Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!uunet!comp.vuw.ac.nz!virtue!phil
From: phil@waikato.ac.nz
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps
Subject: Re: Summary of info received on math equation formatters
Message-ID: <1942.27148ce9@waikato.ac.nz>
Date: 11 Oct 90 02:16:56 GMT
References: <1990Sep28.160114.5204@eddie.mit.edu> <15631@yunexus.YorkU.CA> <1990Oct3.142236.14143@maths.tcd.ie>
Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand
Lines: 33

In article <1990Oct3.142236.14143@maths.tcd.ie>, tim@maths.tcd.ie (Timothy Murphy) writes:
>>That being said, I think it is fairly obvious that equation editors are
>>not the answer to the problems involved in typing documents of a mathematical
>>nature. The issue of in-line equations, and the very idea of an equation
>>being treated as a "picture" makes for editing,etc...a difficult task.

On the contrary, I like the idea of being able to mix and match products to get
the set of features I desire.  That's what MultiFinder and System 7 are for.
Integrated software invariably removes this ability and either becomes
limiting in some areas or gargantuan in storage and memory requirements, IMHO.

Word, WriteNow and Word Perfect all treat the picture as a word in the line of
text, not as pictures.  They only become pictures again when you want to paste
them back into your editor for re-editing.  With System 7, this step won't even
be necessary, if hot links turn out to be all they are cracked to be.

I have been asked to review a beta copy of MathWriter 2.0, which claims to be
everything you want.  I'll post it here when I've done the review (I haven't
received the software yet, so don't hold your breath).
> 
> As a matter of interest,
> has anyone used TeX, and one of these 'equation editors',
> and *not* settled for TeX?
> TeX/LaTeX is the standard for writing and printing mathematics.
> To use anything else is like using EBCDIC, or 9-bit bytes.

MathType, Expressionist and MathWriter all have a TeX conversion facility built
in or as an add-on.  These have the potential to remove the need to learn
the mathematical side of TeX's language.
-- 
Phil Etheridge (phil@waikato.ac.nz)                 /\  /\   -+-,--, .--, ._
Computer Services/Mathematics & Statistics         /  \/  \  / /--< /--  /
University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ.              /        \/ /__.) \_  /