Re: Math shapes?

["Rob McDonald" <rob a mcdonald gmail com>]

Would it be worthwhile revisiting the concept of a LaTeX-based text
renderer?  Text in Dia could be based on the normal, built-in fonts,
or on a LaTeX renderer.

For on-screen work, Dia would fork a LaTeX process to generate bitmaps
for the text display.  A similar procedure would work for each of the
output formats.  High resolution bitmaps, eps, pdf, or just plain
LaTeX for MetaPost and PsTricks.

This would instantly give Dia all the text rendering (formulas, etc)
power of LaTeX.

> From my point of view, the major hurdle is finding a small LaTeX
distribution which can be embedded with Dia.  Alternatively, you can
hook into the user's already installed LaTeX.  While there are a lot
of distributions, working with TeTeX (Unix) and MiKTeX (Windows) would
cover 99% of users.  (MiKTeX is being ported to Unix, it has some nice
features and may come to dominate that side as well)

The TeXPoint PowerPoint plugin does basically this.  It used to be
free (as in beer), but has switched to a shareware model for new
advanced features.

         Rob


On 11/11/06, Lars Clausen <lars raeder dk> wrote:
> On Sat, 2006-11-11 at 12:26 -0500, Michael Ross wrote:
> > I am sorry to hear you dismiss this idea.
> >
> > I assume that Bob likes to imagine combining math text and diagram
> > entities.  I agree with him, this would be a very useful capability..
> > The only way I could combine equations with a diagram would be as
> > pictures.  Not so good.
>
> It's not that it can't be done, it's just that IMHO there's a much
> better tool for the job already.  But if somebody comes with a set of
> math symbols, I'd be happy to put them in.
>
> > I frequently use graphics to help sort out data I acquire.  I recently
> > imported a screen dump of some scope traces, the physical causes of
> > the traces is complex.  Using Dia bezier curves I superimposed other
> > "hand made" traces that represented potential causes of the traces and
> > hypothetical results of the data.  I was able to perform a very useful
> > thought experiment in this way.  No other tool made this intuitive
> > combination of real and imagined data possible.  Likewise, I could see
> > working with graphics and equations in Dia for other thought
> > experiments and to illustrate ideas using those elements.  In this way
> > Dia could be a tool for learning and teaching by the students and the
> > teacher.
>
> That I can see being a good use of Dia.
>
> > There are some very expensive tools that, after a great learning
> > curve, allow one to do these same activities.  Not very practical for
> > basic schooling in math where time and money budgets are very slim (at
> > least in the US they are).
> >
> > Finally, if there are a trouble spots with Dia they are brought
> > forward in just this sort of application: Handling of text is not
> > good, limited fonts, no equation capability, poor WYSIWYG, other
> > irritants (the delete key deletes the whole text block instead of the
> > next letter?).  Creation and management of shapes is difficult and
> > poorly documented.  Basic questions like how to get expected results
> > from the creation of symbols, how to make icons, how to locate, add
> > and delete connection points, how to develop the accompanying
> > properties dialogs, and so on are not answered for the non-programmer.
>
> Text handling sucks ATM, and the documentation for shapes is in tatters.
>
> > I regularly use Dia for those things it does with simplicity and
> > grace, but I still lack what I really want: homemade stencils that are
> > simple to create and manage.
> ...
> > IMO, Dia will hit the ground running when creation of stencils matures
> > and is well documented.  (That will be when M$ exposes stencil
> > creation, and cuts prices for Visio if Dia waits too long.)
>
> Some way of editing stencils inside Dia itself would help immensely on
> that front.  There are other, more pressing, fronts for me ATM, such as
> the text handling (which sucks, I hear:).
>
> -Lars
>
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