Services & ResourcesWolfram ForumsMathGroup Archive

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

Re: Re: Which editor do you use for math

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg95713] Re: [mg95666] Re: Which editor do you use for math
• From: peter <plindsay.0 at gmail.com>
• Date: Sun, 25 Jan 2009 06:54:06 -0500 (EST)
• References: <200901241119.GAA04886@smc.vnet.net>

on the Mac I use: MacTex-2008 [ www.tug.org/mactex/ ] which includes
the excellent editor TeXShop and supports TeX, LaTeX, PDFTeX, AMSTeX,
ConTeXt, XeTeX.

For creating diagrams I use:

Mathematica incorporating "Presentations" [
home.comcast.net/~djmpark/Mathematica.html ]   and export to PDF

for graphics editing I use GraphicConverter [ www.lemkesoft.com/ ].

Peter

2009/1/24 Bill Rowe <readnews at sbcglobal.net>:
> On 1/23/09 at 5:07 AM, btreat1 at austin.rr.com (DrMajorBob) wrote:
>
>>My advice? Stick to Mathematica and/or Word. (Unless you're willing
>>to learn LaTeX from the ground up, the hard way.)
>
>>I spent several hours last night sleuthing how to use Mac fonts in
>>LyX, which led to using them in TeXShop, which led to indecipherable
>>instructions for using LyX with XeTex, which led to utter confusion.
>
> Well since LyX is neither LaTeX nor TeXShop, I can see how this
> path would lead to confusion. LyX is designed to allow you to
> create documents without knowing LaTeX. Usage of TeXShop
> requires knowledge of LaTeX or TeX. XeTeX is a command line
> utility that extends TeX to allow usage of Mac fonts. Since
> TeXShop is basically an editor combined with a GUI for the Unix
> tools used to convert TeX source code into the final document,
> configuring TeXShop to use xetex instead of another tex tool is
> relatively simple. Currently, I've no idea how to configure LyX
> to make use of xetex.
>
>>I found a LyX document that "explained" and "demonstrated" how to do
>>this; but that document explained exactly nothing and could not be
>>typeset, neither with LaTeX NOR XeTeX. Trying to do so popped up
>>error messages (like the ones mentioned below).
>
>>Explanations (and ERROR messages) FREQUENTLY repeated the equivalent
>>of, "If you use *nix, you'll be able to figure this out. No need to
>>explain it," or "Make like Sherlock Holmes, and look for clues."
>
>>Apparently, the developers of this stuff MAY be a lot wise-a**es
>>who'd rather, really, have nobody else use their code.
>
>>Or, at least, they can't be bothered with meaningful documentation
>>or installers that do the full job.
>
> The thing is, both TeX and LaTeX existed much earlier than
> things like Word. They were created as Unix tools and still
> reflect those roots. The primary installation tools are other
> Unix tools. Installers that don't explicitly use the command
> line are typically a GUI wrapper for lower level Unix tools.
> Likewise, the main documentation for TeX are man pages and
> texdoc documents accessed using the command line. Obviously,
> converting this documentation to something like the online
> documentation found in Word or Mathematica is quite a bit of effort.
>
> If you are to effectively make use of LaTeX you will definitely
> want to get a book written about using LaTeX. Like Mathematica,
> LaTeX will require quite a bit of study/usage before you will
> really be comfortable using it. I believe the payoff for
> learning LaTeX warrants the effort.
>
>
>

• References:
  • Re: Which editor do you use for math
    • From: Bill Rowe <readnews@sbcglobal.net>