asciiTeX

Features

A graphical user interface written in GTK

Renders mathematical equations in plain ASCII, simply copy/paste the result to where you need it

Syntax similar to LaTeX

A command line version is available, which accepts input from files or directly from the command line

Runs on Linux and Windows and presumably on anything with a decent gcc compiler

Showcase

_ _ | x x | | 11 12 | | | | x x | |_ 21 22_|

/ 1 | ----- + 12 -12 0

_ _ / W np / W n0 | -----dx = | -------------------------------------------dx = _/ 0 n + p _/ 0 / E0(x - x0) \ / E0(x - x0)\ exp | ---------- | + exp | - ----------| \ kT / \ kT / _ _ | / _ _ \ | n0kT | | | E0(x - x0) | | |x = W n0kT ---- | arctan | exp | ---------- | | | ~ ---- pi E0 |_ \ |_ kT _| / _|x = 0 E0

Install

Compile from source (all systems)

Windows

Usage

asciiTeX_gui

Equation Input Field This is where you can edit your equation. See the description of the syntax below.

Equation Output Field This is where the result is displayed (and can be copied from).

Generate button Press this button to render your equation in ASCII.

Line-width check button Turn on or off automatic line-breaking for long equations. This will cause asciiTeX to attempts to format the equation within the specified line width, i.e., asciiTeX will insert line breaks in order to format long equations over several lines. Note that this is not guaranteed to work, some equations cannot easily be formatted over several lines. See the Line-width Input Field.

Line-width Input Field Here you can set the line-width in characters, see the Line-width check button.

asciiTeX

Options

-v Print out the version of the asciiTeX executable and exit.

-h Print out the version of the asciiTeX executable and exit.

-f file This option specifies the equation should be read from a file (per default asciiTeX expects the equation on the command line).

-ll line-length With this option asciiTeX attempts to format the equation within the specified line width, i.e., asciiTeX will insert line breaks in order to format long equations over several lines. The default is line-length 80 characters. With a specified line width of 0 asciiTeX will not insert line breaks.

equation If the -f option is not specified the equation is read from the command line.

Syntax

\frac{a}{b} A fraction of a and b. a^{b} A superscript. One can also omit the braces. In this case the first character following ^ will be superscripted. a_{b} A subscript. Works just like the superscript (well, not exactly of course). \sqrt[n]{a} A n-th root of a, the argument [n] is optional. Without it it produces the square root of a. \sum Expands to a sigma. \prod Expands to the product mark (pi). \int Expands to the integral mark. \oint A closed path integral. \left( , \right) Expands to braces which adept to the height of their content. Available left braces are: ([{| The corresponding right braces are: )]}| All brace types can be opened by \left. or closed by \right. , producing a single right or left brace, receptively. \leadsto Expands to an arrow ( ~> ) (may look ugly in some fonts). \to Expands to an arrow ( -> ). \limit{x} Expands to a limit, i.e. \limit{x \to 0}. \overline{X} Draws a line above expression X \underline{X} Draws a line under expression X \lceil Left ceiling symbol \rceil Right ceiling symbol \lfloor Left floor symbol \rfloor Right floor symbol \\ Insert a line break. \begin{array}[pos]{column alignments}

a00 & a01 & ... a0n \\

a10 & a11 & ... a1n \\

... & ... & ... ... \\

am0 & am1 & ... amn

\end{array} Makes an array. The optional argument pos sets the alignment of the array to t(op), b(ottom) or c(enter). The column alignments consist of one character per column, l(eft), c(enter), or r(ight). Currently asciiTeX does not support vertical or horizontal lines, e.g. the column alignment specification "{|c|}" will lead to errors. Note, that the string \begin{array} must not contain spaces. The cells inside an array may contain mathematical formulas and sub-arrays. \a Escapes the character a. Useful for inserting characters like ^, and _ in your equation.

Examples

asciiTeX "\frac{1}{1+x}" 1 ----- 1 + x

asciiTeX "\lfloorx\rfloor = x -\frac{1}{2} + \sum_{k=1}^{\infty}\frac{sin(2 Pi k x)}{pi k}" 1 __ oo sin(2 Pi k x) |_x_| = x - - + \ ------------- 2 /__ k=1 pi k More examples can be found in the file "EXAMPLES" included in the download asciiTeX -f EXAMPLES

Authors