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LaTeX, LyX, and TeXmacs October 31, 2009

Posted by Da in Uncategorized.
3 comments

I have been typing LaTeX quite a bit recently (with lots of math), and the current tools I am using is: Vim-LaTeX sutie + okular (auto-reload for preview). Vim-LaTeX suite has many convenient shorthands for efficient typesetting, such as “FBF” expands to “\textbf{}” and “SSS” expands to “\subsubsection{}”, all with proper placeholders. However, when typing complicated math formulas, it still takes some brain power to make sure all the brackets are properly placed and matched. I have defined many macros to simplify some common notation, but it could still be better. So I look into two alternatives: LyX and TeXmacs. However, both does not satisfy my needs (yet), so I have to stay with my Vim-LaTeX suite, and below is a quick summary:

LyX
Pros:

  • much more intuitive math input
  • other WYSIWYG features: such as tables, etc.

Cons:

  • Poor macro support: the math macro support is somewhat primitive and hard to use, and non-math macros are not supported at all (you can only embed them as LaTeX code, which defeats the purpose of WYSIWYG).
  • Project management: it seems to me that LyX cannot easily separate a document into multiple files (the \input mechanism in LaTeX) and I cannot find a way to define mathmacros in a separate file and share it among multiple documents.
  • Not all LaTeX features are not supported, such as “\bigl”, etc.

For a person converting from regular LaTeX to LyX (with many macros), I find the poor macro support a turn-off and will wait until it gets improved. But for a person starting to learn LaTeX, I think LyX will be a great tool.

TeXmacs
Pros:

  • intuitive math input
  • WYSIWYG
  • Support with computer algebra systems, so you can call Maple or Maxima inside TeXmacs and the output will be nicely formated. Very cool!

Cons:

  • Poor macro support
  • Again, it seems that it is difficult to “\input” or “\include” any files into a document.

So for the same reason, I have to give it up.

In conclusion, the WYSIWYG LaTeX editing systems are very nice, but basically they are something different from LaTeX. You can only go one way or the other (at least for now), and any non-trivial migration from LaTeX to them will be very painful. I hope the interoperability of LyX and LaTeX will eventually be better, so that we can get the benefits of both worlds. For TeXmacs, it appears to be more difficult as the back-end is quite different from LaTeX.

Set application to half-screen in Gnome October 12, 2009

Posted by Da in Development.
Tags: , , , , , ,
1 comment so far

I recently got a 24′ LCD monitor and one good thing about this large monitor is you can do things side-by-side. However, manually adjusting windows are not fun… After a bit googling, I am amazed to find that Compiz already had this kind of function implemented in the “Grid” plugin, where you can press a customized hotkey and then send a window to the left/right/top/bottom half of the screen, or upper/lower left/right corner of the screen. Very nice job! This is not the mostly showed feature of Compiz, comparing to those rotating cube stuff, but I think it is a lot more useful for me.

Update: for users who do not want Compiz on their X, an alternative is: QuickTile

p.s.   For Mac users, they can get TwoUp or SplitUp.
p.s.2 For Windows users, I believe Windows 7 has this built-in. I can feel that Windows 7 will be a great product, and I think the hand-writing math-input will be a killer feature for people in academia.

A visit to Bose Corporation October 12, 2009

Posted by Da in Personal.
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Thanks to Al’s organization, many students in our department got to meet with Dr. Bose, the founder of Bose Corporation, and a very wise person. We chatted with him on various topics and viewed a demo on one of Bose’s recent products, a revolutionary car suspension system, and I encourage all of you to take a look at—it is simply fantastic!

And my laziness allows me only to write a few of the points that Dr. Bose made:

  • MIT is one of the largest employer in Massachusetts.
    • As a large organization, it suffers from politics, which is everywhere in academia, industry, …
  • Work takes most of the time in life. Work on something you are really excited at!
    • Have you bag packed. If you find a workplace unpleasant. Make a change.
  • The worst job is the job that earns you money (only).
  • Research is a kind of intellectual stumbling. However, this stumbling process cannot be taught, and can only be learned during the process.
    • When people write about their results, they usually take the direct route.
    • Al commented that this is a problem that faced by many new graduate students, who knew how to solve well structured problems from textbook, but don’t know how to get started in research.
    • It is not a bad thing to get further from the goal during the stumbling process, as long as you learn something.