How to write reports and books in Mathematica
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From: Murray Eisenberg on 14 May 2010 05:34 With respect to how typeset math should look, I recommend writings of Donald Knuth. And just because he invented TeX does not mean he's biased in this regard; in fact, he invented TeX because he was dissatisfied with the level to which some typeset math had degenerated and saw the need for a suitable tool to produce typeset math in the modern computer era. Often much or most math typeset by Mathematica is "good enough". But as a matter of simple fact it's just not up to professional mathematical typesetting standards such as one sees in math society journals, or even in the ArXiv. On 5/13/2010 1:40 PM, Kevin J. McCann wrote: > Murray, > > Here we have a difference of opinion. LaTeX and all the other Tex's > require that "code" be written, which is subsequently processed to > generate the final output. To me this is not at all natural and I > observe that others who use it are frequently asking "how do I ..."; > whereas, Mathematica allows me to focus on the equations and words. Now, I know > that with LaTeX there is "infinite" control over how things look; so, > you can make it look just right, but, for me at least, the default look > of equations and text in Mathematica is just fine, and I really don't > want to spend time making it look more right. > > That said, I rely on the Stylesheet to determine the look and feel of > the document, and, as I said in an earlier post, this is not at all > intuitive. So, here is where I have to spend my time, but once the > template (Stylesheet) is done, then that's it. After that documents are > simple, especially equations, which with the keyboard shortcuts are a snap. > > Just my take, > > Kevin > > > Murray Eisenberg wrote: >> Unless you don't know LaTeX, or do know it but don't regard it as a >> "word processing system", then surely you're joking about Mathematica >> being "far superior to any other word processing system." >> >> > -- Murray Eisenberg murray(a)math.umass.edu Mathematics & Statistics Dept. Lederle Graduate Research Tower phone 413 549-1020 (H) University of Massachusetts 413 545-2859 (W) 710 North Pleasant Street fax 413 545-1801 Amherst, MA 01003-9305
From: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Per_R=F8nne?= on 14 May 2010 05:35 David Bailey <dave(a)removedbailey.co.uk> wrote: > Per R=F8nne wrote: > > Dominic <miliotodc(a)rtconline.com> wrote: > > > >> Based on what you wrote I gather you're not familiar with StyleSheet= s in > >> Mathematica. That's what you need to learn how to use. You either = use > >> an existing Stylesheet or create your own. The StyleSheet then has > >> various cell templates that you choose to enter various formatted da= ta > >> into your notebook. For example if you wanted to enter a block of > >> descriptive text, you would choose the "text" style, and then as you > >> enter text into that cell style, it's formatted as simple text altho= ugh > >> embedded math can be entered as well. There is a whole process for > >> managing, editing, creating, and using stylesheets in Mathematica. = For > >> example, if I just wanted to startout using the Book stylesheet, I w= ould > >> choose File/New/Styled Notebook/Book. That loads a default styleshe= et > >> in a default "book" style. But you would need to understand how to = use > >> those styles and edit the styles and I'm not aware of a good referen= ce > >> for that. > > > > I have come a long way since I wrote my original post, partly through > > private mails partly through guessing and reading in Stephen Wolfram'= s > > "The Mathematica Book 5th Edition". I have now solved my original > > problems but of course there's lots of stuff I haven't been through y= et. > > > > I'm still waiting for answers from Wolfram as to whether I can update= my > > Mathematica 5 TE which has been "discontinued and no longer supported= ". > > Otherwise, I'll just use my old TE on my old G4/867 Macintosh running > > MacOS X 10.4 'Tiger' [I can then also run Classic apps]. I won't give= up > > my Snow Leopard on my newer computers and I can wait the 15 months it > > will take for me to be able to purchase a Student's Edition. 90 pound > > sterling the price will then be, rather than 195 for a "Home Edition"= .. > I wonder if Snow Leopard can run VirtualBox (free to download). This > would let you run a viritual Windows or Linux inside it. Running the > appropriate version of Mathematica in that environment might be a good > work around, but I would check with Wolfram Research first. Actually, I've got Parallels running on both my 'modern' Intel Macs, a MacMini used as a server and a MacBook used as such. Mathematica 5 TE does run in Parallels running XP Pro. I just prefer the use of my old G4 for that purpose, and the update to the newest Mathematica whan I can get the Student's Edition. My old Teacher's Edition came with three versions: Classic MacOS, MacOS X and Windows. -- Per Erik R=F8nne, MSc Frederikssundsvej 308B, 3. tv. DK-2700 Br=F8nsh=F8j, Denmark Telephone + fax +45 38 89 00 16, mobile +45 28 23 09 92 http://www.RQNNE.dk
From: Murray Eisenberg on 14 May 2010 05:35 The twocolumn function in Presentations is very handy for a couple of quick two-column insertions in a notebook. But for each such insertion it requires typing and evaluating an Input cell of a form such as: twocolumn[ comment["blahblah...."], command[expr] ] This is far better than nothing. But it's no substitute for a full-fledged stylesheet that includes a two-column cell style such as were used -- or simulated in a separate layout program? -- for the printed "The Mathematica Book" from days of yore. This is not any shortcoming of Presentations. It's a deficiency of Mathematica. Perhaps another instance of WRI's deliberate denigration of print (or print-like) media. Or perhaps an inherent limitation of the Mathematica front end design? On 5/13/2010 7:25 AM, David Park wrote: > The Presentations package does have such a functionality. It has formatting > commands for laying out material on the page. You can see some of this in > the Roger Williams video that was posted earlier in this thread. > > This is all designed for presenting mathematical material to readers and > suppressing strings of input/output cells or boiler-plate specifications. > This may not be exactly what you are thinking of. It is not a method of > having side-by-side independent cells. You can have TextCell or > ExpressionCell inside a Mathematica expression, Row for example, but they > seem to always get evaluated. There doesn't seem to be a way to generate > independent cells within an expression, that can be independently evaluated. > > But, if you want to present defined calculations to a reader, Presentations > has twocolumn, comment and command statements that allow you to layout a two > column display with comments (or even some active statements) on one side > and "commands" on the other side. The commands show the result of an > evaluation and in a tooltip (if you want that) that shows the unevaluated > input statements that produced the output. There are also commands for > setting up buttons either as a cell, or in Inline text cells to generate > displays. The buttons are designed to either generate a display in the next > cell or as a free standing window. There are also constructions to generate > a structure of buttons, which can be clicked through to go through the steps > of a longer derivation or proof. The reader can again generate some of the > "page" steps in separate windows so that various sections of a derivation > can be compared side by side. > > Setting up such displays, however, does involve a certain amount of detailed > work because each step has to be defined. -- Murray Eisenberg murray(a)math.umass.edu Mathematics & Statistics Dept. Lederle Graduate Research Tower phone 413 549-1020 (H) University of Massachusetts 413 545-2859 (W) 710 North Pleasant Street fax 413 545-1801 Amherst, MA 01003-9305
From: magma on 14 May 2010 08:28 > My biggest gripe when using Mathematica as a word processor was the lack of > tables and columns in the basic layout of a notebook. Having everything > in just one single column was so 1800s ... > > I remember some package or add-on could be used to add two-columns > capability to Mathematica (in fact, I believe that many books on > Mathematica, > like Roman Maeder's were written with something like that), but I believe > such a basic functionality should be built-in, in order for everyone to > take advantage of it. > > Has this been added in the latest versions of Mathematica? I don't remember > to > have seen it advertised anywhere. > > It would be nice to have a "columns" or "table" entry in the Format > menu that makes the notebook from the cursor onward a two (or n) column > table. In this way it would be possible to have text on one side and > code and output on the other. Or to have multicolum text (eventually > flowing from one column to the other if suitable options are given). > > Is it so difficul to add such a functionality in the form of a new > Layout[] construct? In the earlier versions of Mathematica (I started with 1.2), I felt the same limitation, but with the most recent versions this limitation does not exists any more. You see, you should see a cell as a container, representing the space on a (virtual) page. This container occupies space from the left to the right side of the page. Like a rectangular band on a page if you like. What you put inside this band is up to you. Do you want a multicolumn display? then just use the Grid command and place whatever "expressions" you want in the Grid places. As you know "expressions" in Mathematica can take many different forms: 2D-graphics, 3D- graphics, text, mathematical expressions, animations, ect. So if you learn to use Grid and its related Row and Column commands you can obtain any visual presentation effect you may imagine. The Presentations package by David Park exploits this core functionality and offers higher level, more user friendly, functions to the end user.
From: magma on 14 May 2010 08:29
> My biggest gripe when using Mathematica as a word processor was the lack of > tables and columns in the basic layout of a notebook. Having everything > in just one single column was so 1800s ... > The Presentations package does have such a functionality. It has formatting > commands for laying out material on the page. You can see some of this in > the Roger Williams video that was posted earlier in this thread. The posted links do not seem to work (at least for me). But one can easily find the 2 avi files on YouTube.com simply by typing "active documents" in the search field |