[Blindmath] La tex editors

Tue Jan 20 20:42:55 UTC 2015

Hi Alexa,

I am also a college student. The nemetex software is a great tool. ODoes 
your student own a braille display? Does they use nvda, or jaws or 
something else? If he will learn nvda, or use it, I have wrote 
dictionaries for nvda that speak many of the symbols used in math, and I 
could tell you guys how to edit them if he knows regular expressions. I 
would recommend using an editor (I used edsharp all the way through calc 
2, and notepad++ can be great if you add one or two macros.
He would probably edit a line with the braille display, listening to 
nvda speak the nemeth as math, and then press a single command or 2 to 
duplicate that line and continuing. This is the approach I have used 
mostly. Then he opens the file in nemetex, and translates it to la tex. 
Then I used the command line program pdflatex to compile the la tex. 
Sometimes there is an error, and it usually says one or two things. Then 
he would open the la tex file up, and edit the error, and look one or 
two lines ahead to check out if there were any errors that caried over 
lines.  when all is done, he will have a pdf of his math work.
If he is adept at a few languages, learning la tex will be pretty easy 
over all. He probably can write the math into nemetex and then translate 
and see how it worked, and learn from there. Google also tells lots of 
things there. Take a look at the mathtype plugin for word for your sake 
as he might need a notetaker, and by pressing alt+\ there, one can get 
the la tex from math type. latex-access is also pretty good, but is a 
bit confusing to setup, although someone with technical knowledge 
shouldn't have too much trouble. I have found emacs with emacspeak 
really hard to learn, so for someone on a time crunch that might not be 
the best option, but you should definitely look at it as those who start 
using it never go back.
good luck,
Derek

On 1/20/2015 1:15 PM, 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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>
>

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Derek Riemer

Department of Computer science Undergrad, proud CILA member, music 
lover, avid skier, and much more.

"Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed 
until it is faced." - James Baldwin

email me at derek.riemer at colorado.edu <mailto:derek.riemer at colorado.edu>
Phone: (303) 906-2194