New tool for physics: Online pen&paper

[vociferous]

As far as I can remember there is already a program out that interprets handwritten formulas and converts them to LaTex. Just can't think of the name right now. Perhaps someone here knows?

Yes, Microsoft made it for the Tablet PC. It is a great idea, in theory, but for me, it does not work very well, but I have sloppy handwriting. If Microsoft could perfect it, and get it to output in multiple formats (I think it is bitmap only right now) like Tex and MathML, then it would be a very useful program like MathType because you could write equations naturally (unlike MathType, which requires you to manually typeset them) and then either copy them into a MathML or LaTeX compatible program, or embed it as an editable object.

But given that Windows has the best handwriting recognition software I have seen, and it still is not really up to snuff, at least for me, doing the same thing with equations seems a long way off.

 

[Moonbear]

Firefox 3.0.1 shows a java application embedded in that page.

It looks cool!

Ah, I somehow had java disabled, but nothing on the page was telling me there was java I wasn't seeing. Now I see it. So, is there a way to see what you're typing as you type it? That part is a bit weird. Took me a few false starts to realize I just wasn't seeing what I was typing, but it was taking the entries. I know very little LaTex, so that really made it hard to use when I couldn't even see what I was typing...if you mess up something, you can't see what you've messed up to fix it.

 

[cristo]

Well, if you find your programme useful, then fair enough, and it's always good practice of your computer skills, but in my opinion you've taken latex, thrown out all the pros that make it so much better than any other word processor, and are left with some pseudo-WYSIWYG software with far less power than a normal tex file!

 

[Airbag]

So, is there a way to see what you're typing as you type it?

I found after learning LaTeX I had no need for that anymore. I just use backspace when I make typos.

it could be added as an extra feature, though.

 

[Airbag]

So, is there a way to see what you're typing as you type it?

Added that part to my todolist.

I need to study physics now, and don't expect to further work on this anytime soon unless I find opportunities to continue this project professionally.

Thanks for the feedback everyone.