math notation

From: Bruce Koehn (koehn@lowell.edu)
Date: Mon Mar 25 2002 - 17:30:11 EST

  • Next message: Hubert Figuiere: "Re: math notation"

    Abiword could become the darling of the scientific world
    if it could handle mathematical notation in a manner similar
    to TeX.

    1. The scientific world, especially those funded by grants, avoid
       using MS-Word because it isn't free. So compatibility with MS-Word
       is a non-issue (or at least not an important issue).
       
    2. The very low cost of Abiword is attractive to poor scientists.

    3. Cross platform compatibility would make life much easier since
       such a variety of platforms are used in the scientific world.

    4. Internationalization is another driver because scientists tend
       to communinicate internationally.

    5. Except for mathematical constructs, TeX and LaTeX are difficult
       to use well. Merging the best of Abiword and TeX makes sense.

    6. XML would be apealing to many scientists who prefer the ability
       to use a text editor for much of their authoring work.

    I don't know if XML has tags for producing mathematical text ala
    TeX but such tags should not be hard to define.

    Version 2.0 perhaps?

    Regards,
    Bruce Koehn

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