# How are mathematical papers written?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-mathematical-papers-written/295087>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 18, 2005, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-mathematical-papers-written/295087 "2005-03-18T01:49:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Rufus\_Xavier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@Rufus\_Xavier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rufus_Xavier)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2005, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-mathematical-papers-written/295087/21 "2005-03-18T17:04:43Z")

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Preview? Pshaw! Who on God’s green earth could be posting the exact same thing I am posting at the exact same moment?

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**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2005, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-mathematical-papers-written/295087/22 "2005-03-18T17:07:16Z")

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> [@Rufus Xavier](#):
>
> Preview? Pshaw! Who on God’s green earth could be posting the exact same thing I am posting at the exact same moment?

Well, technically, just a moment BEFORE… 😃

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**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2005, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-mathematical-papers-written/295087/23 "2005-03-18T17:21:35Z")

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> [@MikeS](#):
>
> True. But the OP was asking what mathematicians use in their journal papers, and I’d wager that the vast, vast, vast majority of them prefer AMS-LaTeX to Mathematica for that purpose.

Apparently, you can [export TeX-formatted eqations from _Mathematica_](http://www.keele.ac.uk/depts/cc/helpdesk/potter/mathematica/inlatex/node2.html#SECTION00020000000000000000). I guess it won’t do the whole document, though. I’ve never tried it, but now I’ll have to check it out. You know, just in case I get the urge to submit a few things to professional math journals in my spare time. :dubious:

Stranger

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**Author:** ![KellyM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/57b2e6/32.png) [@KellyM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KellyM)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2005, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-mathematical-papers-written/295087/24 "2005-03-18T19:27:48Z")

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WikiMedia, the software that underlies Wikipedia, support inlining TeX for the purpose of displaying math. This is used to considerable effect in the mathematics portions of the English Wikipedia at [http://en.wikipedia.org/](http://en.wikipedia.org/).

TeX is an excellent product that requires some degree of programming knowledge to really use well. I used to type papers for people in TeX. The results are far superior to what you’d get out of Word; TeX has enough sense not to hyphenate two lines in a row (unless it REALLY has to), for example. TeX also has a mechanism by which you can “tighten” or “loosen” a paragraph’s spacing constraints so as to make it one line shorter or longer without changing margins or anything else.

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**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2005, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-mathematical-papers-written/295087/25 "2005-03-18T19:37:20Z")

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My guess is the admins are not going to like a new feature that is going to add yet more server load to our currently overworked hamsters.

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**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\
**Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-mathematical-papers-written/295087/26 "2005-03-19T08:14:40Z")

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Just FYI, I asked a mathematical typesetting expert I know for an opinion about the feasibility of integrating math markup into this board’s vB code. He opined as follows:

> [@Mathematical Typesetting Expert](#):
>
> I looked into vBulletin (the bulletin board software that they are  
> using), and it does look like it would not be too hard to hook jsMath  
> into it. There is a BB Code editor in the administrator tools that  
> would allow you to define [math]…[/math] and [display]…[/display]  
> to substitute the \<SPAN CLASS=“math”\>…\</SPAN\> and \<DIV  
> CLASS=“math”\>…\</DIV\> tags that correspond to the in-line and  
> display-math styles. The stuff in between the tags would be good old  
> TeX or (limited) LaTeX code.
> 
> The difficulty would be in getting the jsMath.js file loaded in the  
> first place, and then calling jsMath.Process() afterward. One could  
> have the [math] or [display] tags call in jsMath.js at that point, but  
> I’m not sure this would be efficient, as this might cause it to be run  
> several times, or even reloaded over the network several times (not all  
> browsers seem to cache the JavaScript files). jsMath.js does contain  
> an if-then to prevent it from running multiple times if it IS loaded  
> more than once, but since the file is a large one, it would be very  
> inefficient to do so unnecessarily.
> 
> Another option would be to have [math] and [display] insert some  
> JavaScript that would check if jsMath already loaded and load it if  
> not. Something like
> 
> ```
> if (!window.jsMath) {document.writeln('&lt;SCRIPT 
> 
> ```
> 
> SRC=“jsMath.js”\>\</SCRIPT\>’)}
> 
> might do it. (But this will cause the font warning box to appear at  
> that point in the document, which might not be what you want.)  
> They would also need to insert \<SCRIPT\>jsMath.Process()\</SCRIPT\> after  
> the math, though it would be best to do this once for the complete  
> document rather than every math item.
> 
> A third approach would be to have [math] and [display] insert  
> JavaScript that sets the onload event handler for the document body so  
> that when the page is completed, the jsMath.Process() call is run, but  
> only if math has been entered on the page (since the onload handler  
> will not be set otherwise). It might even be possible to load  
> jsMath.js at that point, but I’m not sure of the timing issues that  
> might arise from that.
> 
> Finally, it looks like it is possible to customize what vBulletin  
> inserts around each message, so it would probably be possible to check  
> the message from [math] and [display] tags and insert the \<SCRIPT  
> SRC=“jsMath.js”\>\</SCRIPT\> and \<SCRIPT\>jsMath.Process()\</SCRIPT\> around  
> any messages that include mathematics. If it is possible to maintain  
> state from message to message, you could check if you already loaded  
> jsMath and only insert that once (otherwise, you could have the  
> JavaScript on the page do that). But this is a more sophisticated bit  
> of programming, and would need to be tested carefully.
> 
> So it looks like they should be able to do it, and I know several other  
> bulletin boards that have been successful in using jsMath with their  
> messages.

If anybody is seriously interested in trying to wheedle the admins for math markup capabilities (and considering all the math and physics questions we deal with around here, I agree that it would be a nice feature), show 'em this quote.

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**Author:** ![Mathochist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c89c15/32.png) [@Mathochist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mathochist)\
**Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-mathematical-papers-written/295087/27 "2005-03-19T17:03:37Z")

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> [@ultrafilter](#):
>
> It would probably require a hack of some kind, and you know how they feel about that. On the other hand, if MathML/LaTeX can be used to generate image files (and I bet they can), it might be workable.

Well, to the extent that a .dvi (DeVice Independant) is an “image” file, TeX does. MathML only produces an image file when coupled with a browser. Remember that XML in general is _not_ intended to say what the result looks like, but to mark semantics and let the browser read it. One browser might interpret \<title\> as italicizing its argument and another might underline, for instance.

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**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\
**Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-mathematical-papers-written/295087/28 "2005-03-19T20:39:40Z")

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At one point I learned LaTeX, but now I use MathType. This is a program which will actually show you the equation in a window as it will appear. You acn ten embed this into Word documents as an OLE. It will also take your equation and write it as LaTeX which you can then cut and paste into a LaTeX document i fyou want. Furthermore, it lets you completely redefine the keyboard with modifiers so that \<Ctl-G, a\> inputs an alpha \<Ctl-M, +\> inputs a + or - sign, etc. It’s great.

I’m not associated with the porduct at all except as a very satisfied user.

Scientific Word does the latter as well, but I think not the former.

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