mailing-list for TeXmacs Users

["David E. Miller" <address@hidden>]

On 5/17/2013 3:30 PM, François Poulain wrote:

Le Thu, 16 May 2013 04:48:49 -0006,
tisimst <address@hidden> a écrit :

I would love to 
see a good SymPy plugin!

I think it is a shared opinion.

François

Greetings François:

For the sake of those TeXmacs user that are not familiar with SymPy, you should not need a dedicated plugin.

Merely start a TeXmacs Python session and load the sympy module,

[Python from sympy import *

or use some other import statement form to get at the sympy module namespace of interest.

This is all a SymPy plugin would do for you and this way the user has control over what is imported.

The same is true for any number of other Python modules -- NumPy, SciPy, Scientific Python, Scitools, Matplotlib, Oct2Py( Python-Octave interface) , and others.

However, if you want the kind of quality of displayed output that say the Maxima plugin provides, then more is required. This is the context of the issue that was raised about SymPy -- how to get the output to display in the same way TeXmacs displays math expressions. The existing Python plugin does not provide this capability.  Maybe some of the developers can help in this effort. However, then the natural question that arises is, "Does this mean that a standalone plugin should be created for all these different Python modules?" If not then which of the many Python modules require a standalone plugin?" I think you get the idea given the number and diversity of Python modules that are available.

I agree that a standalone SymPy plugin that provided this output capability would be useful for those that are Python-oriented. But one of the really significant features of TeXmacs is the number of programs supported by plugin sessions. Given that, from my personal point of view, it is difficult to justify, unless again, you are partial to Python for personal or practical reasons.

I prefer Maxima because it is a special-purpose environment for CAS. Python is really versatile general purpose language -- like a Swiss Army Knife. Plus the TeXmacs Maxima plugin is superb as is in my opinion. I have no experience with any other TeXmacs CAS plugin so I am limited by this in terms of making any other comparisons.

Best wishes,

David Miller