5 ms·

I wonder if it's gotten better since 2002-2004, which is when I used it a lot. I'd be curious to hear what you think about the equation editor in Desmos[1] (fu

I wonder if it's gotten better since 2002-2004, which is when I used it a lot. I'd be curious to hear what you think about the equation editor in Desmos[1] (full disclosure, my employer). We use an open source WYSIWYG typesetting library called MathQuill[2]. The keystrokes you use are very similar to AsciiMath, but the result is direct editing of the typeset math. E.g. you type '_' to move into a subscript, '^' to move into a superscript, '/' to create a fraction, 'sqrt' to create a radical, etc. I believe that I can edit much faster with this interface than with Microsoft Equation Editor, and that it's approximately similar difficulty to learn. But I'm biased. [1] https://www.desmos.com/calculator https://www.desmos.com/calculator [2] http://mathquill.com/ http://mathquill.com/

joatmon-snoo 10y ago
Desmos is decent IME (am an u/g, so I've used it occasionally); I don't think I ever had serious issues with typesetting (backspacing between sub and superscripts is occasionally awkward, iirc), but navigating the site and using advanced features was always troublesome. I had to fallback to Googling for a specific Desmos calculator a lot.
wenqin123 10y ago
Actually it's funny you say that your employer is Desmos. My friends and I use Desmos for all of our graphing assignments and let's say that it has saved us a lot of trouble!
paulddraper 10y ago
I've used mathquill. Thanks so so much for open-sourcing it. I think I remember MS being better in some edge cases. OTOH, I haven't used it in so long maybe that speaks for itself.
- jwmerrill 10y ago
  It was open source before we started using it, but we're friends with the creators, so I can pass on the compliment.
gjjrfcbugxbhf 10y ago
> I wonder if it's gotten better since 2002-2004, which is when I used it a lot. MS equation editor? It's got so much better! The version released when office 2007 came out allows a latex like syntax when writing equations. - still don't use it myself because that would require using ms office which was still broken in other ways when i last used it (2010).

joatmon-snoo 10y ago

Desmos is decent IME (am an u/g, so I've used it occasionally); I don't think I ever had serious issues with typesetting (backspacing between sub and superscripts is occasionally awkward, iirc), but navigating the site and using advanced features was always troublesome. I had to fallback to Googling for a specific Desmos calculator a lot.

wenqin123 10y ago

Actually it's funny you say that your employer is Desmos. My friends and I use Desmos for all of our graphing assignments and let's say that it has saved us a lot of trouble!

paulddraper 10y ago

I've used mathquill. Thanks so so much for open-sourcing it. I think I remember MS being better in some edge cases. OTOH, I haven't used it in so long maybe that speaks for itself.

jwmerrill 10y ago
It was open source before we started using it, but we're friends with the creators, so I can pass on the compliment.

gjjrfcbugxbhf 10y ago

> I wonder if it's gotten better since 2002-2004, which is when I used it a lot. MS equation editor? It's got so much better! The version released when office 2007 came out allows a latex like syntax when writing equations. - still don't use it myself because that would require using ms office which was still broken in other ways when i last used it (2010).