What kind of alternatives there are for these? At least Matlab and Wolfram Mathematica come into my mind, but are there anything else?
Python's Sage, Jupyter, Octave
MacKichan Software, maker of Scientific Word, has gone out of business
31–40 of 143 posts
Re: MacKichan Software, maker of Scientific Word, has gone out of business
#32Will everyone switch to TeXmacs, which is truly WYSIWYG and does not use TeX/LaTeX? See: https://www.texmacs.org/tmweb/home/videos.en.html
It's a pity it's called "TeXmacs" when, as you say, it really has no connection to TeX (except the ability to typeset mathematics). Another alternative is LyX, which actually does use LaTeX. Even that is not really a "LaTeX editor" though: it produces/exports excellent LaTeX, and uses that for typesetting, but does pretty poorly at importing LaTeX (as the developers freely admit). Depending on your situation that may…
> does pretty poorly at importing LaTeX
As far as I know, an importer that interprets arbitrary LaTeX cannot exist (i.e. you have to run LaTeX on the file) because the grammar of LaTeX documents is Turing-complete. There is a StackExchange Q&A where this is explained, but I do not understand the arguments ;-)
Re: MacKichan Software, maker of Scientific Word, has gone out of business
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
I doubt it, since in academia there are two gods, Word and LaTeX. It is very rare to find journals/conferences who don't specify one template or the other (with the possible exception of ACM, who are a law unto themselves). TexMacs might be OK for final preparation of camera-ready PDFs but by that point you're already invested in Word/LaTeX so there's no point switching typesetter.
TeXmacs is better than Word for documents containing math.
Given that Word does LaTeX math, why would that be?
Re: MacKichan Software, maker of Scientific Word, has gone out of business
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a pity it's called "TeXmacs" when, as you say, it really has no connection to TeX (except the ability to typeset mathematics). Another alternative is LyX, which actually does use LaTeX. Even that is not really a "LaTeX editor" though: it produces/exports excellent LaTeX, and uses that for typesetting, but does pretty poorly at importing LaTeX (as the developers freely admit). Depending on your situation that may…
> does pretty poorly at importing LaTeX As far as I know, an importer that interprets arbitrary LaTeX cannot exist (i.e. you have to run LaTeX on the file) because the grammar of LaTeX documents is Turing-complete. There is a StackExchange Q&A where this is explained, but I do not understand the arguments ;-)
That makes sense. Also (and I realise this is a bit less deep than undecidable grammar) I've certainly seen LaTeX documents with so many random macros that I don't recognise the content of it at all! I'm sure we've all come across those. I can understand why a program wouldn't stand much of a chance.
Personally I never really needed LaTeX import so I don't really see it as a problem, but I know it matters to some people.
Re: MacKichan Software, maker of Scientific Word, has gone out of business
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
TeXmacs is better than Word for documents containing math.
Given that Word does LaTeX math, why would that be?
In TeXmacs, switching between math and non-math mode while writing up a document is seamless and fast. Moreover, typesetting quality is comparable to TeX/LaTeX.
Re: MacKichan Software, maker of Scientific Word, has gone out of business
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
One person businesses often require a unique collection of skills to operate and don’t make enough money to hire a team of professional operators. This is also true of traditional small businesses like restaurants and car mechanics. The phenomenon is discussed extensively in the “E-myth” series of books. The TLDR is if you ever want to get someone else to run your business, you have to be careful to systematize and d…
Pretty sure restaurants and car mechanics aren't unique skills and when they retire in my area someone usually buys them out and continues operating under the same name...
The properties already converted for specific use, so it is cheaper to reuse as much as possible.
But those will be different businesses. The restaurant will not make the same dishes or retain the same customers. The mechanic will operate on different types of vehicles.
Re: MacKichan Software, maker of Scientific Word, has gone out of business
#37Will everyone switch to TeXmacs, which is truly WYSIWYG and does not use TeX/LaTeX? See: https://www.texmacs.org/tmweb/home/videos.en.html
There is a terrific tool, and people is trying hard to avoid using it? I can't see any advantage in not using TeX/LaTex versus using it.
Re: MacKichan Software, maker of Scientific Word, has gone out of business
#38Will everyone switch to TeXmacs, which is truly WYSIWYG and does not use TeX/LaTeX? See: https://www.texmacs.org/tmweb/home/videos.en.html
It's a pity it's called "TeXmacs" when, as you say, it really has no connection to TeX (except the ability to typeset mathematics). Another alternative is LyX, which actually does use LaTeX. Even that is not really a "LaTeX editor" though: it produces/exports excellent LaTeX, and uses that for typesetting, but does pretty poorly at importing LaTeX (as the developers freely admit). Depending on your situation that may…
>> It's a pity it's called "TeXmacs" when, as you say, it really has no connection to TeX
Yep. It sounds like something that ties emacs and LaTeX together. That's not something I'd even want to look at, and have not for exactly that reason. My goto math tool is Maxima, but I don't write so typesetting isn't a thing for me - it does support MathML though IIRC.
Re: MacKichan Software, maker of Scientific Word, has gone out of business
#39Will everyone switch to TeXmacs, which is truly WYSIWYG and does not use TeX/LaTeX? See: https://www.texmacs.org/tmweb/home/videos.en.html
There is a terrific tool, and people is trying hard to avoid using it? I can't see any advantage in not using TeX/LaTex versus using it.
The editing experience is horrendous compared to TeXmacs.
Re: MacKichan Software, maker of Scientific Word, has gone out of business
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a pity it's called "TeXmacs" when, as you say, it really has no connection to TeX (except the ability to typeset mathematics). Another alternative is LyX, which actually does use LaTeX. Even that is not really a "LaTeX editor" though: it produces/exports excellent LaTeX, and uses that for typesetting, but does pretty poorly at importing LaTeX (as the developers freely admit). Depending on your situation that may…
>> It's a pity it's called "TeXmacs" when, as you say, it really has no connection to TeX Yep. It sounds like something that ties emacs and LaTeX together. That's not something I'd even want to look at, and have not for exactly that reason. My goto math tool is Maxima, but I don't write so typesetting isn't a thing for me - it does support MathML though IIRC.
TeXmacs doesn’t use emacs either.