[Blindmath] La tex editors

Tue Jan 20 20:32:09 UTC 2015

Hi

Just a couple of points:

Given that your student "

knows a couple of programming languages and is technically adept", I really don't think it would take him very long to learn sufficient LaTeX to write his solutions to statistics problems.   He would need to learn a very small number of commands to get started and then could learn anything else as and when its needed.

As for the choice of editor, since he's a programmer it would be worthwhile finding out which editor he uses for that.  He might already be familiar with something which is sufficiently powerful for his needs.  The choice of editor is very much a personal one, and depends on how many powerful features are required and how long there is to learn how to use them.  I personally use Emacs, with the Auctex package, which is very powerful but has a steep learning curve.  At the other extreme, he could begin by working in Windows Notepad and compiling files from the commandline using MiKTeX.  That would be very simple to begin with but I expect he'd very quickly apreciate the need for more powerful editting features.

Finally, have you come across the latex-access project?  I'm the main developer of it.  The idea is to provide screenreaders with a Nemeth and Speech translation of a line of LaTeX.  Then, as one navigates a document the translation can be shown on a Braille display and the speech and be spoken, making it much easier to read.  See
http://latex-access.sourceforge.net
for more details and please feel free to ask if I can be of any assistance.

I hope this is of some use

Alastair

On 20/01/2015 15:15, Alexa Schriempf via Blindmath wrote:
> 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> 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
>>
>> (360) 992-2879 Fax
>>
>> (360) 991-0901 Video Phone
>>
>> jpielaet at clark.edu
>>
>> http://www.clark.edu/dss
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Blindmath [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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