[Blindmath] Accessible LaTeX
Roopakshi Pathania
r_akshi_tgk at yahoo.com
Sat Nov 14 13:28:57 UTC 2009
Hi,
I am in fact glad that you wrote about your interest as I also am interested in some thing similar.
> What would you recommend to be an easy (or reasonably easy)
> beginner's guide
> to Tex and LaTeX, LaTeX is what I am thinking
> specifically?
This web page offers a comprehensive set of resources including tutorials and textbooks available for TeX.
http://www.tug.org/interest.html#doc
I am surprised that Jason hasn’t responded to your question since he has created a zipped archive of texts files all dealing with LaTeX.
Unfortunately, my extensive bookmarking system (I really mean extensive) does not contain the url of his web page.
A personal favorite tutorial of mine is available at
http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Wiki/index.php/LaTeX:About.
Remember to install MiKTeX, but don’t fall for TeXnicCenter. There are other accessible LaTeX editors previously discussed.
> ideally, they
> need to try to push publishers to give us material in math
> ml or LaTeX, from
> there we can, at least in part, use software to translate
> the material into
> Nemith, math ml or leave it in LaTeX format for the student
> to read.
Good luck with that. From my own personal experience, getting eBooks in the LaTeX format from the publishers is no easy task. You might have to use InftyReader.
> then starting my masters in International
> finance,
Sounds like a great course.
I am also interested in finance. My Bachelor’s degree is in Economics, and I do mean to pursue a postgraduate degree in the same, but Finance is the other love of my life. I do a lot of self-study in this subject and have tentative plans to study for Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) course.
Regards
“Tell me one last thing,” said Harry. “Is this real? Or has this been happening inside my head?”
“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?"
said by Dumbledore
~ JK Rowling
--- On Fri, 11/13/09, Birkir Gunnarsson <birkir.gunnarsson at gmail.com> wrote:
> From: Birkir Gunnarsson <birkir.gunnarsson at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Accessible LaTeX
> To: "'qubit'" <lauraeaves at yahoo.com>, "'Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics'" <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
> Date: Friday, November 13, 2009, 4:13 AM
> Hi Laura
>
> Yes, we have a ViewPlus printer. Someone bought it and it
> has been sitting
> around unused because no one knew what to do with it. Then
> mr Gartner
> responded to a long email I sent him with questions and
> pointed me towards
> his product, for which I am happy. Sadly I do not live
> there (no I don't)
> but I work remotely from Raleigh, NC (my wife is doingher
> PHD in philosophy
> and law at Duke University, I am an honorary baby sitter
> till January doing
> this remotely, then starting my masters in International
> finance, where I
> intend to test out my preferred math solution as well as
> others), so
> basically it is very hard for me to test out things and
> questions and such.
> I do go there for two weeks every 6 to 8 weeks for work and
> my next trip
> will be in mid December and then I have to have a stradigy
> to tackle the
> math problem and test it out.
> I am still not sure if DosPlus is a complete system i.e. if
> it replaces
> Nemith entirely or if it is a subset of the Nemith code. I
> do not know the
> Nemith code very well and I am wondering whether I should
> bother learning it
> at all or go straight with DotsPlus/LaTeX, but I suppose I
> will spend a week
> or so with my manual and, at least, get a decent grasp of
> the ideology
> behind it and be able to do basic questions and statistics
> using Nemith.
> I will be doing a lot of regression and statistical
> analysis as part ofmy
> masters though I do not intend on doing the very hardcore
> classes, if I get
> a good finance job I will hire a math person to dig into
> those things, but
> nevertheless I like reasonably complex math and will
> definitely enjoy
> working with technology rather than readers.
> I do apologize for this post being so personal and about
> me, I'll stick
> better to sjbect and I also realize I should´ve made a
> separate topic for
> this, it is one of those emails that were meant to be a
> simple question but
> grew in the making.
> Thanks very much for any ideas and hints.
> -B
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org
> [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org]
> On
> Behalf Of qubit
> Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2009 4:42 PM
> To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
> Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Accessible LaTeX
>
> Hi Birkir and all --
> You have some good alternatives; here are some thoughts:
> I looked at a sample of DotsPlus myself some months ago and
> was very
> impressed -- it is not only easier to read than Nemeth, it
> also reflected
> the spatial layout of the print equations, and therefore
> made the tactile
> images understandable by sighted instructors. But the
> only drawback is that
>
> it would be impossible to capture this representation on a
> traditional
> braille display, which you probably know since you say
> Icelanders use
> braille displays extensively. Also, the images in
> DotsPlus currently only
> print on a ViewPlus embosser -- which I'm sure is part of
> ViewpPlus'
> strategy, but it would mean that if you don't own a Tiger
> you'd have to get
> one in order to use DotsPlus. (I personally would
> love to see DotsPlus
> succeed in spite of this -- it is so much easier to read
> than Nemeth,
> especially for those of us who didn't learn Nemeth at a
> young age). But I
> also would put in a petition for ViewPlus to knock down the
> price of a Tiger
>
> to about 25% of it's current price...*smile* (I know, fat
> chance...but
> there's nothing wrong with asking...)
>
> I haven't tried the other solutions so can't comment on
> them, although latex
>
> is a good language to learn, because of its popularity.
>
> So Birkir, does this mean you have moved back to Iceland?
> Excuse the personal question -- I had a math prof in grad
> school from
> Iceland, who taught a class on complex analysis. He
> was very supportive of
> my taking the class (I was a math major, with usable sight
> then), and he
> always verbalized what he wrote on the board so I could
> follow him.
> However, I don't know if it was his accent or my hearing,
> but it sounded
> like he pronounced c, g and z all as "she". So I gave
> up that and hired
> someone to take notes and record class for me so I could
> listen and read the
>
> notes later.
>
> Well, happy computing. I think it would be
> interesting if you posted your
> experience and decisions with respect to braille to this
> list. I hope you
> find a good solution.
> --le
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Birkir Gunnarsson" <birkir.gunnarsson at gmail.com>
> To: <andrew.stacey at math.ntnu.no>;
> "'Blind Math list for those interested in
> mathematics'" <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2009 1:39 PM
> Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Accessible LaTeX
>
>
> Andrew (and all).
>
> What would you recommend to be an easy (or reasonably easy)
> beginner's guide
> to Tex and LaTeX, LaTeX is what I am thinking
> specifically.
> I amresonsible for choosing technology and teaching to get
> blind and VI high
> school students and, hopefully, university students in my
> native country of
> Iceland into math/science. Thre has been a close to 100%
> drop out or
> switching rate away from science (of course we have very
> few students,
> between may be 1 and 3 per year, so the population sample
> is tiny). Part of
> this problem,I am convinced, is math text books. We sortof
> made our own
> standard although we have never formally dfined it and the
> text and all
> examples have to be more or less typed by hand and thus
> students tend to get
> the material late ish with lotsof pressure to perform. Also
> there has been
> no way for them to turn in clear and legible math home
> works, because they
> use a similar system or invent their own rather than using
> an editr or
> technology to create math documents they can turn in and
> discuss.
> I managed my way through a rather math intensive fiancé
> program at
> university this way until last year I finally adapted LaTeX
> for some of mmy
> homework and it really made a huge difference.
> Now it is up to me to figure out how to improve the
> situation.
> As I see it there are three ways. To use "the good old"
> systems, may be
> Nemith, lambds or GCSE (I believe tyat is what the UK math
> system is
> called), to use pure LaTeX both for encoding books and
> teaching it to
> students so they can compile or translate their homework,
> to w pdf file, .ps
> file or other or to go with math ml and use math player and
> other
> technologies and spoken math or combine it with Braille.
> There are solutions
> such as DotsPlus I find very interesting too and I am not
> sure where it
> falls into my mix of methods.
> What seems to be to be a clear starting point though is
> that the students
> need to be able to write professional documents and it
> seems like
> understanding and learning LaTeX is essential to that, even
> if they use,
> say, CahttyInfty (which I am about to try myself) it is
> still important to
> understand what it generates. And for our brailling staff,
> ideally, they
> need to try to push publishers to give us material in math
> ml or LaTeX, from
> there we can, at least in part, use software to translate
> the material into
> Nemith, math ml or leave it in LaTeX format for the student
> to read.
> We have a unique situation in that all the Icelandickids
> have Braille
> displays and Braille is a very common first approach to
> problems, since we
> did not have Icelandic tts speech engine for the longest
> time and the one we
> have developed now is not really good, also because any
> talking software we
> get, such as MathPlayer, we'd have to translate and that is
> very expensive
> (Icelanders speak excellent English so after, say, 2nd year
> of high school I
> am sure all users would have no probem using the English
> version, still it
> is official policy to provide as much material in Icelandic
> as possible).
> >From this list I gather there is no obvious, single
> solution to this
> >problem
> and my priorities, unless someone points me in a different
> direction, would
> be to play with DotsPlus and find material I can use to
> teach students and
> Braille production staff LaTeX. I'd be happy with other
> suggestions but it
> seems like a reasonable start. For that I would very much
> like a book or web
> page with easy introduction or manual for LaTeX, something
> akin to
> programming books "for dummies" or teach yourself so and so
> in 24 hours, big
> fan of those as a programmer.
> Any pointers/thoughts/ideas would be welcome. We are in the
> unique position
> to reinvent the system and I want to do things right, or as
> close to right
> as possible.
> Thanks
> -Birkir
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org
> [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org]
> On
> Behalf Of Andrew Stacey
> Sent: Wednesday, November 11, 2009 4:46 PM
> To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
> Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Accessible LaTeX
>
> Thanks for all the interesting replies!
>
> Some of the comments, and the interview that was linked to
> by someone, made
> me
> wonder why I'm so obsessive about (La)TeX and why I don't
> want to give it
> up.
> I was particularly taken by that sentence in the interview
> about wanting to
> enter a source that validates, and how he thinks that
> backslashes and braces
> are just so wrong. To me, that says that the person
> speaking is someone who
> supports TeX-users rather than someone who writes copious
> documents in it.
>
> For me, TeX is just so right! And on so many
> different levels. I've not
> tried to think this through before so I may misstate my
> thoughts, but here's
> a first go at why I like it so much.
>
> Firstly, it is discrete. When writing a document in
> (la)tex, then I hardly
> notice that I'm writing anything other than the contents of
> the document
> itself. I don't need to worry about formatting, what
> it looks like, or
> anything like that. When I do need something more
> complicated, say
> mathematics, then TeX discretely offers a nice simple way
> to do it.
>
> Secondly, (as someone said in one of the replies) it is a
> programming
> language. When I need the power of TeX then it's
> there. I can define
> macros
> to save my poor fingers: typing \R instead of \mathbb{R} is
> fantastic! And
> I can make it easy to change global settings, say by
> changing all
> composition
> of functions from right-to-left to left-to-right, and just
> know that
> everything's going to be alright. I can do really
> complicated stuff when
> I need to.
>
> Thirdly, as a mathematician then TeX is the epitome of
> design. The process
> "read, expand, read, expand" is exactly how we parse
> mathematics! Keep
> expanding the definitions in a proof until you reach
> something that you
> understand. So it's just beautiful that something so
> close to what I do
> professionally is also at the heart of how I present the
> results.
>
> So I'm not going to give up TeX without a huge fight.
> No one's going to get
> me to have input that can be "validated". Yuk!
> What a horrible phrase!
> I want my mathematics to be validated, sure, but I'd like
> the freedom to
> really mess up the paper in the meantime.
>
> However, lest the mathml brigade lose heart, just because
> I'm going to go on
> writing TeX for as long as I've a finger left to hit the
> keyboard with,
> doesn't mean that I expect anyone other than me and TeX to
> read that. Those
> who say that they like LaTeX on the web have probably never
> tried reading
> the
> source of one of my papers! What I expect they mean
> is some sort of
> simplified LaTeX with no funny macros and the like.
>
> As far as reading what I write is concerned, then I'm
> convinced by the
> MathML
> argument. So for me, an ideal situation would be to
> have a decent, robust,
> (La)TeX to MathML converter. To my mind, MathML is an
> output language, like
> PDF, PS, or DVI. So I'm quite happy to compile my
> LaTeX documents into
> MathML
> to make them more accessible. If only there were a
> converter that could
> cope
> with my macros ...
>
> Andrew
>
> PS As an indication of my level of TeX addiction, I even
> wrote the
> invitations
> to my daughter's birthday party using TeX.
>
>
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