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Re: email equations



We used to use Fortran conventions. Now those of us who write papers in
LaTeX use those conventions. LaTeX, after all, was designed for
mathematical communications using ASCII format.
Regards,
Jack



On Thu, 29 Nov 2001, Rick Tarara wrote:

If you can't write the equation in ASCII, then the only approved method is
to use any of the tools you list below and create a web page. You can then
send a message to the list with a link to that page.

A while back, we ran a series of tests--a special list-serve was set up
through Phys-L to do this. The results were that there is too much
incompatibility between platforms (Mac, Windows, Unix) and readers to
successfully use HTML. I don't think we were all equipped to try XTML, but
I suspect the results would be the same. One of the main problems was that
HTML fonts are interpreted differently between the platforms and readers.
Despite the capabilities of Windows to Windows, or Mac to Mac, or Unix to
Unix? email systems, the only common denominator amongst all of these is
ASCII. Web pages are the only reliable and safe way to 'distribute' figures
and complex equations. [Remember that attachments to the list are
verboten!]

Rick

**********************************************
Richard W. Tarara
Professor of Physics
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN 46556
rtarara@saintmarys.edu

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www.saintmarys.edu/~rtarara/
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Wayburn" <twayburn@WT.NET>

What is the best equation writing e-mail maker to use for the people on
this thread? I have Acrobat, which might "do" equations, Word 2000,
which produces a large variety of encodings including RTF, Netscape,
which I can no longer get to work, but I could download another copy and
set it up and I think it handles equations but I would prefer to be told
if it does, Microsoft HTML, which I don't know anything about,
Frontpage, and Webpublisher, oh, and I could write out my equations and
my answer to the (various) challenges on my 486 in Word 2.0c for Windows
3.1 and produce a postscript file that will print just like I want my
"product" to look on any Postscript printer. Well, since my Postscript
printer is two large boxes filled with tiny parts, I can't print
Postscript files just now, and some others may be in the same mess,
although anyone associated with a teaching or research institution can
easily find a Postscript printer close by.

Dang ding it. That was a lot of words, but the problem of sending
equations to Phys-L has not been solved and maybe not even approached.
(A few years ago I tried to work out a Latin alphabet equation
convention with moderate success, but I wasn't getting into subscripts
on subscripts on the limits of integration of multiple integrals. We
should all be using differential forms by now. They are easier to
write --- probably.)

Regards and profuse regrets for the prolixity / T
************************************************************************
***


--
"But as much as I love and respect you, I will beat you and I will kill
you, because that is what I must do. Tonight it is only you and me, fish.
It is your strength against my intelligence. It is a veritable potpourri
of metaphor, every nuance of which is fraught with meaning."
Greg Nagan from "The Old Man and the Sea" in
<The 5-MINUTE ILIAD and Other Classics>