Re: Using Mathematica to typeset books
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg125378] Re: Using Mathematica to typeset books
- From: Murray Eisenberg <murray at math.umass.edu>
- Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2012 06:18:19 -0500 (EST)
- Delivered-to: l-mathgroup@mail-archive0.wolfram.com
- Reply-to: murray at math.umass.edu
On Mar 8, 4:41 am, m... at necomp.us wrote: > I'm a newbie to Mathematica. I work with a publisher that is looking > to use Mathematica to typeset its books. Is it possible to do this and > what are some books that may be of interest. A lot of the books are > now set using LaTex but the publisher is looking to set up some with > Mathematica and then using CDF for some website tutorials. If you've signed with a publisher, then the following will be too late... I have ever-stronger doubts about the viability of printed-book + on-line interactive materials, or even e-book + separate on-line interactive materials. More and more I see the future, and indeed already the present -- asthe model now set by Apple's iBooks Textbooks. These are electronic books that include, right in the text, interactive materials -- including CDFs. It's just "too complicated" to have separate reading material and interactive material. And pedagogically less effective. Neither medium fulfills its potential instructive value unless the two are wedded. I say the above even as one who's authored quite a lot of interactive materials -- originally using other software platforms but for some years now in Mathematica -- as "supplements" to printed texts. -- 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