--- Richard Fateman <fateman@cs.berkeley.edu> wrote:
> There is a package, photot, which addresses "phototypesetting"
> in macsyma. This was circa 1980 when users of unix used
> troff and eqn to typeset math papers. The same issues occur
> in generating TeX, so maybe photot could be helpful. The
> code should be around.
That sounds very interesting. Unfortunately, a google search turns up
almost nothing. Where would be a good place to start hunting? I note
(http://www.math.utexas.edu/pipermail/maxima/2003/004189.html) you
thought the author John Foderaro might still have a copy - did anything
come of that?
> Basically the maxima system has to know more than it ordinarily
> knows. It has to know how wide a page you expect to ultimately use
> to typeset the expression. It also has to know enough about the
> TeX math formatting to figure out the widths of every expression.
> (Actually: it needs to completely simulate TeX's layout.)
Ugh. Oh well, no help for it I guess. TeX (and other graphical)
output is a problem worth solving the Right Way.
> There is a possibility that output to MathML would provide a
> route, because there are expression-breaking programs that do
> MathML display, I think. And maybe MathML to TeX.
Possibly, but I'd rather not rely on a solution like that long term.
I'd be surprised if such solutions incorporate enough information about
TeX layout (as per your requirements above) to do a really good job.
> There are also simulators of TeX in Lisp, one written by
> Bill Schelter for Lisp machines (a kind of Texmacs) and one
> written by some people in France, I think. (These do not necessarily
> address line-breaking).
Are either of these still available?
> As an occasional user of the Macsyma to TeX route, I must
> admit that the TeX output often needs a little tweaking, not
> only for line-breaking, but also for slight rearrangements,
> x+y instead of y+x.
> It does fine for long polynomials, or other well-structured
> forms, but often people care a lot about exp(-x) vs 1/exp(x) vs.
> e^(-x) vs. 1/e^x ....
Hmm. Perhaps there could be some user config options for things like
that...
CY
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