redlands@laplace.Stanford.EDU (James T. Aslanis) (02/02/88)
Here's one user's perspective on equation processing on the Macintosh. Currently, no combination of word processing program plus equation processing program matches the power and flexibility of TEX, but I wish there were... These are the programs I have tried: MS Word 3.01 Sample WriteNow 0.07 Try MathType 1.51 Expressionist 1.1 (1.11 update coming) MacEQN 2.1 Textures 1.01 (Latex coming) MacDraw 1.9.5 SuperPaint 1.0p Problem #1: (Word Processors and graphics) Word processing programs handle graphics "slowly." Expressionist, MathType and MacEQN generate pictures. Add lots of pictures to a word processor (consider the density of equations in a mathematically- oriented thesis) and watch the word processor slowwww dowwwwn. Sample WriteNow slowed to a snail-like pace. MS Word is fast enough, but see problem #3. For FullWrite users, has anyone tried a 20 page document filled with a text:equation ratio equal to a graduate level mathematics textbook? Is it fast enough? Problem #2: (Editing equations) I know of no program that offers search and replace capabilities for graphics. If you must change notation in your 20 page paper or your 200 page thesis, you must edit EVERY equation. With TEX you can easily use search and replace; even better, you can define macros and then edit the macro definition. Problem #3: (MS Word 3.01) MS Word incorrectly boxes equations generated by Expressionist. Some of the equation may be cut off by the bounding box boundary. Resizing the box of every inserted equation quickly becomes tedious. Also MS Word has trouble with small type (4-6 point). Small letters in some equations don't print or show up on the screen (the letters are there if you paste the equation back into Expressionist from Word). Problem #4: (Expressionist) Equations generated in Expressionist and pasted into MacDraw cannot be pasted back into Expressionist from MacDraw. Under MultiFinder I have managed to cut from MacDraw into MS Word and then into Expressionist, but the setup is unstable and you won't wait long before "la Bomba." I then tried SuperPaint. Although you can paste equations back into Expressionist from the draw layer of SuperPaint, you can also easily crash SuperPaint with Expressionist. Problem #5: (MathType) I will agree that MathType provides much better typesetting than Expressionist. MathType also provides automatic typeface selection. But I cannot figure out how to change a specific character's size or font (maybe it's possible); this task is easy in Expressionist. MathType equations can be pasted into MacDraw or SuperPaint but not pasted back into MathType. Problem #6: (Textures) The Textures editor lacks parentheses matching, which makes complicated equations difficult to generate. Here MathType rescues me by generating TEX; MathType cannot interpret TEX equations though. I also find TEX files difficult to read, so editing becomes a chore. Summary: I love my Macintosh, and I curse TEX; but I use TEX, because nothing yet competes effectively. J. T. Aslanis Information Systems Laboratory Stanford University