[Blindmath] La tex editors

Tue Jan 20 20:31:28 UTC 2015

For further clarification, AUCTeX is a package for emacs that works as a front end to a distribution like TeXLive or MikTex.

I know that TUG has some distributions  packaged with editors.

Getting an all-in-one distribution that includes the editor is probably the easiest way to start.

I can’t speak to Nemetex, but for me, learning LaTeX is still a difficult adventure.

From my perspective it isn’t easy, but it has been worth learning the hard way.

Thanks,

Jon

Jon Pielaet

Clark College
Disability Support Services
Assistive Technology and IT Accessibility Specialist
1933 Fort Vancouver Way
Vancouver, WA 98663-3598
(360) 992-2016
(360) 992-2879 Fax
(360) 991-0901 Video Phone
jpielaet at clark.edu<mailto:jpielaet at clark.edu>
http://www.clark.edu/dss

From: aschriempf at gmail.com [mailto:aschriempf at gmail.com] On Behalf Of Alexa Schriempf
Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2015 12:15 PM
To: Pielaet, Jon; Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] La tex editors

Hello Jon, Ishe, Daniel and Joe:

Thank you all for your replies. I have been reading and researching the links you collectively provided.

There are two constraints I'm keeping in mind here. 1) My student is fluent in nemeth braille, and 2) does not have a lot of time to learn latex as classes have already started.

Ultimately, his wish is to learn latex. This will not be hard for him since he already knows a couple of programming languages and is technically adept. Given that his statistics class is an intro level class, and most of the equations in it use fairly low level symbols (sigma, for example), I am wondering if Nemetex might be a good place to start?

Nemetex allows Nemeth Braille input, save as .txt, import into Nemetex, back translate into LaTex via Nemetex, and save as .tex. From there, open the .tex file and make edits if desired, save as .pdf and share with sightling professor.

The thing is, nemetex suggests downloading the distribution MikTex and downloading the front end TexNic center. I'm guessing it recommends these because they are free. I'm just wondering if the preferred distributions and front ends suggested by you all would work with Nemetex? (This assumes I can get my university to pay for two additional products on top of Nemetex). I'm also a little confused by your responses, as some of you are using for your editing spaces what I would call distributions/engines, others are using front ends, and still others are using packages.

To recap, the recommendations have been:

1) AucTex (free) plus emacs. AucTex is a package, rather than a distribution or a front end or engine...?

2) MikTex (free) as distribution, with TeXnic Center (free) as front end

3) MikTex (free) as distribution, with WinEdt (not free) as front end

4) and finally, TextPad, which I can't tell if it's a distribution, engine, a front end, or what. I'm assuming a front end since Joe mentions a call line command. Where does this command go or pull from?

As you can see I'm new to all this. I am learning from TUG and am following their definitions for Distribution (or what I think of as softwares), front ends (which I think of as editors), Engines (which I think of as translation packages), Formats (the languages or codes you write in), Packages (nice add ons for different flavors of typeset, additional symbols, etc, etc)

Is there a set of softwares that float to the top for this particular student and situation? Keep in mind that he's starting with knowing Nemeth Braille all the way to calculus levels, and definitely wants to learn latex, but needs a nice soft entry into this since he can't drop everything else and pursue latex learning except along the way. He's a graduate student with a full load.

Thanks!

On Tue, Jan 20, 2015 at 1:50 PM, Pielaet, Jon via Blindmath <blindmath at nfbnet.org<mailto:blindmath at nfbnet.org>> wrote:
I have been using AUCTeX<http://www.gnu.org/software/auctex/> with Emacs<http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/>/Emacspeak<http://emacspeak.sourceforge.net/>.

Although it is native to GNU/Linux, it also works in Windows and Mac OS X.

Speech-enabled emacs is very powerful, not only does it support LaTeX editing and coding, but it also includes features for email, music playback, newsgroups, and an organizer.

The emacspeak LISP scripts include features for working with google docs, reading ePUB books, and Bookshare titles as well.

It can pretty much do anything.

Jon Pielaet

Clark College

Disability Support Services

Assistive Technology and IT Accessibility Specialist

1933 Fort Vancouver Way

Vancouver, WA 98663-3598

(360) 992-2016<tel:%28360%29%20992-2016>

(360) 992-2879<tel:%28360%29%20992-2879> Fax

(360) 991-0901<tel:%28360%29%20991-0901> Video Phone

jpielaet at clark.edu<mailto:jpielaet at clark.edu>

http://www.clark.edu/dss

-----Original Message-----
From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org<mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org>] On Behalf Of Joseph C. Lininger via Blindmath
Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2015 9:23 AM
To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] La tex editors

I'm a TextPad user myself. I have the editor set up to call a command

line LaTeX typesetter. There are probably setups that have more bels and

wistles, but it works for what I need it to do. I use that editor for

pretty much everything, actually. Programming, LaTeX editing, even

reading electronic texts.

Joe

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