How to write reports and books in Mathematica
Per Rønne
doesn't work on Snow Leopard] and I do now see a future need to write
reports / books using Mathematica - though of course I would then have
to purchase a new version like Mathematica Home Edition at =A3195.
I do know that all of the Mathematica documentation is written in
Mathematica itself. But nowhere in this documentation do I see how to
enter ordinary text or chapter titles in a Mathematica notebook.
I have an MSc degree and teach in the Danish 3-year Sixth Form College
for the 16-19-year-olds. After the summer vacation next year I am to
take an extra BSc degree in Physics and Astronomy and this is where I
will need the ability to write reports in Mathematica, including text,
formulas and graphics.
So I am even considering to wait with the purchase of a new Mathematica
- after all the I've got version 5 from 2003, the present version is 7
and version 8 might have come then.
And - I don't even see anything particularly about the issue in Stephen
Wolfram's "The Mathematica Book 5th Edition". With 1,500 pages. Only a
few hints.
--
Per Erik R=F8nne
http://www.RQNNE.dk
Errare humanum est, sed in errore perseverare turpe
Nasser M. Abbasi
""Per R�nne"" <p...@RQNNE.invalid> wrote in message
news:hs3gm3$s0s$1...@smc.vnet.net...
>I am the not quote happy owner of Mathematica Teacher's Edition
....
> But nowhere in this documentation do I see how to
> enter ordinary text or chapter titles in a Mathematica notebook.
>
I never used "teacher edition" of Mathematica. It does not allow you to
select a different styles and ability to insert text cells?
On standard Mathematica, you can use a style sheet such as report or book,
change the cell style to title, then you can add a text cell to enter text.
If it will help, here is a small movie just made to show you, AVI file, in
this folder (12 MB)
http://12000.org/tmp/text_cell_5_8_2010/
hth
--Nasser
David Park
This can be approached at different levels.
First, I'm not familiar with the capabilities and pricing of the various
versions of Mathematica but, if you can manage it and plan to do a lot of
technical work, get up to date with the latest version and keep up to date.
There is a world of difference between Version 7 and Version 5. The dynamics
and improved graphics extend the ability to communicate by an order of
magnitude - or more.
At the present time, the single most serious problem with writing reports
and books in Mathematica is that people who do not have Mathematica can't
easily read them. There is PlayerPro but that cost about $200 and few people
will pay that just to read your paper or report. The free Player is a
partial solution but it is very restricted. You have to send it through some
process at WRI, you can't use an independent package with it, and you can't
write custom dynamics but are restricted to the single Manipulate statement.
I'm hoping that WRI will come up with a better solution to this, something
like the free Acrobat reader. We'll have to wait and see. You can "print" a
notebook as a PDF but that loses all the dynamics.
Other than that, Mathematica offers capabilities as a technical development
and communication medium that are far beyond present practice with static
media. I would even consider it as a new field, ripe for development. We
have a lot to learn on how to use the new capabilities Mathematica gives us.
You can easily add titles, subtitles, sections, subsections and text cells
to your notebooks. Each of these is a cell style. These are defined in the
various style sheets that Mathematica uses for the notebooks - for example,
the Default style sheet. I forget on which Menu item it occurs in Version 5,
but there is a Show Toolbar option that will add a toolbar at the top of
your notebook. It has a drop-down menu for starting various cell types. You
can also use Menu, Format, Style to see the various cell styles, and this
listing also gives the shortcut keys for those styles that have them.
Many users use Mathematica simply as a "programmable super graphical
calculator", without any sectional structure, but my opinion is that it is
much better to write notebooks as literate documents with structure and
plenty of textual explanation.
At a higher level you can use Workbench in conjunction with Mathematica to
write Applications that might contain a book, ancillary packages, and
documentation that ties it all together. Once you get it set up, you can do
most of your mathematical development and writing in the regular Mathematica
environment and only go to Workbench when you want to put material into a
"finished" form. This is a very good way to organize and preserve your work
in an active usable form, and to present it to other Mathematica users.
Roger Williams has done two YouTube videos on Mathematica as the latest
medium for technical communication. He traces over three millennia of
technical communication and illustrates all the advantages of the active,
dynamic medium that Mathematica is. (He had posted a version of this on
MathGroup earlier, but this is a new and much improved version.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v==-b0B5hp0hAQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v==Pm6yrevYcjQ
David Park
djm...@comcast.net
http://home.comcast.net/~djmpark/
From: "Per R=F8nne" [mailto:p...@RQNNE.invalid]
I am the not quote happy owner of Mathematica Teacher's Edition [it
doesn't work on Snow Leopard] and I do now see a future need to write
reports / books using Mathematica - though of course I would then have
to purchase a new version like Mathematica Home Edition at ==A3195.
I do know that all of the Mathematica documentation is written in
Mathematica itself. But nowhere in this documentation do I see how to
enter ordinary text or chapter titles in a Mathematica notebook.
I have an MSc degree and teach in the Danish 3-year Sixth Form College
for the 16-19-year-olds. After the summer vacation next year I am to
take an extra BSc degree in Physics and Astronomy and this is where I
will need the ability to write reports in Mathematica, including text,
formulas and graphics.
So I am even considering to wait with the purchase of a new Mathematica
- after all the I've got version 5 from 2003, the present version is 7
and version 8 might have come then.
And - I don't even see anything particularly about the issue in Stephen
Wolfram's "The Mathematica Book 5th Edition". With 1,500 pages. Only a
few hints.
--
Per Erik R==F8nne
Alexei Boulbitch
I would like to comment on your following statement:
"At the present time, the single most serious problem with writing reports
and books in Mathematica is that people who do not have Mathematica can't
easily read them."
I believe that I faced a more serious problem that prevents a broad using of Mathematica for creation
and keeping documentation. Namely, already several times (to be more precise, about 5 to 6)
the notebooks I have created appeared corrupted and impossible to repair.
This year I prepared a course of uni lectures totally using Mathematica including notebooks
with the lecture drafts and notebooks with demonstrations. It was fun and pleasure to use such a tool
for this purpose, the feeling that I believe I share with you. However, you can imagine my disappointment
when I have found out that several months after their creation some of these files I cannot be open any more,
while some others I can open, but this only leads to a computer hang up. It happened with about 5 files
out of several tens, but still each of them required a lot of my time. Especially strong is this disappointment,
since I am going to give this course several times in future.
OK, I have several machines and keep these notebooks on every of them, so things are not that dramatic
in my personal case. I have really completely lost only few of those files (though even this is no fun at all).
However, I think that this lack of stability is the most serious problem of the program preventing its future
propagation and should be seriously addressed.
Indeed, what will a person do, if he loses an important document due to such instability of Mathematica?
Assume that this person is not a Mathematica fun (as both of us are), but only wants to use it as a comfortable
and powerful tool. And what, if it happens just an hour before he is going to present the document to his boss,
or to shareholders of the enterprise he works in, or to his bank?
What will I do, if the day of the lecture (that I believe is ready) I find that I cannot open the corresponding file?
I think the answer is unique: such a person will never use Mathematica any more (at least for creation
of documentation or of presentations).
There is a second problem about Mathematica, which I classify as less serious, but still very unpleasant.
Rather often it informs that the system made a heavy error and will close without saving. We know that other
programs like for instance, Word also exhibit sometimes this nice trick. However, my personal feeling is that
Mathematica makes it considerably more often. Of coarse one can overcome this problem by a personal discipline
by often saving notebook one works on. Therefore, I classify this problem as a secondary one though still important.
I place these notes in a strong hope that these problems may be fixed by Wolfram in future Mathematica versions.
Best regards, Alexei
David Park wrote:
Per,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v==-b0B5hp0hAQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v==Pm6yrevYcjQ
David Park
djmpark at comcast.net
http://home.comcast.net/~djmpark/ <http://home.comcast.net/%7Edjmpark/>
AES
"Nasser M. Abbasi" <n...@12000.org> wrote:
>
> If it will help, here is a small movie just made to show you, AVI file, in
> this folder (12 MB)
>
> http://12000.org/tmp/text_cell_5_8_2010/
>
Downloads OK, won't play on Mac OS 10.4.11 (Tiger) using QuickTime
Player 7.6.4, RealPlayer 11.0.1.0, or VLC (or rather, opens and "plays"
with the first two, but doesn't display anything).
Dominic
Based on what you wrote I gather you're not familiar with StyleSheets 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 data
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 although
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 would
choose File/New/Styled Notebook/Book. That loads a default stylesheet
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 reference
for that.
Dominic
Per Rønne
> Based on what you wrote I gather you're not familiar with StyleSheets i=
n
> 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 data
> 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 although
> 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 woul=
d
> choose File/New/Styled Notebook/Book. That loads a default stylesheet
> 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 reference
> 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 yet.
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. =A390 the
price will then be, rather than =A3195 for a "Home Edition".
--
Per Erik R=F8nne
David Bailey
The simple answer is that any block of text can be formatted in a number
of styles (such as Text and Input styles), and to change the style of
any cell, click on the right cell bracket, and select a new style from
the Format/Style menu.
More generally, if you are having difficulty using Mathematica at this
level, you would benefit enormously from a one or two day introductory
course.
David Bailey
http://www.dbaileyconsultancy.co.uk
Canopus56
Active Documents Section One
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v==-b0B5hp0hAQ
Active Documents Section Two
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v==Pm6yrevYcjQ
- Kurt
----- Original Message ----
From: Alexei Boulbitch <alexei.b...@iee.lu>
Sent: Mon, May 10, 2010 4:37:50 AM
Subject: Re: How to write reports and books in Mathematica
<snip> quoting David Park -
David Park wrote:
<snip>
Roger Williams has done two YouTube videos on Mathematica as the latest
medium for technical communication. He traces over three millennia of
technical communication and illustrates all the advantages of the active,
dynamic medium that Mathematica is. (He had posted a version of this on
MathGroup earlier, but this is a new and much improved version.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v====-b0B5hp0hAQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v====Pm6yrevYcjQ
Helen Read
>
> I believe that I faced a more serious problem that prevents a broad using of Mathematica for creation
> and keeping documentation. Namely, already several times (to be more precise, about 5 to 6)
> the notebooks I have created appeared corrupted and impossible to repair.
[...]
> However, I think that this lack of stability is the most serious problem of the program preventing its future
> propagation and should be seriously addressed.
>
> Indeed, what will a person do, if he loses an important document due to such instability of Mathematica?
> Assume that this person is not a Mathematica fun (as both of us are), but only wants to use it as a comfortable
> and powerful tool. And what, if it happens just an hour before he is going to present the document to his boss,
> or to shareholders of the enterprise he works in, or to his bank?
> What will I do, if the day of the lecture (that I believe is ready) I find that I cannot open the corresponding file?
> I think the answer is unique: such a person will never use Mathematica any more (at least for creation
> of documentation or of presentations).
What version of Mathematica are you using? What operating system?
I use Mathematica every day, and so do my (about 75 - 100 per semester)
students. Many, many years ago we had problems with easily corrupted
notebooks, but those problems have long since been fixed. My calculus
students each submit at least one Mathematica file per week
electronically, and I can't remember the last time I opened up a
student's file that was corrupt to the point of unreadability. This
entire semester, I think I received *one* file from a student in which
some of the Sections/Subsections/Text cells that were in the file when I
posted it had gotten corrupted, but the student's work was intact.
> There is a second problem about Mathematica, which I classify as less serious, but still very unpleasant.
> Rather often it informs that the system made a heavy error and will close without saving. We know that other
> programs like for instance, Word also exhibit sometimes this nice trick. However, my personal feeling is that
> Mathematica makes it considerably more often. Of coarse one can overcome this problem by a personal discipline
> by often saving notebook one works on. Therefore, I classify this problem as a secondary one though still important.
In recent versions of Mathematica, I have on very rare occasions seen
Mathematica crash and close without saving. Usually it's because the
student did something dumb that caused the system to run out of memory,
but even that doesn't usually cause a fatal crash.
I have also seen some weird crashes that were somehow related to 3D
graphics, but it only happened to a very small number of students. It
would happen consistently to the same few students, that Mathematica
would go poof when they tried to save a file with 3D graphics in it. It
would only affect about two students, and I was never able to reproduce
it myself (we got around it by having the affected students delete the
output before saving). I haven't seen a single case of it this semester,
however.
My point is that with the vast number (easily in the thousands) of
Mathematica notebooks I deal with over the course of an academic year,
these sorts of problems are extremely rare. I find Mathematica 7.0.1 to
be extremely stable. I wonder if there is something unusual about your
set-up, or with your specific use of Mathematica, that is causing problems.
--
Helen Read
University of Vermont
Bill Rowe
wrote:
>However, you can imagine my disappointment when I have found out
>that several months after their creation some of these files I
>cannot be open any more, while some others I can open, but this only
>leads to a computer hang up. It happened with about 5 files out of
>several tens, but still each of them required a lot of my time.
FWIW, I've been using Mathematica since about version 1.2 and
have many older notebooks created with older versions of
Mathematica. I've yet to find one of those older files I cannot
open or that causes Mathematica to hang or crash on opening. So,
my experience indicates the problem you are seeing is due to a
corrupted file rather than instability in Mathematica.
>There is a second problem about Mathematica, which I classify as
>less serious, but still very unpleasant. Rather often it informs
>that the system made a heavy error and will close without saving.
I believe this problem is inherent in any software such as
Mathematica that can be seen as a general purpose programming
environment. A characteristic of such software is that it is
relatively easy to create code that consumes memory or other
computer resources without bound. While it would be very nice if
Mathematica could trap such problems and give the user
sufficient warning to quit in a graceful manner, I suspect this
can never be without creating significant performance issues.
That is the nature of allowing arbitrary code to be created and run.
David Park
My experience with Windows Vista is that I can't remember the last time I
had a problem with losing a notebook. Perhaps not since Version 6 came out.
I do have occasional problems with FrontEnd crashes, usually with dynamic I
think. Annoying if I've forgotten to save recently. This doesn't happen
often, and usually when I'm trying something new and have made some
programming mistake to boot.
So, for me, this does not rise to the same level of problem as for you.
My impression from reading MathGroup and from private communication is that
Mathematica is most stable on Windows, almost the same on Mac, and it trails
off after that. With some systems you may have to become an expert System
Engineer and Administrator. I suppose this might all be a matter of hot
dispute.
If your time is valuable (and it is!) spend the money to have a system that
Mathematica works well with and don't skimp on operating systems.
From: Alexei Boulbitch [mailto:alexei.b...@iee.lu]
Dear David,
I would like to comment on your following statement:
"At the present time, the single most serious problem with writing reports
and books in Mathematica is that people who do not have Mathematica can't
easily read them."
I believe that I faced a more serious problem that prevents a broad using of
Mathematica for creation
and keeping documentation. Namely, already several times (to be more
precise, about 5 to 6)
the notebooks I have created appeared corrupted and impossible to repair.
This year I prepared a course of uni lectures totally using Mathematica
including notebooks
with the lecture drafts and notebooks with demonstrations. It was fun and
pleasure to use such a tool
for this purpose, the feeling that I believe I share with you. However, you
can imagine my disappointment
when I have found out that several months after their creation some of these
files I cannot be open any more,
while some others I can open, but this only leads to a computer hang up. It
happened with about 5 files
out of several tens, but still each of them required a lot of my time.
Especially strong is this disappointment,
since I am going to give this course several times in future.
OK, I have several machines and keep these notebooks on every of them, so
things are not that dramatic
in my personal case. I have really completely lost only few of those files
(though even this is no fun at all).
However, I think that this lack of stability is the most serious problem of
the program preventing its future
propagation and should be seriously addressed.
Indeed, what will a person do, if he loses an important document due to such
instability of Mathematica?
Assume that this person is not a Mathematica fun (as both of us are), but
only wants to use it as a comfortable
and powerful tool. And what, if it happens just an hour before he is going
to present the document to his boss,
or to shareholders of the enterprise he works in, or to his bank?
What will I do, if the day of the lecture (that I believe is ready) I find
that I cannot open the corresponding file?
I think the answer is unique: such a person will never use Mathematica any
more (at least for creation
of documentation or of presentations).
There is a second problem about Mathematica, which I classify as less
serious, but still very unpleasant.
Rather often it informs that the system made a heavy error and will close
without saving. We know that other
programs like for instance, Word also exhibit sometimes this nice trick.
However, my personal feeling is that
Mathematica makes it considerably more often. Of coarse one can overcome
this problem by a personal discipline
by often saving notebook one works on. Therefore, I classify this problem as
a secondary one though still important.
I place these notes in a strong hope that these problems may be fixed by
michael partensky
This is the most disappointing part in using M. for teaching and publishing.
Is there a bulletproof way for protecting the nb files from corruption?
Thanks
Michael
On Mon, May 10, 2010 at 6:37 AM, Alexei Boulbitch
<alexei.b...@iee.lu>wrote:
> David Park wrote:
>
> Per,
>
> This can be approached at different levels.
>
> First, I'm not familiar with the capabilities and pricing of the various
> versions of Mathematica but, if you can manage it and plan to do a lot of
> technical work, get up to date with the latest version and keep up to date.
> There is a world of difference between Version 7 and Version 5. The
> dynamics
> and improved graphics extend the ability to communicate by an order of
> magnitude - or more.
>
> At the present time, the single most serious problem with writing reports
> and books in Mathematica is that people who do not have Mathematica can't
> Roger Williams has done two YouTube videos on Mathematica as the latest
> medium for technical communication. He traces over three millennia of
> technical communication and illustrates all the advantages of the active,
> dynamic medium that Mathematica is. (He had posted a version of this on
> MathGroup earlier, but this is a new and much improved version.)
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v==-b0B5hp0hAQ
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v==Pm6yrevYcjQ
>
>
> David Park
> djmpark at comcast.net
> http://home.comcast.net/~djmpark/ <http://home.comcast.net/%7Edjmpark/>
>
>
>
>
> From: "Per R=F8nne" [mailto:per at RQNNE.invalid]
>
>
> I am the not quote happy owner of Mathematica Teacher's Edition [it
> doesn't work on Snow Leopard] and I do now see a future need to write
> reports / books using Mathematica - though of course I would then have
> to purchase a new version like Mathematica Home Edition at ==A3195.
>
> I do know that all of the Mathematica documentation is written in
> Mathematica itself. But nowhere in this documentation do I see how to
> enter ordinary text or chapter titles in a Mathematica notebook.
>
> I have an MSc degree and teach in the Danish 3-year Sixth Form College
> for the 16-19-year-olds. After the summer vacation next year I am to
> take an extra BSc degree in Physics and Astronomy and this is where I
> will need the ability to write reports in Mathematica, including text,
> formulas and graphics.
>
> So I am even considering to wait with the purchase of a new Mathematica
> - after all the I've got version 5 from 2003, the present version is 7
> and version 8 might have come then.
>
> And - I don't even see anything particularly about the issue in Stephen
> Wolfram's "The Mathematica Book 5th Edition". With 1,500 pages. Only a
> few hints.
> --
> Per Erik R==F8nne
Larry Adelston
Regarding writing documents in Mathematica, you can simply change the
style of a Cell by selecting a style from the Format > Style submenu.
Yours,
Larry
David Bailey
>
> I believe that I faced a more serious problem that prevents a broad using of Mathematica for creation
> and keeping documentation. Namely, already several times (to be more precise, about 5 to 6)
> the notebooks I have created appeared corrupted and impossible to repair.
>
I would say that I have not seen this problem for several versions - and
even then, it may have been my fault, and I wonder if your problem lies
elsewhere.
You don't say which operating system you use, but one way to get corrupt
files is if the write to disk never completes - say because a PC
(without battery backup) is switched off rather than closed down, or if
a removable storage medium is unplugged before the write process is
complete - or, obviously, if you have a damaged disk.
Sometimes the front end seems to get hung while performing dynamic
operations, and I can imagine that saving your work in such a situation
might cause problems.
Do you have a specific scenario that provokes this problem - if you do,
you might want to share the details here, and also inform Wolfram support.
David Bailey
http://www.dbaileyconsultancy.co.uk
Vince Virgilio
SNIP
> My point is that with the vast number (easily in the thousands) of
> Mathematica notebooks I deal with over the course of an academic year,
> these sorts of problems are extremely rare. I find Mathematica 7.0.1 to
> be extremely stable. I wonder if there is something unusual about your
> set-up, or with your specific use of Mathematica, that is causing problem=
s.
>
> --
> Helen Read
> University of Vermont
I respectfully submit that these numbers can mislead. Student lab-type
use does not represent industrial use and pressure.
Just now, in Mathematica 7.0.1, I copied an evaluation of
SystemInformation[] to WRI Technical Support as an attached notebook.
A few minutes later, I opened the sent message, and then the attached
notebook. I switched tabs in the SystemInformation[] output, and
Mathematica blew a gasket. Up comes a Windows "debug" dialog, and down
goes all of Mathematica.
Good thing I wasn't hours into a grid job, as I have been before.
One could easily take this as a sharp lesson to not do more than one
very important thing at a time in Mathematica.
Vince Virgilio
Bill Rowe
>I agree with Alexei. This is the most disappointing part in using M.
>for teaching and publishing. Is there a bulletproof way for
>protecting the nb files from corruption?
No, there is no bulletproof way of protecting files from
corruption from any application on modern computer systems.
Power interruptions or other system glitches can corrupt files
totally independent of the app that created them whether open or
not at the time of the event. Since any file is an arbitrary
sequence of bytes, there is no obvious way to examine a
particular file short of opening it in the app that created it
to determine if the file is corrupt.
Kevin J. McCann
StyleSheets that goes beyond the simplest examples. Wolfram has
"promised" that said tutorial/documentation has been forthcoming since
Version 6, but I haven't seen it yet.
I use Mathematica for ALL my class notes (physics grad and undergrad), and I
find that the typesetting, particularly equations, is far superior to
any other word processing system. In addition, of course, Mathematica can
actually evaluate, plot, help with the derivations, etc. With the
addition of the Dynamic stuff, animations are also pretty straightforward.
All that said, I do believe that Mathematica COULD be the wave of the
future for technical writing, but it seems that that last little bit
that makes it easy to use in the word processing sense is not there,
and, judging by the fact that we still haven't seen it after over two
years, and that you, I, and others keep asking questions like yours,
does not seem to be very high on the priority list either.
Kevin
Peltio
> Per,
>
> This can be approached at different levels.
>
> First, I'm not familiar with the capabilities and pricing of the various
> versions of Mathematica but, if you can manage it and plan to do a lot of
> technical work, get up to date with the latest version and keep up to date.
> There is a world of difference between Version 7 and Version 5. The dynamics
> and improved graphics extend the ability to communicate by an order of
> magnitude - or more.
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?
Nasser M. Abbasi
"Kevin J. McCann" <Kevin....@umbc.edu> wrote in message
news:hse3j9$327$1...@smc.vnet.net...
>
> I use Mathematica for ALL my class notes (physics grad and undergrad), and
> I
> find that the typesetting, particularly equations, is far superior to
> any other word processing system.
It is definitely better than things like Microsoft Word and equation editor,
but I still find using Scientific word (SW) which produces Latex as final
output much easier to use to typeset my reports with. SW is all GUI, many
more options for typesetting (it is designed just for that part) and for me
it is much faster and easier to type math equations into it, and the final
output looks better. (You can't beat Latex quality for final output).
I'd like one day to do the final report I am working on in Mathematica as
well, much easier, all in one place, but it is not there for me, may be in
version 8 this will be improved. So, now I do the "computing part" in
Mathematica, copy any results over, and write the final report and in SW.
--Nasser
Murray Eisenberg
"word processing system", then surely you're joking about Mathematica
being "far superior to any other word processing system."
Mathematica cannot touch LaTeX in typesetting documents to publication
standards with technical content. To mention just a few LaTeX strengths:
correct sizes of large delimiters and math operators; correct
discrimination in typesetting in-line mathematics vs. display
mathematics (e.g., with respect to positioning of subscripts and
superscripts for integral signs and summation signs); flexibility in
formatting tables and matrices; easy internal labeling and references to
theorems, figures, etc.; easy handling and flexible formatting of
bibliographies and references to them; smart splitting of text into
justified lines (if you want justification) and smart division of the
document into pages; easy handling of multiple languages within a single
document (if that's relevant).
What's more, LaTeX allows its user to focus primarily upon the content
and organizational structure of the document, not upon the appearance of
the document.
The price is no ability to evaluate mathematical expressions directly
within the document, or to provide a "live" document to the reader.
Of course LaTeX is a mark-up language, not a WYSIWIG "word processor".
And I have to admit that for a quick job, it's often easier for me to
use Mathematica to knock off a document. But very, very seldom are the
results anywhere near as good-looking -- and correctly typeset by
recognized standards -- as what, with a big more investment of time, I
can accomplish with LaTeX.
On 5/12/2010 7:31 AM, Kevin J. McCann wrote:
>
> ...I use Mathematica for ALL my class notes (physics grad and undergrad), and I
> find that the typesetting, particularly equations, is far superior to
> any other word processing system....
--
Murray Eisenberg mur...@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
David Park
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.
David Bailey
>> 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 data
>> 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 although
>> embedded math can be entered as well. There is a whole process for
>> managing, editing, creating, and using stylesheets in Mathematica. For
>> choose File/New/Styled Notebook/Book. That loads a default stylesheet
>> 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 reference
>> 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 yet.
>
> 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. =A390 the
> price will then be, rather than =A3195 for a "Home Edition".
> --
> Per Erik R=F8nne
> http://www.RQNNE.dk
> Errare humanum est, sed in errore perseverare turpe
>
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.
David Bailey
http://www.dbaileyconsultancy.co.uk
Kevin J. McCann
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
Bill Rowe
>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.
It is possible to run VirtualBox under Snow Leopard. And once
installed, it is possible to set up either Windows or Linux
running as a virtual machine with VirtualBox. And since these
virtual machines running a different operating system would look
no different than a real machine running the same operating
system, there should be no difficulty with running the
appropriate version of Mathematica that way. But...
There is no free lunch. There is an overhead associated with
running a foreign operating system under VirtualBox or one of
the commercial alternatives. And for processor intensive
applications such as Mathematica, you may not get what you would
consider acceptable performance unless you have a machine with
lots of memory and a fairly fast processor.
One other thing to note, VirtualBox and the commercial
alternatives (Parallels and VMWare Fusion) run on the newer
Apple machines with an Intel processor, not the older machines
with a PPC processor.
Murray Eisenberg
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."
>>
>>
>
--
Per Rønne
> Per R=F8nne wrote:
> > Dominic <mili...@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
Murray Eisenberg
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?
--
magma
> 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.
magma
> 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
Peltio
> The posted links do not seem to work (at least for me).
Neither for me.
> But one can easily find the 2 avi files on YouTube.com simply by
> typing "active documents" in the search field
Unfortunately Youtube is no longer working for me (it's about 5-6 weeks
to tell the truth). I get "An error occurred, please try again later"
whichever clip I try to watch. I had solved the problem by embedding
the code in a hand-make web page on my desktop, but after complaing
about the error via the site feedback, even that stopped working :-).
Reinstalling flash and java would make it work only for the first
video.
(I am not looking for a solution on this group, just stating why I
might comment on the interesting answers to my post only a few days
from now).
cheers,
Peltio
Bill Rowe
>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.
Yes, LaTeX is a markup language and does require some learning
before you can use it effectively. And since it can do a variety
of things, like Mathematica, there are a great many things to
learn. But also like Mathematica, you do not need to learn
everything in order to get things done.
>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,
You have effectively substituted one problem for another with
roughly the same degree of difficulty. That is instead of using
a LaTeX class, you are using a Stylesheet which performs
essentially the same purpose. And I would point out, there is
many more books/references available for LaTeX and how to use it
than there are for Mathematica Stylesheets.
Kevin J. McCann
Stylesheet is the way I want it, I am done with that, and from that
point on it is WYSIWYG (almost).
Kevin