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Re: How to write reports and books in Mathematica

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg109734] Re: How to write reports and books in Mathematica
• From: Murray Eisenberg <murray at math.umass.edu>
• Date: Fri, 14 May 2010 05:34:57 -0400 (EDT)
• Organization: Mathematics & Statistics, Univ. of Mass./Amherst
• References: <hsgnis$d5c$1@smc.vnet.net> <4BEC3984.4020002@umbc.edu>
• Reply-to: murray at math.umass.edu

With respect to how typeset math should look, I recommend writings of 
Donald Knuth.  And just because he invented TeX does not mean he's 
biased in this regard; in fact, he invented TeX because he was 
dissatisfied with the level to which some typeset math had degenerated 
and saw the need for a suitable tool to produce typeset math in the 
modern computer era.

Often much or most math typeset by Mathematica is "good enough". But as 
a matter of simple fact it's just not up to professional mathematical 
typesetting standards such as one sees in math society journals, or even 
in the ArXiv.

On 5/13/2010 1:40 PM, Kevin J. McCann wrote:
> Murray,
>
> Here we have a difference of opinion. LaTeX and all the other Tex's
> require that "code" be written, which is subsequently processed to
> generate the final output. To me this is not at all natural and I
> observe that others who use it are frequently asking "how do I ...";
> whereas, Mathematica allows me to focus on the equations and words. Now, I know
> that with LaTeX there is "infinite" control over how things look; so,
> you can make it look just right, but, for me at least, the default look
> of equations and text in Mathematica is just fine, and I really don't
> want to spend time making it look more right.
>
> That said, I rely on the Stylesheet to determine the look and feel of
> the document, and, as I said in an earlier post, this is not at all
> intuitive. So, here is where I have to spend my time, but once the
> template (Stylesheet) is done, then that's it. After that documents are
> simple, especially equations, which with the keyboard shortcuts are a snap.
>
> Just my take,
>
> Kevin
>
>
> Murray Eisenberg wrote:
>> Unless you don't know LaTeX, or do know it but don't regard it as a
>> "word processing system", then surely you're joking about Mathematica
>> being "far superior to any other word processing system."
>>
>>
>

-- 
Murray Eisenberg                     murray at math.umass.edu
Mathematics & Statistics Dept.
Lederle Graduate Research Tower      phone 413 549-1020 (H)
University of Massachusetts                413 545-2859 (W)
710 North Pleasant Street            fax   413 545-1801
Amherst, MA 01003-9305