[BlindMath] What is your experience reading LaTeX source?

Łukasz Grabowski graboluk at gmail.com
Fri Jan 11 12:48:07 UTC 2019


The bottom line cited below is not quite true:

"Bottom line: with several available alternatives, no one should have
to read LaTex source code directly unless they really want to torture
themselves."

I know it for a fact that blind professional mathematicians read latex
directly. If you don't believe, I suggest going to arxiv.org,
downloading latex source for some new mathematical article and trying
to convert it to mathml. 

The effect likely will be that no matter what software you use you will
have to spend first a substantial amount of time editing the source code
just to make your software parse the source. And even if you do succeed
(which is FAR from given as not all latex pakcages will be implemented
in your conversion software)) afterwards you will also surely need to
consult latex source anyway while reading mathml.

Having said that, this is about professional cutting edge mathematical
research. For the purpose of high school students or early university
(basic calculus, statistics, etc.), there is probably indeed no need,
as there are good quality mathml materials available.

Best,
Lukasz




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