OK, first off: I have not tested this myself, so I can't say if it really is good or not. I'm just presenting a possibility.
YACAS (http://www.xs4all.nl/~apinkus/yacas.html) came up a while back when I did a search. That page also lists a few other computer algebra systems you might want to look at, like JACAL. Check the related-links section.
Just a thought, but if you do try several of these you might want to write a brief article about your findings. I'm certain that other people would be interested...
Hardware design vs. HTML - what's important
on
The New Garbage Man
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· Score: 2
People complain about FrontPage and grammar? That's hardly a valid reason. Having met two of these individuals (Chang and Srisa-an), I can say that I do not believe either one to be a native English speaker. Both are, however, very knowledgable about computer architecture and hardware design.
I'm not saying that this is a good/bad idea, or that it will/won't improve performance. I don't know. I do know that the two men I've met are two of the very few people in IIT's CS department who might come up with something usable, regardless of their lack of English and HTML skills.
The English I saw browsing the pages was really not bad, and even if the page was done in FrontPage it's still better than the main IIT site (take a look if you don't believe me). Many successful open-source software projects involve people who do not use flawless English, but that does not affect the quality of the work.
I agree with a lot of that, in particular the points about beautiful output and excellent equations. It also does really help the structure, and is fairly well suited for writing things from outlines.
I also agree that the write-compile bit gets in the way for some people, but a larger problem is that working in LaTeX makes it generally more difficult to just try a change to see how it looks. WYSIWYG editing may not be perfect or ideal in many situations, but it has its place.
That's why I use LyX (which has already been mentioned several times) for so many things, I get the benefits of a strong equation system and pretty Postscript output, but I get that instant looks-good/looks-bad feedback on things. Admittedly, the displayed document doesn't always exactly match the PS output, but you get a good general picture of it right there in front of you instead of just in your head. LyX also has a preview that creates the PS file and opens it in ghostview or gv for final checks, and the export-as-LaTeX is good for the occasional touch-up.
Just FYI, Sigma Designs has claimed to be looking at Linux support for quite a long time now, and as far as I can see absolutely nothing has actually come of it (except for this announcement).
I have a problem with a distribution (prerelease or final) that is available for download *only* as an ISO image. Looking at the screenshots it says that installation from anything other than CD is currently unavailable. I'm not that anxious to burn a CD just to take it for a spin, and having to hack on the installer myself defeats half the reason for getting a distribution instead of rolling my own. Since the other options are there in the screenshot, I'm guessing that they will be around in the final release, but will they actually work the first time?
Slashdot Mirror
OK, first off: I have not tested this myself, so I can't say if it really is good or not. I'm just presenting a possibility.
YACAS (http://www.xs4all.nl/~apinkus/yacas.html) came up a while back when I did a search. That page also lists a few other computer algebra systems you might want to look at, like JACAL. Check the related-links section.
Just a thought, but if you do try several of these you might want to write a brief article about your findings. I'm certain that other people would be interested...
People complain about FrontPage and grammar? That's hardly a valid reason. Having met two of these individuals (Chang and Srisa-an), I can say that I do not believe either one to be a native English speaker. Both are, however, very knowledgable about computer architecture and hardware design.
I'm not saying that this is a good/bad idea, or that it will/won't improve performance. I don't know. I do know that the two men I've met are two of the very few people in IIT's CS department who might come up with something usable, regardless of their lack of English and HTML skills.
The English I saw browsing the pages was really not bad, and even if the page was done in FrontPage it's still better than the main IIT site (take a look if you don't believe me). Many successful open-source software projects involve people who do not use flawless English, but that does not affect the quality of the work.
I agree with a lot of that, in particular the points about beautiful output and excellent equations. It also does really help the structure, and is fairly well suited for writing things from outlines.
I also agree that the write-compile bit gets in the way for some people, but a larger problem is that working in LaTeX makes it generally more difficult to just try a change to see how it looks. WYSIWYG editing may not be perfect or ideal in many situations, but it has its place.
That's why I use LyX (which has already been mentioned several times) for so many things, I get the benefits of a strong equation system and pretty Postscript output, but I get that instant looks-good/looks-bad feedback on things. Admittedly, the displayed document doesn't always exactly match the PS output, but you get a good general picture of it right there in front of you instead of just in your head. LyX also has a preview that creates the PS file and opens it in ghostview or gv for final checks, and the export-as-LaTeX is good for the occasional touch-up.
Just FYI, Sigma Designs has claimed to be looking at Linux support for quite a long time now, and as far as I can see absolutely nothing has actually come of it (except for this announcement).
I have a problem with a distribution (prerelease or final) that is available for download *only* as an ISO image. Looking at the screenshots it says that installation from anything other than CD is currently unavailable. I'm not that anxious to burn a CD just to take it for a spin, and having to hack on the installer myself defeats half the reason for getting a distribution instead of rolling my own. Since the other options are there in the screenshot, I'm guessing that they will be around in the final release, but will they actually work the first time?