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Re: typesetting fractions

My bigger problem is too-early page breaks, not the too-late kind. And
there's no WYSIWG (even with page-breaks showing), so I have to print
every time I want to check on how much white space is being produced.
I have seen pages printed with just one short cell.

Bobby

Murray Eisenberg <murray at math.umass.edu> wrote in message news:<bv2fkf$4l$1 at smc.vnet.net>...
> The trouble with controlling page breaks may be due, in part, to a 
> central paradigm of the Front End, namely, as a medium primarily for 
> display on computer screens and secondairly for printout from a computer 
> screen.
> 
> A "real" typesetting functionality would facilitate page-breaking 
> (automatically) within cells.  Mathematica does not like to break within 
> cells.  Of course one CAN apply the Option Inspector setting to change 
> PageBreakWithin to True from its default Automatic and hope for the best.
> 
> Bobby R. Treat wrote:
> 
> > I couldn't agree more. I haven't even learned to control page breaks
> > -- and that needs to be COMPLETELY transparent.
> > 
> > Bobby
> > 
> > Garry Helzer <gah at math.umd.edu> wrote in message news:<buqmch$raa$1 at smc.vnet.net>...
> > 
> >>Since Selwyn has fallen down in the venting department I will offer a
> >>few remarks.
> >>
> >>For the last few years I have used Mathematica exclusively for
> >>technical writing, mostly because it gives me better control over
> >>figure placement and keeps everything in a single file. That said, it
> >>is nonetheless an aggravating experience in many ways. The
> >>subscript/quotient font size problem is a daily irritation. Here's my
> >>question. TeX does an excellent job in this regard. TeX has been around
> >>since the '60s and is open source. Why doesn't someone at WRI just look
> >>at how TeX does it and incorporate the rules? Why reinvent the
> >>wheel especially if the wheels you produce in house always seem to have
> >>corners on the rim?
> >>
> >>A personal bugaboo of mine is the spelling checker. I don't have
> >>problems with the spelling checker in any other software, just
> >>Mathematica. Ever since 3.0 I have been trying to teach it that
> >>bivector is a word. No luck. It just keeps telling me to try bevatron
> >>instead. I tell it to learn the word, it puts it in some user defined
> >>dictionary, and then ignores it.
> >>
> >>I keep a copy of the Summer-Fall 1999 issue of Mathematica in Education
> >>and Research in a file  cabinet just so I can look up how to change an
> >>unmatched bracket from pink to black whenever I want to define a
> >>multiline function (p. 87).
> >>
> >>Indications are that someone at WRI wants to develop Mathematica into a
> >>first rate technical publishing tool. It should be explained to them
> >>that this is just a waste of time and talent if the use of the tool 
> >>is to be such a jealously guarded secret.
> >>
> >>If Mathematica is to have more than marginal use as a technical
> >>publication system WRI needs to produce, in house or outhouse, a
> >>Mathematica equivalent of The Joy of TeX. Cursory documentation and
> >>scattered hints in journals will not do it.
> >>
> >>On Jan 22, 2004, at 3:37 AM, Selwyn Hollis wote:
> >>
> >>
> >>>On Jan 20, 2004, at 5:08 AM, John Fultz wrote:
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>>I didn't reply to this thread earlier because I figured one of the
> >>>>usual
> >>>>experts would pick it up and run with it, but it appears not.  By
> >>>>reading
> >>>>Selwyn's answer, I think he knows how to do this but decided to vent
> >>>>about
> >>>>the method rather than explain it.
> >>>
> >>>What, me vent? I could show you venting, but I won't.
> >>>
> >>>The real issue here is why this design flaw has persisted from version
> >>>3.0 to version 5.0. It is clearly an example of sheer corner-cutting.
> >>>There is no typographical rationale whatsoever for treating numerators
> >>>and denominators of fractions the same way as subscripts and
> >>>superscripts.
> >>>
> >>>For example, what if I want to have ScriptSizeMultipliers->1 in a
> >>>fraction that contains subexpressions with superscripts? Then the
> >>>superscripts are the same size as the bases to which they are attached,
> >>>and the whole thing looks silly -- thus I have go in and do a lot of
> >>>meticulous tweaking.
> >>>
> >>>Again, I could be missing something and have wasted countless hours in
> >>>trying to make many hundreds of pages worthy of publication. But maybe
> >>>it's my own fault for dreaming that I could approach TeX-like quality
> >>>with Mathematica.
> >>>
> >>>-----
> >>>Selwyn Hollis
> >>>http://www.math.armstrong.edu/faculty/hollis
> >>>(edit reply-to to reply)
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>>In the Option Inspector is an option called ScriptSizeMultipliers.
> >>>>This,
> >>>>combined with the ScriptMinSize, determines sizing for fractions and
> >>>>scripts (sorry, Selwyn).  The easiest way to do what Murray and Sabit
> >>>>want
> >>>>is to set the ScriptSizeMultipliers option to 1.  This could be set 
> >>
> >> at
> >>
> >>>>the
> >>>>notebook or global level, as you feel appropriate, or wrapped
> >>>>individually
> >>>>around fractions if you don't want sub/superscripts to pick up the
> >>>>option
> >>>>value.
> >>>>
> >>>>To answer Sabit's second question, select the bracket of the cell
> >>>>you'd
> >>>>like to change, and use the Option Inspector to set the
> >>>>SingleLetterItalics
> >>>>option to False at the selection scope.
> >>>>
> >>>>Sincerely,
> >>>>
> >>>>John Fultz
> >>>>jfultz at wolfram.com
> >>>>User Interface Group
> >>>>Wolfram Research, Inc.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>On Fri, 16 Jan 2004 19:58:02 -0500 (EST), Murray Eisenberg wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>>I quite agree that this is an annoyance with Mahematica's typsetting
> >>>>>of
> >>>>>mathematics.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>An underlying difficulty is that there is no separate notion of
> >>>>>"display
> >>>>>math" -- mathematical expressions displayed on separate lines -- as
> >>>>>opposed to math within normal paragraphs of text.  This may be an
> >>>>>unfortunate front-end design limitation.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>The problem is reminiscent of the same problem in LaTeX, where
> >>>>>in-line,
> >>>>>built-up fractions (and other constructs) have their components >>> small.
> >>>>>But in LaTeX, there is an option (which one needs to apply to each
> >>>>>instance) to make such in-line math "displaystyle", which enlarges the
> >>>>>components to the same large size as if they were in a display.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>I devoutly wish there were such a capability in Mathematica --
> >>>>>whether a
> >>>>>per-instance option as with LaTeX, or a global option for a notebook.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>Selwyn Hollis wrote:
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>>My understanding is that the size of fractions is determined by the
> >>>>>>same option that determines the size of subscripts and superscripts,
> >>>>>>which is highly unfortunate. I could be wrong about this; if so I'd
> >>>>>>love to find out. I find it a major pain in the neck always to have
> >>>>>>to
> >>>>>>increase the size of fractions manually. Maybe this is an
> >>>>>>improvement
> >>>>>>we can hope for in version 6.0.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>-----
> >>>>>>Selwyn Hollis
> >>>>>>http://www.math.armstrong.edu/faculty/hollis
> >>>>>>(edit reply-to to reply)
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>On Jan 14, 2004, at 1:26 AM, sabit wrote:
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>>I am trying to do some typesetting with mathematica. I noticed that
> >>>>>>>in
> >>>>>>>some styles fractions are set in reduced point size. What is the
> >>>>>>>option that would fix this? I want both denominator and the
> >>>>>>>numerator
> >>>>>>>set in the same size as the text.
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>Also I have the single letter italic enabled for cells where I 
> >>
> >> have
> >>
> >>>>>>>the equations but in the cells where there is a lot of text I 
> >>
> >> don't
> >>
> >>>>>>>want this option. Now I copy and paste a previous cell and use it
> >>
> >> 
> >>
> >>>>>>>as
> >>>>>>>new cell but I am sure there is a better way, probably with 
> >>
> >> styles.
> >>
> >>>>>>>Wolfram site lists two documents about typesetting but they are 
> >>
> >> not
> >>
> >>>>>>>available to download. Does anyone know a good reference for
> >>>>>>>tpesetting with mathematica?
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>Garry Helzer
> >>Department of Mathematics
> >>University of Maryland
> >>College Park, MD 20742
> >>301-405-5176
> >>gah at math.umd.edu
> > 
> > 
> >
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