Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How I'm able to take notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim

castel.dev

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 223 posts

Re: How I'm able to take notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim

#91

Post by globuous »

4thaccount wrote: post #77
txcwpalpha wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> mechanical task of taking notes rather than actually absorbing and engaging with the content The mechanical task of taking notes is one of the most important parts of actually absorbing the material. It is not an either-or. Hearing/seeing the information, processing it in a way that makes sense to you individually, and then mechanically writing it down in a legible manner is one of the main methods that your brain…

I would disagree with you on the benefits of taking notes in higher maths. If I'm taking notes, I can barely follow what is going on in the lecture. If I don't take notes I can fully concentrate on the lecture and logic, but then I have nothing to study/reference. Teachers should provide notes so you don't have to do it yourself, especially if they're just writing off a sheet of paper. They're usually just worried th…

Agreed, sometimes just copying the formula takes very long and you don't want to be making mistakes. Also, sometimes wording for explanation takes me long enough that I miss a few sentences from my lecturer.

The best I think is still to come prepared for class by having read the required readings before hand.

Re: How I'm able to take notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim

#92

Post by TeMPOraL »

erk__ wrote: post #40

I now use org-mode to do my notes it pretty much removes the need to write non math latex and when you have to write math you just inline the latex. And because I also write my assignments in the same file I can generate a nice latex file with everything I have written doing the course.

Org-mode is awesome, but the points about snippets still apply. AFAIR yasnippet should support most, if not all, capabilities presented in this article.

Re: How I'm able to take notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim

#94

Post by 4thaccount »

setquk wrote: post #90
4thaccount wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the tip. OneNote is one of a handful of things Microsoft has done that I like. Is it really not on Windows10? I haven't upgraded from 7 yet.

It does ship with windows 10 but it's a UWP app and it's rubbish. It's missing on Office 2019. See: https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/onenote-2016-is-mis... This one totally caught me by surprise for ref when I upgraded, perhaps foolishly. I installed OneNote 2016 and am sticking my fingers in my ears until I have some time to deal with it.

That's awful. I probably have hundreds of pages of notes in this thing. Time to mass PDF export.

Re: How I'm able to take notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim

#95

Post by feiss »

securitybear wrote: post #93

Now that 'Escape' is not a real hardware key in the new Macbook Pro anymore and even otherwise 'Escape' has always been one of the hard to reach keys, what is workaround for avoiding the 'Escape' key in Vim?

some people use Shift Lock (which is barely used, and closer to pinky), and a colleague of mine use the sequence 'ii'

Re: How I'm able to take notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim

#96

Post by phosphophyllite »

j7ake wrote: post #42

Beautiful notes! But I don't believe those figures are made using LaTeX and Vim... I can't see how you convert keyboard strokes to nice figures shown in the example.

Probably it's "compose key" feature available on linux, allowing one to type alternative characters via key mnemonics, rather than numeric key codes like on windows.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compose_key

Re: How I'm able to take notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim

#97

Post by zwaps »

Something different, but I use this

https://remarkable.com/

Think of a big Kindle, good battery, and really good writing experience (much like paper). I can note on pdfs, it has handwriting recognition, exports well and is otherwise a joy to use. I used to have a top of the line Samsung tablet before, and was never really happy with it for taking notes and reading.

Re: How I'm able to take notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim

#98

Post by setquk »

matwood wrote: post #86
Rainymood wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Write your notes up at the end of the day with reference material at hand and no compromises. You can structure, extrapolate and transform things into your own understandable language then. As if the average modern day student is going to do this. I did what OP did and it worked for me because instead of dozing off I was focused on keeping up with the lecturer. It worked for me personally. More on topic, the standar…

> >Write your notes up at the end of the day with reference material at hand and no compromises. You can structure, extrapolate and transform things into your own understandable language then. > As if the average modern day student is going to do this. Why wouldn't modern day students do this? It's one of the best way to study that I ever used.

I can understand why people don't do it. We weren't taught how to learn at school or college and when we turned up at university we were expected to know how. It took me a semester of alcohol fuelled hedonism, followed by screwing up, panic, then introspection to work it all out.

I imagine a lot of that could be avoided with some assistance from the education sector along the way.

My eldest wants to be a doctor so I've tried to share as much of my experience with her on how to learn so she doesn't have to make my mistakes as they still don't teach them any of this today, at least in the UK.

Re: How I'm able to take notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim

#99

Post by Rainymood »

matwood wrote: post #86
Rainymood wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Write your notes up at the end of the day with reference material at hand and no compromises. You can structure, extrapolate and transform things into your own understandable language then. As if the average modern day student is going to do this. I did what OP did and it worked for me because instead of dozing off I was focused on keeping up with the lecturer. It worked for me personally. More on topic, the standar…

> >Write your notes up at the end of the day with reference material at hand and no compromises. You can structure, extrapolate and transform things into your own understandable language then. > As if the average modern day student is going to do this. Why wouldn't modern day students do this? It's one of the best way to study that I ever used.

I'm not saying they shouldn't, I'm saying that they are not going to do it, the majority at least. Most people take the path of least resistance, if your path of least resistance is retyping your notes consistently every class more power to you, you are not an average student then. I never typed up my notes, I made flashcards based off them which worked for me, but OK. I'm just saying that if you think the average student diligently types up his notes after every class you're sorely mistaken.

Re: How I'm able to take notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim

#100

Post by m_mueller »

setquk wrote: post #65

I don't agree with this. Perhaps it's possible for someone with exceptional LaTeX and vim knowledge, but even after using both for 20 years I wouldn't do this. The point of the lecture is to assimilate structure and basic understanding, not to produce a neat set of notes instantly. To take notes to this detail means you're putting more time into the note taking than the work. Use a pen and paper. Write down structure…

Fully agreed. We had two guys in university that would type to Latex the mathematics lecture notes and produced a neat script that everyone else used. They failed the course.
Post reply on HN