Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!oberon!cit-vax!wetter
From: wetter@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu (Pierce T. Wetter)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: The NeXT Problem
Message-ID: <8336@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>
Date: 17 Oct 88 07:39:09 GMT
References: <26435@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <5498@juniper.uucp> <3884@encore.UUCP> <12834@oberon.USC.EDU>
Reply-To: wetter@cit-vax.UUCP (Pierce T. Wetter)
Organization: California Institute of Technology
Lines: 27

>  * if not already provided, a program to convert Mathematica output to
>publication-quality PostScript description.  This might be easiest with the
>source code to Mathematica (or rather, easiest for Stephen Wolfram to do).
>
>  * given the above, a WSYWIG editor extended to keep Mathematical formulas
>in some Mathematica-readable format but displayed in pretty format.  So,
>papers with mathematics in them could be constructed using cut-and-paste
>between Mathematica and the editor.  Papers could be send over email
>as ASCII and MacWrite documents are now, and the receiver could cut
>equations out of documents and "experiment" with them, using Mathematica
>on his/her system.  I guess I would ultimately like to see a standard format
>for the communication of mathematical proof (logic) without the free use
>of natural language, but that is too ambitious.
>
     First off, Mathematica uses postscript for all its graphs anyway all that
is left is the text interface, which given the mac version, probably does that
anyway. (for everything but the equations) 

     As to your second point, the author of Milo (an equation mangling program
that runs on the mac) plans a Milo-Mathematica interface, thought the current
version doesn't have it. (Milo is strong on interface and weak on math, 
Mathematica is the reverse.) Perhaps if Ron Avitzur (the author of Milo) or 
I get a NeXt box, we can port Milo to the Box. Or perhaps you could just
write a Mathematica to TeX parser. In fact, I have a parser already written
that would do the job nicely. Now all I need is $6500. (Actually Caltech price
is probably $6500 + 3% + 6.5%=$7100.)
Pierce