Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!decwrl!labrea!aurora!eos!ames!hao!oddjob!gargoyle!ihnp4!alberta!auvax!kevinc
From: kevinc@auvax.UUCP (Kevin Barry Crocker)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: HELP! We need a scientific WP.
Message-ID: <537@auvax.UUCP>
Date: 28 Feb 88 22:46:38 GMT
References: <369@ndcheg.UUCP> <3302@cup.portal.com>
Organization: Athabasca U., Alberta, Canada
Lines: 85
Summary: MAnuscript works just fine!

In article <3302@cup.portal.com>, Isaac_K_Rabinovitch@cup.portal.com writes:
> evan@ndcheg.UUCP (Evan Bauman) writes:
> ->We're converting our department office word processing equipment from dedicated
> ->CPT word processors to IBM PS/2 model 30's.  We've purchased one unit and
> ->another two are on order.  We originally thought of using the T3 word
> ->processor, but this package requires 550K to run and this means that
> ->we cannot load the network software at the same time.
> 
> ->Does anyone have a recommendation for another WP?  We need one that will
> ->support a postscript printer, be relatively easy to learn, doesn't use
> ->as much RAM as T3 (under 350K would be nice), and work with the model 30's
> ->video (MCGA).
> 
> Possibly Lotus Manuscript (which PC Mag. skipped for some reason) comes
> close.  You have to use an equation language, but there appears
> to be some immediate feedback.  Unfortunately, I hear that Manuscript
> is buggy, and difficult to use.  Don't know what its RAM requirements are,
> but I'm not optimistic.
> 

We've been using Manuscript for almost two years here at Athabasca
University.  As far as I know it is not buggy at all.  I'm running a
Zenith 241 AT with an Aboveboard 286 and Zenith's 405 extended memory
board on top of the 640 on the motherboard an OSI 40 Mb disk and an ATI
graphics board.  Everything seems to work just fine.  I do
occassionally get some runtime errors but I have NEVER hung.  Usually
the problem ends up being something really stupid that is my own
fault.

It is really quite easy to set up equations especially those that you
may use quite often.  All you do is use alpha representations for each
critical term and then you can even preview it on the WYSIWYG
previewer screen.  Just to give you an example:

let's suppose that you wanted to setup a general integral then 
you would type in:

\equation "int super infinity sub A f(t) dt"\

inpreview mode it would show up perfect.

However, it does not do chemical pictures, but it will do chemical
equations - it has all (?) the math functions that I think anyone would
want.  Here's a list of some of the things it can do:

Cosine, Cosecant, Hyperbolic cosine, cotangent, exponent, greatest
common denominator, inferior, limit, limit inferior, limit superior,
natural log, logarithm, maximum, minimum, modulo, secant, sine,
hyperbolic sine, superior, tangent, hyperbolic tangent, all lower and
upper greek letters, diacritical marks (dot, doubledot, hat, tilde,
vector, dyad, bar, underline), binary operators (plus, minus, plus or
minus, minus or plus, division, multiplication, circle-plus,
circle-minus, circle-multiply, circle-divide), relational operators (
equal, not equal, congruent, approx. equal, dot equal, identical, not
identical, greater greter than or equal to, much greater, less, less
than or equal to, much less, subset, proper subset, superset, proper
superset, belongs to , not belong to, such that, and, or, exclusive or,
not, implies, equivalent, relation), pointers ( up, down, left, right,
bi-arrow, double-up, double-down, double-left, double-right,
double-bi-arrow), grouping symbols ( parenthesis, brackets, braces,
vertical, floor, ceiling, angle), large operators (sum,
integral,surface integral, product, union, intersection, meet, join,
root or radical, there exists, for all), nabla, aleph, infinity, prime,
real, imaginary, proportional, partial, empty set, angle, degree,
elipsis, superscript, subscript, below, above, equation alignment,
vertical stacking (a-la matrix etc), matricies, over, custom equation
spacing, .........

These are not all.  Bye the way I understand that Manuscript Version
2.0 will be out shortly.

As an end note Since I am in Finance I have found this product superb.
It allows me to incorporate all the equations in Finance in my
documents very easily - in fact for those that are used often I put
them in separate files and just include them at print time.

As a Last peice of information. 

Issac, I have been trying to send you messages for over six months now
and I just can't get through.  I think the underscores in your
authorplaceholder are screwing up my mailer.  Is it possible for us to
find some other way to talk to each other.

ihnp4!alberta!auvax!kevinc (Kevin Crocker Athabasca University)
Do our employers have opinions or is that what we get paid for!