5 ms·

I think one would still be better off writing their plain text math in LaTeX. Firstly, it can be rendered into a more legible format by a myriad of online and o

I think one would still be better off writing their plain text math in LaTeX. Firstly, it can be rendered into a more legible format by a myriad of online and offline tools. Secondly, from experience, it seems that people who are around math often enough are generally capable of parsing snippets of LaTeX just fine. I'd argue that the example on page 7 of the PDF W_δ₁ρ₁σ₂^3β = U_δ₁ρ₁^3β+1/8π^2 ∫_α₁^α₂dα'₂ [(U_δ₁ρ₁^2β-α'₂U_ρ₁σ₂^1β)/U_ρ₁σ₂^0β] is illegible in both UnicodeMath and LaTeX. Furthermore, typing that out was a huge pain in the ass, even being comfortable with that region of Vim digraphs. I typed it out in LaTeX using the rendered output as a reference and found it was faster, and it compiled on the first try. I really don't think this format is worth it.

ygra 9y ago
You do realize that typing such things generally assumes to include a way of replacing text sequences by characters? Instead of typing W_δ₁ρ₁σ₂ you can just as well write W_(\delta_1 \rho_1 \sigma_2), which brings it much closer to LaTeX again, if that's your thing. I find the Unicode version much easier to read, though, especially since it contains little markup beyond the actual characters appearing in the equation. And just to add a counterpoint to your experience here, I found this format to be much easier to type than LaTeX with fewer errors, even going as far as typing along on the fly in some math lectures in uni. There might just be a lot of bias what someone is used to and comfortable with.
- doomrobo 9y ago
  Fair enough. Although I'm curious what text editors would support non-trivial text replacement like \delta_1. For example, Vim abbreviations apply on word boundaries (things followed by space or punctuation). So to make \delta_n work you'd have to have a separate abbreviation for each digit n. Then do this for every single thing that can be subscripted. To be fair, though, this works fine and seems pretty usable :ab _1 <BS>₁ This does a backspace before the replacement, so it transforms `foo _1.` into `foo₁.`
  - ygra 9y ago
    The subscript replacements are not really needed, I was more talking about turning \delta into δ. Word itself doesn't replace the subscripts and I found the sub-/superscript characters more a nuisance to work with (as they bind stronger than _/^ I think). But having characters that exist in Unicode appear as themselves instead of things like \delta or, worse, \mathbb N, imho really helps legibility already.
anjbe 9y ago
I’ve always liked troff/eqn, which had a focus on human readable equation input. Here’s that example in eqn: verbose but very natural, almost how you would say it out loud. .EQ W sub {delta sub 1 rho sub 1 sigma sub 2} sup {3 beta} = U sub {delta sub 1 rho sub 1} sup {3 beta} + 1 over {8 pi sup 2} int from alpha sub 1 to alpha sub 2 d alpha prime sub 2 left [ { U sub {delta sub 1 rho sub 1} sup {2 beta} - alpha prime sub 2 U sub {rho sub 1 sigma sub 2} sup {1 beta} } over U sub {rho sub 1 sigma sub 2} sup {0 beta} right ] .EN Even better if you use a little bit of Unicode (which any modern troff supports): .EQ W sub {δ sub 1 ρ sub 1 σ sub 2} sup {3 β} = U sub {δ sub 1 ρ sub 1} sup {3 β} + 1 over {8 pi sup 2} int from α sub 1 to α sub 2 d α prime sub 2 left [ { U sub {δ sub 1 ρ sub 1} sup {2 β} - α prime sub 2 U sub {ρ sub 1 σ sub 2} sup {1 β} } over U sub {ρ sub 1 σ sub 2} sup {0 β} right ] .EN
- tannhaeuser 9y ago
  You might also like SGML which has the SHORTREF built-in mechanism for defining custom Wiki syntax and casual math. Gives you the better part of troff with formal built-in up-conversion to presentational MathML or other markup. The author of GNU roff (groff), James Clark, later became the SGML guru.

ygra 9y ago

You do realize that typing such things generally assumes to include a way of replacing text sequences by characters? Instead of typing W_δ₁ρ₁σ₂ you can just as well write W_(\delta_1 \rho_1 \sigma_2), which brings it much closer to LaTeX again, if that's your thing. I find the Unicode version much easier to read, though, especially since it contains little markup beyond the actual characters appearing in the equation. And just to add a counterpoint to your experience here, I found this format to be much easier to type than LaTeX with fewer errors, even going as far as typing along on the fly in some math lectures in uni. There might just be a lot of bias what someone is used to and comfortable with.

doomrobo 9y ago
Fair enough. Although I'm curious what text editors would support non-trivial text replacement like \delta_1. For example, Vim abbreviations apply on word boundaries (things followed by space or punctuation). So to make \delta_n work you'd have to have a separate abbreviation for each digit n. Then do this for every single thing that can be subscripted. To be fair, though, this works fine and seems pretty usable :ab _1 <BS>₁ This does a backspace before the replacement, so it transforms `foo _1.` into `foo₁.`
- ygra 9y ago
  The subscript replacements are not really needed, I was more talking about turning \delta into δ. Word itself doesn't replace the subscripts and I found the sub-/superscript characters more a nuisance to work with (as they bind stronger than _/^ I think). But having characters that exist in Unicode appear as themselves instead of things like \delta or, worse, \mathbb N, imho really helps legibility already.

anjbe 9y ago

I’ve always liked troff/eqn, which had a focus on human readable equation input. Here’s that example in eqn: verbose but very natural, almost how you would say it out loud. .EQ W sub {delta sub 1 rho sub 1 sigma sub 2} sup {3 beta} = U sub {delta sub 1 rho sub 1} sup {3 beta} + 1 over {8 pi sup 2} int from alpha sub 1 to alpha sub 2 d alpha prime sub 2 left [ { U sub {delta sub 1 rho sub 1} sup {2 beta} - alpha prime sub 2 U sub {rho sub 1 sigma sub 2} sup {1 beta} } over U sub {rho sub 1 sigma sub 2} sup {0 beta} right ] .EN Even better if you use a little bit of Unicode (which any modern troff supports): .EQ W sub {δ sub 1 ρ sub 1 σ sub 2} sup {3 β} = U sub {δ sub 1 ρ sub 1} sup {3 β} + 1 over {8 pi sup 2} int from α sub 1 to α sub 2 d α prime sub 2 left [ { U sub {δ sub 1 ρ sub 1} sup {2 β} - α prime sub 2 U sub {ρ sub 1 σ sub 2} sup {1 β} } over U sub {ρ sub 1 σ sub 2} sup {0 β} right ] .EN

tannhaeuser 9y ago
You might also like SGML which has the SHORTREF built-in mechanism for defining custom Wiki syntax and casual math. Gives you the better part of troff with formal built-in up-conversion to presentational MathML or other markup. The author of GNU roff (groff), James Clark, later became the SGML guru.