🚀 go-pugleaf

I'm posting this now so that I don't have to butt in every time 
someone asks about MathType or Expressionist.

If you are looking for a program that will create fancy mathematical 
and scientific equations, you should definitely check out MathWriter 
2.0. It is a full fledged word processor with a feature set to rival 
Nisus and Word (although Nisus's features are usually quite different 
- Word's aren't). Some of the features that you might like include 
(this information is taken from the blurb from Brooks/Cole and the 
demo I saw a while back):

- text-based mathematical equations that are fully editable (so you 
don't have to exit to another program to edit them) (mega-cool)
- automatic numbering of equations, tables, figures, etc.
- automatic revision control for editing purposes (this is snazzy!)
- a library for storing repeated bits of text, equations, or pictures
- excellent table-making abilities
- a science/math/engineering supplemental dictionary
- user styles
- spelling checker
- ability to print to the ImageWriter, LaserWriters, or any higher 
resolution PostScript device without file modification
- on-screen line numbering
- hidden memos within text
- on-screen editing of multiple columns
- ability to view pages in different scales
- Thesaurus and Hyphenation
- online help
- text and graphics sidebars
- Find/Replace for mathematical expressions
- automatic line spacing for two-dimensional equations
- ability to handle PostScript, bitmapped, and object graphics
- ability to align on user selected characters, such as equal sign
- ability to import RTF documents (so you can just throw out Word)

As far as the details go, there is an "educational version" which is 
somewhat stripped down but will run better on slower machines (i.e., 
less than an LC) with less than 2 MB of RAM, which is the requirement 
for the "professional version." The educational version is $99 and 
the professional version is $395. You can get a free demo disk - call 
408/373-0728 and ask the Brooks/Cole representative. Alternately, 
write to

Brooks/Cole Publishing Company
Dept. JK001 A
511 Forest Lodge Road
Pacific Grove, CA  93950  USA

I don't believe there's an email address for them at all.

A friend who beta tested MathWriter at Cornell said that it was 
worlds better than creating equations in one of the other programs 
and pasting them into Word, which is an awfully clumsy solution to 
the problem. I personally have only used it a little bit, and as I 
don't ever do anything with equations, I can't vouch for its power 
there (though everyone else I've asked was impressed). However, I was 
extremely impressed by the general word processing power (I do a lot 
of that) and the excellent interface. It doesn't do grep or the fancy 
macros that Nisus can do, so I probably won't switch, but I'll admit 
that I was tempted. The final thing I liked about MathWriter is that 
they implemented the ability to accept modules written later on. I 
don't know offhand what they are planning to do, but that ability 
will allow them to extend MathWriter indefinitely.

As a disclaimer, please note that I have no connection with the 
company or the program other than I know the programmer slightly. I 
can't really answer questions about MathWriter either, since I don't 
use it and I don't do equations, so I can't really compare it to 
other products. Contact Brooks/Cole if you have more questions...


cheers .... Adam Engst, TidBITS Editor

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Adam C. Engst    Editor of TidBITS, the weekly electronic Macintosh journal

ace@tidbits.tcnet.ithaca.ny.us           The best way to predict the future
pv9y@crnlvax5, pv9y@vax5.cit.cornell.edu       is to invent it.   -Alan Kay