[BlindMath] What is your experience reading LaTeX source?

[John G Heim]

Yeah, I didn't see that in the original post but I write all my own 
latex by hand. Every document I create for any reason, whether it is for 
work or for one of the non-profits I am involved in, is written in latex 
by hand. Then I convert it to pdf and send it out.

I used to teach a mini-course in latex for grad students at the Math 
Department at the University Of Wisconsin. We dropped it a long time ago 
because grad students come in already knowing latex.


On 1/11/19 6:48 AM, Łukasz Grabowski via BlindMath wrote:
> 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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