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Features to beat the pants off MathCad
  Rank: Member Groups: Registered
Joined: 20/03/2009(UTC) Posts: 21  Location: Vienna, AUSTRIA
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Hello, first of all, I want to give my greatest respect for this awesome prog!!  Yesterday I found it and still can't believe that there is such a prog. I spend the last 2 to 3 years searching for a neat mathematical software (in the area of open source and freeware) but up to now I wasn't really satisfied. So as I am a user of Latex (because it produces the best looking docs) and often have to write technical documents with lots of equations this is where my request comes in... Maybe it would be possible to add an export feature to latex code. Additional, like in Mathcad, a format option for Titles and Subtitles would be nice, to write a complete document with SMath. With this "Styles" the Latex Section, etc could be adressed to achieve the desired effect in the Latex code. With this it is possible to do all the math AND text in SMath an then simply export the complete sheet to Latex, add header, compile and have a really nice looking document. And that's a feature MathCad will never have and as was talking to a couple of people about such an application, would be quite useful. If something of this type is possible and you are not against, we could talk about detail later (I have thought about a few formating options today). Of course this feature is for desktop environment only. OK, thats all  Hope you can follow my idea. Thanks again for your really amazing work! Jakob
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  Rank: Administration Groups: Developers, Registered, Knovel Developers, Administrators, Advanced Member Joined: 11/07/2008(UTC) Posts: 1,616  Was thanked: 1978 time(s) in 666 post(s)
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Hello, Jakob. Thank you for the idea. Hope I will implement "export to LateX" or, at least, will start to do it in 1-2 monthes with your help... because, unfortunately, I have no enough experience with that format. For now, I need to fix several bugs/findings of the SMath Studio 0.78 and implement some requested features (f.e. printing, etc.). So, it would be great, if you'll give some expert advices  to what distributives I should install to take a look to the LateX documents and play with it... and then I will start to work. Thanks in advance. Best regards, Andrey Ivashov.
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Rank: Newbie
Groups: Registered
Joined: 17/03/2009(UTC)
Posts: 5
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Hi,
I totally agree great program!! Thanks so much.
I also thought printing was a issue, but the export to HTML works so well printing to paper or PDF hasn't been a problem (so far).
On the issue of LaTex, the .sm file looks very close to standard XML and there are a few XML to LaTex (and even PDF) converters but I don't know how well they will handle the maths.
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Rank: Member Groups: Registered
Joined: 20/03/2009(UTC) Posts: 21 Location: Vienna, AUSTRIA
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Hello Andrey, I've started to gather some informations about latex and xml (as this is the format you use?). Shinyplastic announced that there are xml to Latex converter. Well thats true, you even find some if you try google, but I'm also not sure if they can handle math. But I keep it in mind. The Latex math format is fairly simple. (for a closer look check: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Mathematics) I'm not sure how much Latex code should be supported by the exporter. Of course, if you could write the whole document in SMath it would be great, but than SMath would become some kind of graphical frontend of Latex. I'm not sure if that is what you intent Smath to be. But this can be discussed later. A major point concerning math in Latex is, that there are different environments for formulars. There is a "in text"-Envirmonment (embedded by $...$) and a seperated environment. The seperated environment can be numbered or not, it can be aligned, and so on. So it is important to specify the environment for each formula. This could be tricky if xml is not flexible (add an additional parameter?) Another important point is the text exporting capability. In Latex headings are created using the \section (or \subsection, \subsubsection) command. Text is just simple plain text inserted where you want it to be. To achieve a similar behaviour in SMath, some type of formating styles could be used (e.g. in MathCAD it is possible to use predefined styles for textboxes) I have written a (really) simple file which shows a few options of Latex, and a corresponding SMath file (rapidshare). Rapid share Simple examplePS: I use Miktex 2.7 on a Windows PC (I know!  ) Have a nice weekend! Jakob
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  Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Registered
Joined: 22/10/2009(UTC) Posts: 53  Location: Gedongkuning, Jogjakarta Was thanked: 1 time(s) in 1 post(s)
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I have been following this thread of discussion. I think it would be very useful if SMath provides a capability to save as TeX/LaTeX format, so the equations can be embedded in LaTeX document.
Thank you very much.
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 Rank: Administration Groups: Registered, Advanced Member Joined: 23/06/2009(UTC) Posts: 1,740  Was thanked: 318 time(s) in 268 post(s)
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Hello, I tried MathParser long time ago. It could translate some Mathcad math regions into LaTex. Quite limited functionality and I was not satisfied with it. This project is not maintained anymore. Regards, Radovan |
When Sisyphus climbed to the top of a hill, they said: "Wrong boulder!" |
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Rank: Member Groups: Registered
Joined: 20/03/2009(UTC) Posts: 21 Location: Vienna, AUSTRIA
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Hi omorr,
I also tried MathParser, but the main problem here is that MathCad removed the save as MathML option in Version 2001(?, or something around), and MathParser converted this MathML file to Latex.
I totally agree with you that the functionality was limited and not satisfying.
Cheers,
Jakob
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Rank: Administration Groups: Registered, Advanced Member Joined: 23/06/2009(UTC) Posts: 1,740 Was thanked: 318 time(s) in 268 post(s)
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Hello jakobg, Yes, you are right. I've being trying for years to incorporate Mathcad files in LaTex in a sutiable way. I always ended up with presenting it as pictures (or PDF) and insert it into LaTex. Lots of problems concerning this. Do not know any other way. The ideal (maybe unpossible way) would be to have a SMath2LaTex converter. I mean by this, that the .sm file could be converted into .tex and the LaTex output to be as closest as possible to the SMath file. Regards, Radovan Edited by user 11 November 2009 14:55:02(UTC)
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When Sisyphus climbed to the top of a hill, they said: "Wrong boulder!" |
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Registered
Joined: 22/10/2009(UTC) Posts: 53 Location: Gedongkuning, Jogjakarta Was thanked: 1 time(s) in 1 post(s)
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Hi All ...
In this thread, Andrey will be implementing export to LaTeX.? or someone would develop smath2latex converter, it would be wonderful. Perhaps one can start from MathParser. I don't know whether the source is open?
Anyway .. SMAth is increasing the popularity, pure LaTeX users or LyX users are looking forward to use SMath results and embeded into latex document.
Regard, Waluyo
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Registered
Joined: 22/10/2009(UTC) Posts: 53 Location: Gedongkuning, Jogjakarta Was thanked: 1 time(s) in 1 post(s)
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Hi All.. I am still expecting a feature to save as latex. I just visited Mathparser, and see an announcement that the developer Mathparser decided to publish the source. (since 2010-02-06) http://www.tilman.de/pro...mathparser/index_en.htmlMaybe smath can consider this mathparser, or someone will develop a plugin smathparser (smath2latex). regards, waluyo
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Rank: Administration Groups: Developers, Registered, Knovel Developers, Administrators, Advanced Member Joined: 11/07/2008(UTC) Posts: 1,616 Was thanked: 1978 time(s) in 666 post(s)
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Hello waluyo. I don't need any third-party code to implement support of LateX files. This is opened format, so the only requirement is time and a wish. I've spent several hours today to play with exporting to *.tex and here is the result:  TeXFileType.dll plugin you can download here: link. Source code can be found here: link. Please note that this is not even an alpha version - plugin created just to show possibility of exporting SMath worksheets to LateX. Best regards, Andrey Ivashov.
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 3 users thanked Andrey Ivashov for this useful post.
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on 08/02/2012(UTC), on 08/02/2012(UTC), on 09/02/2012(UTC)
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Registered
Joined: 22/10/2009(UTC) Posts: 53 Location: Gedongkuning, Jogjakarta Was thanked: 1 time(s) in 1 post(s)
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Thanks Andrey... You are Great.
LaTeX and LyX people should know about it.
I hope the next SMath version, the plugin to enable save as type TeX file .tex will be included.
Best regards,
waluyo
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1 user thanked waluyo for this useful post.
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Rank: Newbie
Groups: Registered
Joined: 30/08/2011(UTC)
Posts: 8
Was thanked: 3 time(s) in 2 post(s)
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New LaTeX plug-in is a fantastic and extremely useful feature! I have only a few corrections for the code: 1. After Code:writer.WriteLine(@"\usepackage[english]{babel}");
you should add Code:writer.WriteLine(@"\usepackage{graphicx}");
We need graphicx package to work with images included in the document properly. 2. Code:writer.WriteLine(@"\includegraphics{" + fileName + "}");
Here file name contains full path to the image file. We need only the relative path and you have to substitute backslash by slash in it. I mean the result string for the image 1.png included in the worksheet foo.sm should be Code:\includegraphics{foo/1.png}
3. After Code:writer.WriteLine(@"\begin{document}");
you should add Code:writer.WriteLine(@"\maketitle");
to utilise information included in the \author{}, \date{} and \title{} fields. 4. You may expect serious problems with Unicode Greek letters. PDFLaTeX simply does not manage it yet. So you have two possibilities. First, use long conversion table (Г -> \Gamma, etc.). Second, just use XeLaTeX with unicode-math package. In the former case the smallest preamble of your document should be Code:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{unicode-math}
\setmathfont{STIXGeneral}
Instead of free STIX fonts another free font Asana-Math or proprietary Cambria Math can be used. In any case this is a very good starting point for further development of this plug-in. Edited by user 09 February 2012 01:22:33(UTC)
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2 users thanked IVR for this useful post.
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on 09/02/2012(UTC), on 09/02/2012(UTC)
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 Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Registered
Joined: 10/12/2009(UTC) Posts: 246  Location: Cali, Colombia Was thanked: 85 time(s) in 65 post(s)
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smath wrote: Andrey Ivashov. Hi! In your post #11... How do you type LaTeX in that Smath file? it's a picture or really Smath can render the "\LaTeX{}" code? Regards, Oscar
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Rank: Administration Groups: Developers, Registered, Knovel Developers, Administrators, Advanced Member Joined: 11/07/2008(UTC) Posts: 1,616 Was thanked: 1978 time(s) in 666 post(s)
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oscampo wrote:How do you type LaTeX in that Smath file? it's a picture or really Smath can render the "\LaTeX{}" code? It's a picture. The screenshot there just to show an ability to export Text, Equations and Pictures from worksheets. Regards.
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1 user thanked Andrey Ivashov for this useful post.
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Rank: Administration Groups: Registered, Advanced Member Joined: 23/06/2009(UTC) Posts: 1,740 Was thanked: 318 time(s) in 268 post(s)
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When Sisyphus climbed to the top of a hill, they said: "Wrong boulder!" |
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 Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Registered
Joined: 23/12/2011(UTC) Posts: 319  Location: italy Was thanked: 109 time(s) in 93 post(s)
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Hello,
I use Lyx 2.03 with MiKTeX.
I have a problem with the Greek letters. It uses the package "ucs" but can not find among the available MikTeX distribution.
Sergio
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Rank: Administration Groups: Registered, Advanced Member Joined: 23/06/2009(UTC) Posts: 1,740 Was thanked: 318 time(s) in 268 post(s)
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PompelmoTell wrote:I use Lyx 2.03 with MiKTeX.
I have a problem with the Greek letters. It uses the package "ucs" but can not find among the available MikTeX distribution. I can confirm that. There were no problems with Miktex and texing in Ubuntu (Kile) - but Lyx complained when trying to "see" the imported *.tex file. Regards, Radovan Edited by user 07 April 2012 06:45:36(UTC)
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When Sisyphus climbed to the top of a hill, they said: "Wrong boulder!" |
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Rank: Newbie
Groups: Registered
Joined: 30/08/2011(UTC)
Posts: 8
Was thanked: 3 time(s) in 2 post(s)
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PompelmoTell
1. UCS is a part of package 'unicode' which is available in MiKTeX 2.9. Properly configured MiKTeX automatically downloads additional packages from CTAN. In the worst case, simple Google search always provide you to the nearest CTAN server when you can find this package and install it manually.
2. Standard pdfLaTeX do have problems with Greek letters as well as any other Unicode symbols (it simply do not support Unicode). Due to this reason 'unicode' package makes dirty hack - simply substitutes some Unicode symbols (like all Greek letters) by their LaTeX symbols (\alpha, \beta, etc.). Perhaps LyX is not so clever.
3. If LyX is unable to read your (correct) LaTeX file it is the LyX problem, not SMath one. You should ask LyX developers for help.
4. Both XeLaTeX and LuaTeX fully support Unicode. It was the main reason why XeLeTeX support was added to TeX export plugin. You can export your SMath document to XeLaTeX should you wish.
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1 user thanked IVR for this useful post.
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Rank: Administration Groups: Developers, Registered, Knovel Developers, Administrators, Advanced Member Joined: 11/07/2008(UTC) Posts: 1,616 Was thanked: 1978 time(s) in 666 post(s)
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Hello Radovan. Actually it is IVR who makes a set of corrections and improvements to latest version of the plugin. Many thank to him for that Regards.
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