> Well, I'm not a mathematician, but when I have to do equations, the > problem I have in doing math on a screen doesn't come from the text > matrix, but rather from the lack of automatic tools to manipulate the > equations. > > On the paper, hand written math notation is optimized enough so you can > just rewrite and rewrite transformed equations. (But for big ones it can > still become boring fast, and it's always very error prone). What you'd > want on a computer, is not to reproduce the paper/hand notation, but to > add algebraic tools to manipulate the equations at a higher level. > > Now this is about what is done in semi-automatic theorem proving > systems, where the user gives "hints", and the program performs the > equation rewritting itself until it reaches the final proof. It's not > done in a graphical and animated way, but is it necessary? > > ax+b=cx+d > > click and drag cx on the other side and get an animation that ends into: > > ⇔ (a-c)x+b=d > > click and drag b on the other side and get an animation that ends into: > > ⇔ (a-c)x=(d-b) > > click and drag (a-c) on the other side and get an animation that ends into: > > ⇔ ⦚ a≠c ∧ x=(d-b)/(a-c) > ⦚ a=c ∧ b=d > > It works as well in text than in graphics. > > > Now instead of slow and painful click-and-drag, you could just type > "editing" commands like C-s cx RET
I am not against keyboard input. What you suggest is not text editing -- this is structure editing and this is exactly my point. The fact that the structure is presented as flat test is irrelevant. The editing works on a representation that is not flat but structured. Moreover, I find it intuitive that the same approach (structured editing) would be useful in programming, too. Unfortunately, even advanced IDEs are based on text editing instead of structured editing. IDEs support *some* structured manipulations, but in a totally ad-hoc way, bolted-on what is basically a typewriter. The DOS version of Derive was much better in this respect 20 years ago.
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