Dropping a bombshell: https://github.com/brennier/quicktex
How I'm able to take notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim
31–40 of 223 posts
Re: How I'm able to take notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim
#32Nice setup. Good explanation and seemingly gets the job done.
Just one grievance: if you are concerned with parsing your latex (even if that's only possible while you restrict yourself), you should use the parentheses as math delimiters: `\( x + z\)`
Re: How I'm able to take notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim
#33Very impressive.
The first displayed text page contains a typo at the bottom :
CHAUCHY iso CAUCHY.
As others have said physically rewriting is part of comprehension (as is rewriting new words learned in a new language)
As the lecture notes are drafts from the black board I suggest using a font that does not make it look like perfectly printed. You can fool yourself believing what you wrote because it looks so pretty.
If you are writing a considerable amount of latex his setup is really cool. I will you these ideas but using emacs in stead of vim. Wonderful job!!
Re: How I'm able to take notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim
#34As a feat in itself this is definitely very impressive, but I wonder if it's really worth anyone's time to spend precious lecture time with your mind fully occupied in the mechanical task of taking notes rather than actually absorbing and engaging with the content. Especially for an extremely content-dense subject like Mathematics, where you need all your concentration just to process what you are reading and follow…
Learning is learning. He has clearly learnt how to do something. And do it well.
The entire article is very clear and well thought out. To me it signals a disciplined and methodical mind, that learns from doing. And we are lucky it's willing to share.
Re: How I'm able to take notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim
#35The techniques in the article definitely are useful to improve efficiency of typing math. I have used vi/vim and latex for many years (over 20). And this still impressed me a lot. Can’t wait to see how he does the figures.
He's using inkscape.
https://www.quora.com/Can-people-actually-keep-up-with-note-...
Re: How I'm able to take notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim
#36So what I see here is a very impressive, hand built tab completion system for a specific task. Makes lots of things much faster. Now all you need to do is speed it up some more by using less keystrokes and a stenotype machine.
But really the takeaway is the auto-completion. Incredibly useful.
Re: How I'm able to take notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim
#37> which makes for a total of more than 1700 pages of notes That's an absolutely incredible feat, especially considering that the notes look pretty much textbook-quality! Although personally, I have never been able to both absorb a lecture and take electronic notes. If I need comprehension, my notes have always had to be pen-and-paper. Once again, this is an incredible feat.
> If I need comprehension, my notes have always had to be pen-and-paper. I agree. However, if I want to be able to refer to them afterwards, I really need to take electronic notes.
Agreed. So we have this problem that can only be resolved by taking notes with a pen before typing them up. This has the nice opportunity of reviewing them whilst typing, and puts pressure on you to ensure understanding when making notes.
Re: How I'm able to take notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim
#38This reminds me of the sole draining * job as a "web developer" to turn word documents into HTML. I imagine such a job also exist in science, but instead of Word to HTML you turn paper notes into LaTeX. He could probably make good money helping professors write papers. * You coded since you where 15 years old, wrote your own game engine, wanted to cure cancer and save the world, and now your job is to copy text from…
The best response to having to do dumb work like this is to automate it with regex, bash (and possibly an unzipping tool - aren't word documents zipped xml?) and take the time that people previously gave you to do the task to tweak your scripts and learn things you find interesting. I got through my dumbest student jobs that way, which was almost all of my student jobs.
Re: How I'm able to take notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim
#39As a feat in itself this is definitely very impressive, but I wonder if it's really worth anyone's time to spend precious lecture time with your mind fully occupied in the mechanical task of taking notes rather than actually absorbing and engaging with the content. Especially for an extremely content-dense subject like Mathematics, where you need all your concentration just to process what you are reading and follow…
> 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…
Not that it detracts from your point, but I definitely benefited from notetaking on my computer in school. For an AP History class, I typed up—in outline style (I, II; A, B; 1, 2; a, b; etc)—all my notes on the required reading. At the end of the course, I had a few hundred pages of these notes all printed up.
I never had to go back and read any of them. Just the process of typing them up in the first place firmly fixed all the knowledge in my mind. When taking the final and AP test, I could see the notes I had taken in my mind.
Writing or typing didn’t make a difference. Just the rephrasing and condensing alone was enough. (Which, again, reënforces your point. I still had to consciously avoid “pass-thru” regurgitation)
Re: How I'm able to take notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim
#40I 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.