dilemma, speaker decision for different amplifiers
 

On 24/08/2010 17:34, Jim Lesurf wrote:
In , Don Pearce
wrote:
On Tue, 24 Aug 2010 10:12:10 +0100, Jim
wrote:

snip

I wish you could have helped more widely, Jim. I've read many PhDs in my
time, and they have been pretty much universally bad. Far too much text
on each page. Non-proportional fonts (must they really look
typewritten?)


Do you mean content or style? Or both? Sounds like style. IME, in social
science, the problem tends to be content.

The font and size may sometimes be determined by the examination rules for
the particular university. No bad thing considering the range of weird
fonts and absurd sizes you risk if there were no limits set! ;-

The regs may even give the range of number of words per full text page. And
the bindery may limit how many pages per volume they will bind. So meaning
the candidate is tempted to pack it all in to too few pages.


snip

Just on Word, I think it's knowing how to use it rather than it being
fundamentally awful. But then I'm not sure. Do you think this sort of
thing, done in Word, is acceptable:

http://www.ifyoucan.org.uk/pages/equations.html

For other stuff, it's 'styles'. Should be mandatory training for anyone
WPing :-)

Rob

dilemma, speaker decision for different amplifiers
 

On Tue, 24 Aug 2010 19:49:14 +0100, Rob wrote:

On 24/08/2010 17:34, Jim Lesurf wrote:
In , Don Pearce
wrote:
On Tue, 24 Aug 2010 10:12:10 +0100, Jim
wrote:

snip

I wish you could have helped more widely, Jim. I've read many PhDs in my
time, and they have been pretty much universally bad. Far too much text
on each page. Non-proportional fonts (must they really look
typewritten?)


Do you mean content or style? Or both? Sounds like style. IME, in social
science, the problem tends to be content.


I must agree that in many of the PhDs I've studied, both style and
content have ben seriously lacking. I wondered why some of them even
bothered. I certainly couldn't figure out how they passed. But PhDs
tend to be streets ahead of Masters, which are usually cringingly
poor.

The font and size may sometimes be determined by the examination rules for
the particular university. No bad thing considering the range of weird
fonts and absurd sizes you risk if there were no limits set! ;-

The regs may even give the range of number of words per full text page. And
the bindery may limit how many pages per volume they will bind. So meaning
the candidate is tempted to pack it all in to too few pages.


snip

Just on Word, I think it's knowing how to use it rather than it being
fundamentally awful. But then I'm not sure. Do you think this sort of
thing, done in Word, is acceptable:

http://www.ifyoucan.org.uk/pages/equations.html

For other stuff, it's 'styles'. Should be mandatory training for anyone
WPing :-)

Rob

There is nothing wrong with Word; you just need to know how to use it.
When it comes to equations, mine tend to be OLE links from MathCad
which not only does a good job of presentation, but lets you do
something useful with them too.

d

dilemma, speaker decision for different amplifiers
 

In article , Rob
wrote:

Just on Word, I think it's knowing how to use it rather than it being
fundamentally awful. But then I'm not sure. Do you think this sort of
thing, done in Word, is acceptable:

http://www.ifyoucan.org.uk/pages/equations.html

The equations look poor to me, although it is hard to say too much as the
above is a low-res bitmap.

The most obvious problem is that some of the elastic delimiters (brackets,
braces, etc) are visibly broken and but right against each other with no
gaps.

That said, it is certainly better than many of the attempts at equations
I've seen in documents!

Slainte,

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Armstrong Audio http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

dilemma, speaker decision for different amplifiers
 

In article , Don Pearce
wrote:

There is nothing wrong with Word; you just need to know how to use it.
When it comes to equations, mine tend to be OLE links from MathCad which
not only does a good job of presentation, but lets you do something
useful with them too.

That I think reveals the problem. 'Word' isn't actually providing the
equations. Hence different users will choose different ways to get
equations in the documents.

I guess I am spoiled by having used a document processor (TechWriter) that
has its own object-based equation editor that conforms to the 'rules' for
math typography laid out by the various maths organisations. Now been
happily using this for nearly 20 years.

For graphs, etc, I tend to use programs written in 'C' as I am wary of
methods like MathCad. I then either use the 'C' to generate object based
graphics directly or use a package like Tau (RISC OS) or Veusz (Linux).

Slainte,

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Armstrong Audio http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

dilemma, speaker decision for different amplifiers
 

On 25/08/2010 10:18, Jim Lesurf wrote:
In , Rob
wrote:

Just on Word, I think it's knowing how to use it rather than it being
fundamentally awful. But then I'm not sure. Do you think this sort of
thing, done in Word, is acceptable:

http://www.ifyoucan.org.uk/pages/equations.html

The equations look poor to me, although it is hard to say too much as the
above is a low-res bitmap.

The most obvious problem is that some of the elastic delimiters (brackets,
braces, etc) are visibly broken and but right against each other with no
gaps.

That said, it is certainly better than many of the attempts at equations
I've seen in documents!


Ah - OK, thanks. I had no reference and it's not really my field, so
that's good to know.

Rob

dilemma, speaker decision for different amplifiers
 

On 25 Aug, wrote:
In article , Rob
wrote:

Just on Word, I think it's knowing how to use it rather than it being
fundamentally awful. But then I'm not sure. Do you think this sort of
thing, done in Word, is acceptable:

http://www.ifyoucan.org.uk/pages/equations.html

In case anyone is interested I just did an example you can see at

http://jcgl.orpheusweb.co.uk/temp/TW.png

The boxed part containing an equation is taken from the above as I used it
as a guide to type something similar. What I typed is the lower equation. I
didn't try to get all the subscripts, etc, exactly like the boxed example
from the orginal. Just wrote something of a similar form.

TechWriter allows the user to type in equations quite easily and the result
is WYSIWYG editable. Here I just did a grab from my display for the sake of
producing a png for the above so people could see. The kerning, relative
character sizes, etc, are all handled automatically according to the rules
laid down by the relevant maths bodies for math typography.

Slainte,

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Armstrong Audio http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

dilemma, speaker decision for different amplifiers
 

On Wed, 25 Aug 2010 17:14:30 +0100, Jim Lesurf
wrote:

On 25 Aug, wrote:
In article , Rob
wrote:

Just on Word, I think it's knowing how to use it rather than it being
fundamentally awful. But then I'm not sure. Do you think this sort of
thing, done in Word, is acceptable:

http://www.ifyoucan.org.uk/pages/equations.html

In case anyone is interested I just did an example you can see at

http://jcgl.orpheusweb.co.uk/temp/TW.png

The boxed part containing an equation is taken from the above as I used it
as a guide to type something similar. What I typed is the lower equation. I
didn't try to get all the subscripts, etc, exactly like the boxed example
from the orginal. Just wrote something of a similar form.

TechWriter allows the user to type in equations quite easily and the result
is WYSIWYG editable. Here I just did a grab from my display for the sake of
producing a png for the above so people could see. The kerning, relative
character sizes, etc, are all handled automatically according to the rules
laid down by the relevant maths bodies for math typography.

Slainte,

Jim

Here's what my equations look like - I typed the same one

http://www.soundthoughts.co.uk/look/equation.png

That's a screen grab from Word. Not Mathcad sourced, but using
MathType - an add-in equation editor I also use.

d

dilemma, speaker decision for different amplifiers
 

On 25/08/2010 18:01, Don Pearce wrote:
On Wed, 25 Aug 2010 17:14:30 +0100, Jim
wrote:

On 25 Aug, wrote:
In , Rob
wrote:

Just on Word, I think it's knowing how to use it rather than it being
fundamentally awful. But then I'm not sure. Do you think this sort of
thing, done in Word, is acceptable:

http://www.ifyoucan.org.uk/pages/equations.html

In case anyone is interested I just did an example you can see at

http://jcgl.orpheusweb.co.uk/temp/TW.png

The boxed part containing an equation is taken from the above as I used it
as a guide to type something similar. What I typed is the lower equation. I
didn't try to get all the subscripts, etc, exactly like the boxed example
from the orginal. Just wrote something of a similar form.

TechWriter allows the user to type in equations quite easily and the result
is WYSIWYG editable. Here I just did a grab from my display for the sake of
producing a png for the above so people could see. The kerning, relative
character sizes, etc, are all handled automatically according to the rules
laid down by the relevant maths bodies for math typography.

Slainte,

Jim

Here's what my equations look like - I typed the same one

http://www.soundthoughts.co.uk/look/equation.png

That's a screen grab from Word. Not Mathcad sourced, but using
MathType - an add-in equation editor I also use.

d

That's excellent - thanks very much (and Jim). The article has been
submitted to a top journal, so if (when!) it bounces back we'll (I'm the
second author) have a go at the equations.

Rob

dilemma, speaker decision for different amplifiers
 

In article , Don Pearce
wrote:


Here's what my equations look like - I typed the same one

http://www.soundthoughts.co.uk/look/equation.png

That's a screen grab from Word. Not Mathcad sourced, but using MathType
- an add-in equation editor I also use.

That looks good to me. I do personally prefer the kerning on the TW
version, but that's probably a matter of what I'm used to. From your
example it seems clear that Word + MathType is capable of good results.

Does MathType let you WISIWYG edit the equations inplace on the Word page?

With TechWriter the equation instructions are easily typed in. So for
example if I want to do a fraction inside parenthesis I'd just type

Alt-D ( Alt-F A return B return return

To get A over B inside elastic () delimiters reaching over the height of a
full-sized fraction. I can then put the caret inside this structure and
type to edit it, etc, as I choose. Makes writing and editing easy and
TechWriter automatically arranges the correct appearance.

The result is entirely object/vector based so can be exported as PS/PDF/TeX
and print with a resolution set by the printing device. No need for bitmaps
- unless I choose to use them for something like a webpage.

The problem I've found over the years with students (and professionals)
using Word is that I find a wild variety of types of 'equations'. Ditto for
graphs. Not sure of the extent to which this is lack of knowledge or care
on their part, or poor choice of the way they create the equations. My
impression is that many Word users blindly assume all equations and
pictures have to be bitmaps. That was one reason I used to find reading
Electronics World a right PITA due to the really horrible graphs and
diagrams crudely made from lego! Decent mags have no problem with accepting
object graphs in formats like PS or PDF and thus get far better results on
the page.

Slainte,

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Armstrong Audio http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

dilemma, speaker decision for different amplifiers
 

On Thu, 26 Aug 2010 10:39:08 +0100, Jim Lesurf
wrote:

In article , Don Pearce
wrote:


Here's what my equations look like - I typed the same one

http://www.soundthoughts.co.uk/look/equation.png

That's a screen grab from Word. Not Mathcad sourced, but using MathType
- an add-in equation editor I also use.

That looks good to me. I do personally prefer the kerning on the TW
version, but that's probably a matter of what I'm used to. From your
example it seems clear that Word + MathType is capable of good results.

Does MathType let you WISIWYG edit the equations inplace on the Word page?

With TechWriter the equation instructions are easily typed in. So for
example if I want to do a fraction inside parenthesis I'd just type

Alt-D ( Alt-F A return B return return

To get A over B inside elastic () delimiters reaching over the height of a
full-sized fraction. I can then put the caret inside this structure and
type to edit it, etc, as I choose. Makes writing and editing easy and
TechWriter automatically arranges the correct appearance.

The result is entirely object/vector based so can be exported as PS/PDF/TeX
and print with a resolution set by the printing device. No need for bitmaps
- unless I choose to use them for something like a webpage.

The problem I've found over the years with students (and professionals)
using Word is that I find a wild variety of types of 'equations'. Ditto for
graphs. Not sure of the extent to which this is lack of knowledge or care
on their part, or poor choice of the way they create the equations. My
impression is that many Word users blindly assume all equations and
pictures have to be bitmaps. That was one reason I used to find reading
Electronics World a right PITA due to the really horrible graphs and
diagrams crudely made from lego! Decent mags have no problem with accepting
object graphs in formats like PS or PDF and thus get far better results on
the page.

Slainte,

Jim

Not quite that easy. You have to choose to insert an object - select
MathType from a drop-down list. Then to use the editor you get a
palette of structures that you select - something over something else,
or a subscripted variable. That appears in the equation space and you
then click on the blanks and fill them in. There may be a quicker way
to do it, but I haven't found it yet.

http://www.soundthoughts.co.uk/look/equedit.png

With Mathcad, of course, you just type the equation using the standard
arithmetic operators and a few easy shortcuts like backslash for
square root, CTRL-S for a sum (sigma) etc. Choice of brackets for
nesting is automatic. The nice thing with Mathcad is that having typed
the equation you can do stuff with it with a button push. Rearrange to
solve for another (right hand side) variable, or simplify etc. The
latest MathCad has quite sophisticated symbolic capability.

d