math editor
 

I need to write lots of mathematical equations and formulas for my work at college.
For several reasons I'd like to be able to do this on my pc.
(my handwriting not being the most unimportant one :)

Does anyone know a programm / editor that can display mathematical signs (long fractions, the greek alphabet, the sigma for integrals etc.)?

thx in advance for your answers.

Mathematica is by far the best (in my opinion) for this task:

You can find more information on it here. I got it through my university, see if you can do the same. It tends to be very expensive if you're left purchasing it on your own.

thanks pragma

mathematica looks like fun, i'll definitely try to get a copy of it.

but for right now, I'm looking for something a bit simpler. Actually all I need is a programm, that allows me to write mathematical equations on my computer.
Computing or creation of graphs is not a requirement.

well i know Word comes with a math editor. but if you want something very professional looking, i strongly recommend you take the time to learn LaTeX (a typesetting language). this will allow you to write math in any text editor and just compile it to .dvi, .ps, .pdf, etc. yeah, there's a learning curve, but it's powerful.

look here:

http://www.latex-project.org/

and here:

http://www.miktex.org/

for a comprehensive and free install.

ditto latex, try http://www.lyx.org/ which is what you see is what you mean :)

mathematica would be a terrible waste if you were just writing equations, that would be the veritable 800 pound gorrila :) its an awesome program though. i also throw in a vote for maple too.

also theres mathtype.

http://www.mathtype.com/en/

Try the Equation Editor that comes with word. It should suffice for most mathematical stuff.

LaTeX!

I'm a senior in Mechanical Engineering and I have done just fine using Microsoft Equation editor up until now but it does have drawbacks. Microsoft Equation editor doesn't have the whole Greek alphabet which is frustrating at times. The main advantage is that I am usually typing reports in word so it is very quick to write an equation using the equation editor here and there.

LaTeX looks better. It allows you to develop your own personal style of document by modifying the macros. You can change the style of a document you wrote 5 years ago without having to worry about the details of what you wrote.

Kel, you can also do that with Word. ;)

sure, if you've got the couple hundred bucks to DROP on word ;)

thanks a lot for your input!

I forgot to mention, that I run winxp, so LaTeX is kinda out of the question :)

I'm gonna try the word editor, if an engineer can work with it, it should do just nicelys for me.

oh und: @Grothendieck, doerfi froge vo wo de kunsch? :)

The best i've found for a moderate amount of money is the MathType update for equation editor in word. It has pretty much anything you would ever need.

It can be used with word or as a standalone program and has a free 30-day trial.
http://www.dessci.com/en/products/mathtype/

vulture : nuh uh!! http://www.home.zonnet.nl/rareitsma/lyx/ xp ready

Lyx is NOT LaTeX, it's an editor. LaTeX will run on XP.

What'cha mean? Since when did you have to *pay* for Office?

Oh. I see... :)

Check out tug.org for a windows distribution of latex, it exists and is completely free.

Word doesn't offer the same flexibility that latex macros offer, since you don't initially write the document with a set of macros you can't go back and change a whole class of diagrams or equations by editing a macro. In word you have to go back and change each individual instance. Word in general doesn't look as pretty and requires you to worry about the placement and format of many things the TeX typsetting engine will do on it's own.

And most importantly, word doesn't come with a built in set of macros for you to edit, isn't well documented macro wise, and isn't free.

i know this, the poster asked for an editor

You guys didn't take into account the incredible educational discounts for Office. Most students/faculty/staff pay between $10-30 for the entire suite.

Maple!
It's incredably tough to learn, but it's scarily powerful. Pretty cheap too - They sell the old version of it at my campus bookstore for $5

latex, or if you can get your hands on it, Maple.

.... ugh.. I hate to say this because I despise the software (I work in the Math dept), but LaTeX is your best bet.. it does all you need

It will run under windows and an awesome editor for LaTeX is WinEdt (www.winedt.com).... WinEdt isn't too hard to setup, but sometime TeX is a bear...

LaTeX is free, WinEdt is about $30 but has a trial period of a month before anything happens...

I would also recommend Ghostscript and GSview which allow viewing of .ps files..

with the combination of these four programs you can create DVI, PDF, and Postscript files as well as view them..

but, beware the learning curve for this would be pretty steep, but you can pretty much do everything.. It is worth it if you are doing this for any length of time, but if it is only for a semester or so of math equations, try to find something a bit easier.

I don't think the learning curve is that long, Check out the not so short guide to LaTeX http://people.ee.ethz.ch/~oetiker/lshort/lshort.pdf

Also be sure to get the documentation from the American Mathematical Society for their extensions to LaTeX.
ftp://ftp.ams.org/pub/tex/doc/amsmath/amsldoc.pdf
http://www.ams.org/tex/amslatex.html

Recommended reading:

A Guide To LaTeX, by Kopka & Daly, published by Addison-Wesley. i'm sure it will be at your edu library.

LOL don't we wish. no office discounts at my school.