This doesn't load for me at the moment, so I can't compare, but I also made something similar a few months ago in node.js: http://texbin.bcuccioli.com
My first project in Rails – Pastebin for Mathematicians
41–50 of 67 posts
Re: My first project in Rails – Pastebin for Mathematicians
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure why every "Show HN" post attracts somebody that points out that what OP has created isn't novel. It's a big world and novelty isn't half as important as quality of execution and UX. The purpose of these posts isn't to lay focus on what's already out there, but to focus on what OP has created, usually for the primary purpose of critical feedback so they can improve themselves and their product.
Part of critical feedback is comparing something to its competitors. Of course, the GP could have done a better job at this.
That would be perfectly valid criticism. If they'd said "there's x and y competitors and they do [...] really well - might be something you'd want to look at because these are very heavily used features", that'd be really constructive feedback. But all noodly said was "theres already one" and solicited contributors.
Re: My first project in Rails – Pastebin for Mathematicians
#43I will be sharing this with my students.
A few comments are below. My motivation behind the comments is based on how students who are new to LaTeX tend to misuse or not fully recognize the full power of LaTeX. I realize that this may not be the target audience of your project and so if any of my comments are not appropriate, please disregard them.
* Mention that \( .. \) is the same as $...$ and \[ ... \] is the same as $$...$$ and that each will slightly alter the appearance of limits, integrals, and sums. TO put it another way, make clear the difference between display math vs. inline math.
* Rename Brackets "Stretchy brackets"? (Presently you have \left( x \right) which, to a new user is no different than simply writing (x).)
* Powers and Indices should mention that x_{...} is only required if more than one character is being used as a sub/superscript.
* Under matrices, there is no need for the left and right delimters. There are three commonly used environments: bmatrix, pmatrix, and vmatrix for matrices enclosed by brackets, parenthesis and vertical bars. More types are listed here: http://www.sascha-frank.com/Faq/matrices.html
* The inclusion of an aligned equations template is wonderful.
* The table template would be better if it followed the style guides suggested here: http://tug.org/pracjourn/2007-1/mori/
* Double and triple integrals without bounds can be written as \iint and \iiint respectively. (no need for a series of \! between individual \int).
* It would be nice to toggle the collapse/expansion of a menu by clicking it. Presently clicking it allows me to expand and the only way to collapse is to click on another.
* Throw \LaTeX\ in there somewhere. It's not necessary, but would be nice to have.
Thank you for creating this, I am sure it will be very helpful for my students!
Re: My first project in Rails – Pastebin for Mathematicians
#44Do you plan to open source the source code? I'd like to contribute with with the front end. It works very nicely, but looks too generic. (:
Haven't really thought about it, but yeah why not! I'd love some help, especially with the front end.
Edit: Sorry I close it down. Realized that there's some bit of JS code that's contributed by a friend, so I need to check and ask for his permission first. I'll contact you personally to seek for your help :) Thank you again!
Re: My first project in Rails – Pastebin for Mathematicians
#45I will be sharing this with my students. A few comments are below. My motivation behind the comments is based on how students who are new to LaTeX tend to misuse or not fully recognize the full power of LaTeX. I realize that this may not be the target audience of your project and so if any of my comments are not appropriate, please disregard them. * Mention that \( .. \) is the same as $...$ and \[ ... \] is the same…
Thank you for the thoughtful answer. I'm really happy that you find it useful. I have noted your feedback and will work through it.
> students who are new to LaTeX tend to misuse or not fully recognize the full power of LaTeX. I realize that this may not be the target audience of your project and so if any of my comments are not appropriate, please disregard them.
These are actually the perfect audience for the project. You see, the main thing that this tool offers is _convenience_, which is much appreciated by the LaTeX beginners thanks to its steep learning curve and complicated software setups. So please do share it with your students, I hope this helps them one way or another :)
By the way, I've got a proper domain for it: www.texpaste.com
Re: My first project in Rails – Pastebin for Mathematicians
#46Great work! This will make more people start to see the beauty of LaTeX. As I suppose the target users of this project are those who like WYSIWYG approach, they may not want to replace the default element in the text field one by one. Is it possible to prompt the user in request for values before passing it to the textfield? Or let the user create their own default values after logged in?
That would be slightly complicated, but maybe the alternative is if you select an expression and click on some 1-variable function then we'll use the expression instead of the generic 'x'.
Re: My first project in Rails – Pastebin for Mathematicians
#47The example doesn't work. The maths isn't rendered.
Re: My first project in Rails – Pastebin for Mathematicians
#48Nice job! I like it, and this is a lot easier then sharing screenshots or raw TeX :-P.
Also make sure you sanitize user input, you have a XSS issue.
Re: My first project in Rails – Pastebin for Mathematicians
#49Nice project, is there a logical next step where the text outside the dollars can be formatted with markdown (or I suppose LaTeX)?
That would be nice suggestion. Though I'm trying to see what would people use this for before adding any extra feature. I envision it would be used in university for students to share math notes/proofs. We'll see.
Great, good luck!
Re: My first project in Rails – Pastebin for Mathematicians
#50Nice project, is there a logical next step where the text outside the dollars can be formatted with markdown (or I suppose LaTeX)?
That would be nice suggestion. Though I'm trying to see what would people use this for before adding any extra feature. I envision it would be used in university for students to share math notes/proofs. We'll see.
I'll show it to my JuCo students, maybe it will improve their papers.