[Blindmath] Useful LaTeX packages: suggestions welcome for ICCHP summer university workshop

[Neil Soiffer]

Latex for just math isn't that useful, although with MathJax and with what
I'm going demo when using Word, it does have some use.  Still, using LaTeX
really does mean there is a lot to learn and it is usually easier to learn
it from an expert like yourself rather than figure it out from manuals or
websites.

    Neil


On Wed, Jul 6, 2011 at 4:34 PM, Michael Whapples <mwhapples at aim.com> wrote:

> Thanks Neil, that I have to say is really useful for those at university
> and such like, however may be a bit far from the Maths so I may question how
> long to devote to it.
>
> I think one of the things which could be said about my workshop last year
> was that it didn't focus heavily on the mathematics side of things.
> Unfortunately LaTeX as a document system requires so much other stuff to
> make it useful for people that it sometimes can make the maths part seem a
> bit of a side issue. Its probably a balance I am going to have to work hard
> to get right in these workshops (IE. too much of just the maths stuff and
> then it isn't really useful, too little of the maths stuff and then its
> questioned why I am giving it at something like the summer university).
>
> Michael Whapples
> On 6 Jul 2011, at 20:41, Neil Soiffer wrote:
>
> > You should probably cover something like bibtex.  It's kind of boring,
> but even my 7th grade son is told he needs to cite sources for material, so
> showing how to do that and build up reference databases is something you
> can't get started too early on.
> >
> >     Neil
> >
> >
> > On Wed, Jul 6, 2011 at 12:34 PM, Michael Whapples <mwhapples at aim.com>
> wrote:
> > Hello,
> > I will be giving the LaTeX workshop at the summer university event. While
> I have plans for the more basic ones which are to introduce people to LaTeX
> (either for using it in other software or as the full document authoring
> system) I have also been asked to do a more advanced one for those who know
> some LaTeX and may want to know more. My thought is to cover some really
> useful packages. However the issue is deciding what would be useful for
> people who already know some LaTeX?
> >
> > So may be those of you who use LaTeX could give me some suggestions on
> packages you find really useful or packages you just keep intending to learn
> but never quite get round to learning.
> >
> > Some of my own thoughts include: Covering a package like beamer, however
> coverage of this might be brief as it is not really mathematical but rather
> to demonstrate that those who know LaTeX can produce presentations in LaTeX
> and get many of the great features they appreciate about LaTeX (obviously
> including the ability to easily add good looking maths notation). I also was
> planning to cover some graphics drawing packages, may be something like
> pstricks (I might find an alternative which works better with pdflatex) and
> the gnuplottex package for including gnuplot plots. I would intend to devote
> more time to packages which are much more relevant like the graphic drawing
> packages.
> >
> > My plan is probably to cover two or may be three packages in total in the
> workshop. How many packages I can cover depends on how much detail I go
> into.
> >
> > Now over to you for your suggestions.
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> > Michael Whapples
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