changing displa to do "line at a time"Tex

michel.lavaud@univ-orleans.fr wrote:


>>
> 
> Would it be possible to modify displa to make it output a set of TeX subformulas, 
> to be displayed one under the other, instead of the set of 2-dimensional 
> displays? For instance, if we ask Maxima to compute 1000!, the result is 
> displayed as 16 lines (i.e. as 16 "2-dimensional displays" of 1 line each for 
> this simple case), and displa might output a set of 16 TeX subformulas ? (trivial 
> refinement : allow  larger value for width  $linel, to take into account the fact 
> that TeX display might be more compact than standard Maxima display) 


Or the TeX display might be narrower, as in 2-columns.  Basically, the 
formatting
program in Maxima needs to compute the maximum width in points (or other 
typesetting
measure) of each subexpression, and compare to the line width of the 
eventual
device that will be used to display  (NOT necessarily the command 
window), and
then decide on that basis whether to
insert a break.  By the time this can be computed, all the computation
for typesetting the expression exactly as TeX would typeset it,
namely the size and position of each
character, is known.  You ask then that all this information be discarded
and that it should be recomputed by TeX.

Some approximation can be used, but it will not save much time.  By the way,
I know of no accepted way of displaying multiple-line integers, so there is
no TeX standard for displaying 1000! etc.


> 
> This way, we could benefit at the same time from the ability of Maxima to split 
> long formulas (as compared to TeX's inability to split them) and the ability of 
> TeX to produce beautiful output (as compared to limited ability of Maxima) ?


Another point that caused problems in the past for me, but perhaps
is now fixed? I recall trying to typeset

(a+ b+ .... c+d)
As 2 Latex commands,

(a + b +

   + c +d)

But encountered problems:  Tex REFUSED to do this because   $\bigl(a + b + $
is not balanced.  This does not seem to be a problem in latex2e, but maybe
there are other, similar problems?
   A better solution to large typeset expressions may be to use arrays of
aligned formulas.  However there are various buffers in latex that sometimes
run out of space.

   There are always tradeoffs between using someone else's program and
writing one that solves exactly the problem you have in mind.  Sometimes
NIH  (not invented here) syndrome is a waste, but sometimes it is right.

RJF


>  
> Best wishes
> Michel.Lavaud@univ-orleans.fr
> http://www.univ-orleans.fr/EXT/ASTEX
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