How can I efficiently do pencil and paper calculations electronically?

[seneika]

Hi

I want, once and for all, to abolish pencil and paper in my studies. At least in what
concern mathematics. I mean, I want to do my "pencil and paper calculations"
electronically.

Note that I'm not talking about using any computer algebra system.

The problem is that I haven't found any satisfying mean for that. Until now, I've tried
WYSYWYG Latex editors, like Lyx and Texmacs, but none of them provides a "natural"
enviroment for this purpose (not to say "standard" Latex typesetting).

Have anyone there done this already?
Any suggestions?

Cheers.

 

[fss]

Err... so you want an easy, intuitive way to take math notes electronically?

It doesn't exist afaik. LaTeX is as close as you can get- once you get good at it, you can typeset very quickly. With things like Equation Editor or MathType you're stick fooling around with buttons, which is a huge waste of time. There's a reason why pencil and paper remain the quickest way for writing down equations accurately.

 

[MATLABdude]

In undergrad, I had a friend that was sufficiently proficient in LaTeX that he typeset his notes (with mathematical notation / equations) IN CLASS! Practice, practice, practice...

For my part (and not having a laptop at the time) I was content with paper and pen.

 

[D H]

LaTeX is as close as you can get- once you get good at it, you can typeset very quickly.

I would say "fairly quickly", and only in comparison to things like Equation Editor or MathType.

Compared to pencil and paper, pencil and paper still wins hands down.

 

[seneika]

I would say "fairly quickly", and only in comparison to things like Equation Editor or MathType.

Compared to pencil and paper, pencil and paper still wins hands down.

Sure. I agree with that.


About Latex, I'm quite used to. I can type without any WYSIWYG editor, but only - after - I have what to type.

I don't know if it is because of the rendering process (I mean, you need to run latex to see the thing)
but I can't use it to do derivations, you know, the hard work. It's not as natural as facing the paper and writing with a pencil.

I mentioned such editors because they have real-time rendering. At least Lyx has.

I have a friend fan of 'Scientific Workplace', which haven't tried yet. (To be honest, I don't think I will, since I'm trying only open-source options).

I just wish there was a way of writing equations without too much intervention of the text editor and without having to write lines and lines of source
code without "seeing" the thing (a least to me this is a problem if I want to keep a line of thought).

To summarize. I can use latex to write a paper. But I can't use it while proving a theorem or solving exercises...

Have any of you tried this transition, or know someone who did. I would so much like to know a good way...

Cheers, folks!

 

[Hepth]

I use latex to do this a lot of the time, various algebraic manipulations, integrals, etc. If you start with something whose code is right, I just do it all in the code. Copy-paste, replace this, etc. While I can update it to see it on the right with the push of a button. (I use LED to do latex editing, it has a preview pane)

If that gets too tough, or I have to draw some diagrams to think, I pop open MSPaint and do things in that with my mouse, though its messy.


But that's only when nothing else is available. Nothing beats plain, unlined bright white printer paper and a new Pilot G-2. I go through reams of it... And the pen is my favorite. If you guys haven't used it, I highly recommend it. Especially on bright white. (a ream is about 4 bucks around here, that's cheaper than most 3-subject notebooks, and a lot more paper).

EDIT:
Also, I've come to a point where I no longer even look at the preview pane to be honest. I look at the source. Maybe it's from years of using mathematica, but Latex source is pretty WYSIWYG once you can "read" it. Its just much slower reading.

 

[dreiter]

I have heard that people can get pretty quick with Lyx. It's a simplified version of LaTeX...

http://www.lyx.org/"