Re: [BLACKBOX] [CPC] Casket

From: [at]} <Robert>
Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2010 22:37:51 +0100

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On 27/03/2010 22:38, Douglas G. Danforth wrote:
> Robert,
> I have installed Casket and MikTeX (only 7,000+ files and 400+MB)!

My version is 14697 files and 230 MB ! And TeXnicCenter is also probably
thousands of files.

> I have just barely played with it but the following is a main reason why
> I probably
> wont use it.
>
> "The Zeta Function: \zeta(2) \equiv \sum_{k=1}^\infty \frac{1}{k^2} =
> \frac{\pi^2}{6}"
>
> What a mess (in my opinion). Syntax replaces image. I would much, much,
> prefer
> to have a pen and tablet on which I could write and then have the system
> "clean up" what I have written. No parsing of sequential characters. No
> internal
> memory stored of what "\equiv" is intended to mean.

You are right - I too would like something 'better', and I have ideas what form
it should take. But I don't have it; all I have is things like MathType.
Given the options that are available to me I am finding LaTeX the best computer
option, but it does not replace pencil and paper (I frequently use A3!).


> Again, the work needed to produce "beautiful equations" is not worth the
> effort
> Again in my opinion.


> How did you slog through all of the Latex documentation to be able to
> interface BB with
> it?

I didn't. The LaTeX interfacing is coded in two calls of WinApi.CreateProcessW
to start latex.exe and dvipng.exe, and I was helped in writing this by
contributers to the BBox list. Then I use FreeImage to import the .png Bitmap.
The BlackBox code does not 'know' any more LaTeX than that (well just a tiny bit
more!)

I am a Latex novice. I can write the occasional equation, but that is only a
fraction of LaTeX's 'power'. I have never tried its advanced whole document
formatting options - bibliographies and the like. That learning curve is massive.

But with Casket I don't need it as I 'simply' put one LaTeX equation at a time
into a familiar BlackBox document. And I am pleased with the result.

This is not as hard as you imply - if it were there would be no equations on
Wikipedia.

BUT I have a couple of colleages who use LaTeX for big documents who claim it
is worth the learning curve. Maybe, in time, I will agree. But in the meantime I
see Casket as a relatively easy way of using just a part of LaTeX.



You must be in your early 30's or younger. After 45 years of
> programming I am
> no longer willing to spend any time on walking through other peoples
> minds as represented
> by the code they write.

He he, ha ha. If only! Twice that is not far off the mark.


> You have done a good job in reducing the complexity. But why was that
> necessary in the
> first place?

The options seem even worse.

But such opinions are always subjective.


> Thanks,
> Doug Danforth


Cheers

Robert

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Received on Mon Mar 29 2010 - 23:37:51 UTC