[OS X TeX] Gems from Japan: RPN2TeX and AutoTeX

[Ramon M. Figueroa-Centeno]

Hi,

I found this gem from Japan: RPN2TeX
<http://homepage.mac.com/wataru_maeda/software/RPN2TeX/index.html>, by
Wataru Maeda (I think, but I do not speak Japanese). It is a TeX equation
editor which takes a different approach than TeX FoG
<http://homepage.mac.com/marco_coisson/Personal.html>, as it uses Reverse
Polish Notation to enter the expressions and offers a live preview of the
equation. Apparently, it is still a beta version, but I find it, so far,
quite usable and certainly a very original idea. The web page is in
Japanese, but Babel Fish <http://world.altavista.com/> did a good job of
translating it. For anyone who is not used to RPN (I used it a lot 20 years
ago when I had my trusty HP 41 calculator in High School), there is a
learning curve, but once you get over it you can type equations quite fast
and efficiently.

Another gem from Japan (it can be used effectively with any editor, for
example SubEthaEdit) is "AutoTeX for MacOS X"
<http://www.surf.nuqe.nagoya-u.ac.jp/ichimiya/documents/index-e.html>, by H.
Nakahara. I use it when I need a quick PDF of an archived TeX file, it
generates the PDF and it cleans the mess for me.

The paths in the preferences of both programs must be changed to reflect
your LaTeX installation, in my case Gerben Wierda's. For example, for
RPN2TeX both my paths are ³/usr/local/teTeX/bin/powerpc-apple-darwin6.8/².
You must know the basics of using TeX et al., from the terminal.

Both these applications have beautiful interface design.

Enjoy and if you wish share other gems with the rest of us please go ahead
and do so :),

Ramón

-- 

Ramón M. Figueroa-Centeno, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor

Mathematics Department
University of Hawaii at Hilo
College Hall 4-A
200 W. Kawili St.
Hilo, HI 96720-4091

http://www2.hawaii.edu/~ramonf/

(808) 974-7387 (office)
(808) 933-3473 (fax)


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