Stop the Math Press's Presses — Knuth Announces iTex 284
After Donald Knuth's anticipated "earthshaking announcement," it's safe to say that the world is still here. yowlanku writes "Christoper Adams tweeted live from TUG 2010 Conference that 'Donald Knuth's TeX successor will be named iTeX.' " Knuth "also stated that this successor of TeX will have features like 3-D printing, animation, stereographic sound."
Some details from the conference (Score:5, Informative)
here:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1702818&cid=32752126 [slashdot.org]
It was an hilarious presentation in the spirit of his first publication... http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2008/01/the-enduring-art-of-computer-programming.html [codinghorror.com] (scroll down to Potrzebie)
to repeat (w/o the geocoord)
a successor to TeX which he has been working on for some time
scratch tex78 and tex82
so making up for assumptions which don't fit the internet age
jokes about measuring and math in TeX .4pt == .3999pt
maxdimen too small, 1sp too large
tunnel vision caused by computers of the day
subset of XML uses Unicode automatic everything
all directions and all dimensions
hypertext
text audio video sensors GPScoords accelerometers haptics
midi input to score and back to music
no macros --- menu driven like Word but enhanced
spoken command and gestures
\i \TeX (wrapped on a sphere)
spoken name accompanied by (optional) ringing bell
not programmed directly
1289 bugs in TeX
571 bugs in metafont
Project Marianne
www.projectmarianne.com
Project Biturgical
written in Scheme using all buzzwords
pricing - monthly subscription on cloud
first year one month free
pricing based on internet speed
will change everyday
life is too short to reread anything
will benefit world's economy, user's can sell documents
network of certified consultants
online help
- for dummies
- for wizards
- personalized on-line
symbolic equations
graphics
maps
satellite photos
\i\TeX hyper document
math mode like mathml --- must evaluate
avatars
hyperbolic geometry
videoconferencing
world-class photo retouching
character, face, speech recignition
cognition
output format:
- lasercutters
- embroidering machines
- 3D printers
- plasma cutters
interactive cookbook
life as hypertext document
released next month
pending patent applications
Re:3D Printing (Score:5, Informative)
It's usually referred to as Rapid Prototyping [wikipedia.org], and properties are limited to whatever the particular technology you're using can support. The good news is some companies (disclaimer - previous employer) like Stratasys [stratasys.com] have evolved their FDM technology to the point of creating usable plastic parts.
Sadly, the venerable, verbose, and error-prone STL file format is still the standard input for most of these systems.
So, perhaps Tex will support STL output for 3D printing :)
Re:TFA is 22hrs stale tweet (Score:5, Informative)
according to google, his presentation was a hoax.
Re:Is it supposed to replace HTML? Flash? (Score:3, Informative)
What do you expect them to typeset the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy with?
Re:Perspective vs. Tunnel Vision (Score:5, Informative)
All 27 users of TeX will be quite excited about this.
Ah yes, the reliable old joke: all X people who care will be happy, where X is a humorously small number. Classic!
But kidding aside, TeX is in heavy use. Most TeX users use LaTeX [latex-project.org] or even LyX [lyx.org] to wrap TeX and make it easier, but TeX is in there doing the work.
My understanding is that TeX is standard in the academic world, because it can correctly typeset serious math equations. Also, Wikipedia uses TeX to process all <math> tags (see here [wikipedia.org] for details).
I have many times read discussion boards where people said something like "I started writing my thesis in Microsoft Word using its equation editor. After my fourth bout of heavy drinking and depression, my friend showed me LaTeX, and I was able to finish my thesis with just a few wine coolers and hardly any Prozac."
steveha
Re:Not on the iPhone (Score:3, Informative)
And TeX is a language interpreter, which is explicitly banned
Re:Perspective vs. Tunnel Vision (Score:2, Informative)
You must not be very familiar with academic publishing in CS, Math, and Physics. LaTeX is used extensively.
Re:Perspective vs. Tunnel Vision (Score:2, Informative)
Actually, the implementation of macros in modern versions of Lyx is just great. You define a macro in two parts : the latex part, that will appear in the .tex file produced and its graphical counterpart in Lyx. I use many macros in my thesis this way and it works just superb.
Re:Perspective vs. Tunnel Vision (Score:3, Informative)
There are plenty o LaTeX editors that can show a live preview, which for me is the best of two worlds.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_TeX_editors [wikipedia.org]
I tried both Gummi and Lyx, and I like them both, although I do prefer Gummi.