backmatter. If you then "Save As LaTeX" you get a TeX
> file that compiles to give you the expected footnotes.
>
> To balance out the above positive comments I do have some criticisms. There
> are some Publicon message windows that sit on top of all other windows
> whatever you do to hide them. There are some characters that don't translate
> to LaTeX - e.g. I had to replace \[And] by \[Intersection] to make the
> exported LaTeX work correctly. I found that bold font in equations does not
> survive in the exported LaTeX, so now my vectors look like scalars. My
> habitual use of \[AlignmentMarker] has come home to haunt me because it is
> not translated to the (obvious) box form in LaTeX, so the exported LaTeX
> does not compile correctly. However, all of these problems are either benign
> or else manually fixable.
>
> Anyway, my overall impression of Publicon is very positive. It has a way to
> go to equal Scientific Word (which has been around for a while now), but the
> basic framework is already there in Publicon, and is very extensible via
> custom style sheets to define your own ways of generating LaTeX for
> instance; this sort of customisation is easy for someone who is already
> familiar with Mathematica's style sheets. I have already used this to create
> custom bibliography styles in the exported LaTeX; it works exactly as
> advertised.
>
> I hope that Publicon is subsumed into a future release of Mathematica, so
> that Mathematica (Publicon) is analogous to a souped up version of
> Scientific WorkPlace (Scientific Word) - check out
> http://www.sciword.demon.co.uk/ to see what I mean. This would avoid the
> time taken to convert from a Mathematica-authored notebook to something that
> works correctly in Publicon.
>
> Steve Luttrell
>
> "Bobby R. Treat" <drbob at bigfoot.com> wrote in message
> news:cgcicp$eo7$1 at smc.vnet.net...
>> This appears to be an elaborate waste of binary bits.
>>
>> Rather than make Mathematica do pagination right (and a few other
>> simple things), they made a new stand-alone LaTex derivative with no
>> computational capability.
>>
>> MUCH of the content I'd likely put into Publicon, if I used it, would
>> originate in Mathematica. But conversion is a one-way street.
>>
>> Note that Publicon doesn't support footnotes; something every word
>> processor does do, and something every technical document needs.
>>
>> On the PLUS side, it's cheap--except in terms of the learning curve.
>> The online tour makes using it look very involved.
>>
>> Bobby
>>
>> newsdesk at wolfram.com (Wolfram Research) wrote in message
> news:<cg20f3$od7$1 at smc.vnet.net>...
>> > Technical Publishing Made Easy with New Wolfram Publicon
>> > Software
>> >
>> > Wolfram Publicon, a powerful new publishing tool based on the
>> > underlying document technology of Mathematica, is now available
>> > to purchase as a download for Windows and Mac OS X.
>> >
>> > Created for the growing number of academic researchers,
>> > students, and industry professionals who need to create
>> > precisely formatted technical documents in XML and other
>> > structured data formats, Publicon incorporates many exciting
>> > features including inline math and chemistry typesetting,
>> > publisher-specific style sheets, and a scrolling WYSIWYG
>> > interface ideal for online presentation.
>> >
>> > With Publicon, users can compose more engaging technical
>> > documents that intuitively incorporate complex scientific
>> > research. Mathematica users will especially appreciate
>> > Publicon's unique ability to understand and identify math. All
>> > Mathematica work, including dynamic 2D and 3D plots, can be
>> > pasted directly into Publicon documents. Publicon will preserve
>> > the mathematical content so the work may be evaluated at any
>> > time in Mathematica.
>> >
>> > Heralded as a "major advance" by Open Access publisher BioMed
>> > Central, Publicon was built to take the guesswork and hassle out
>> > of formatting technical documents for publication. Combining
>> > ease of use with cutting-edge technology, Publicon is the first
>> > choice for composing structured technical documents for
>> > electronic or print publication.
>> >
>> > For more information, please visit:
>> > http://www.wolfram.com/publicon
>>
>
>
>
>



-- 
DrBob at bigfoot.com
www.eclecticdreams.net


  • Prev by Date: Re: Comparison of Mathematica on Various Computers
  • Next by Date: Random Edge Rewiring (Combinatorica)
  • Previous by thread: Publicon problems converting sample document to LaTeX
  • Next by thread: Re: Publicon problems converting sample document to LaTeX