As many of you know, the Mac OS X platform is just a gift for those who want cross-platform adaptability, good and clever design, elegance, fun, and serious tools all combined. Forgive my enthusiasm, but it’s just perfect for the kind of job I do and I can’t get over how well stuff works even after a number of years of using it…..Ok, better stop there, since I’m bound to annoy someone.
Anyway, I just learned of another excellent tool. Many of you may know of it already, but those of you who don’t might find it a major boost to communications. I use Instant Messaging a lot to communicate a lot with collaborators, students, and friends and family. I use iChat for IM, adding iSight for video sometimes.
Well, my undergraduate student Jeff Pennington IM-ed me last night to tell me about Adium X. It is a new (at least to me) IM program for Mac OS X, and if you have Equation Service installed (don’t tell me you don’t have Equation Service installed!!!), when you type an equation in LaTeX (enclose it inside double dollar signs, e.g., $$\LaTeX$$), it shows up fully processed in the IM window!
Here’s a screen shot of a chat I did with…er…. myself, which explains the repetition in the dialogue (well, nobody else seemed to be awake when I wanted to generate the test chat….sigh):
This is just so great for those more technical collaborative conversations…..cuts down on faxing equations, or trying to point your camera at your notebook (especially if you don’t have it with you on your travels, etc….) And of course you can save the whole conversation. I’ll bet there are a lot of other features I don’t know about…but the instant LaTeX-ability just makes it click for me. Now if only they’d allow me to connect my iSight camera into it as well….
(Oh, yes, I’d be very happy if someone wrote in and told me that LaTeX works just as well for iChat too…. if so, how do you switch it on?)
You can get Adium X (and read more about it) here.
Enjoy!
-cvj
March 20th, 2006 at 1:01 am
I love this. I discovered it about 8 months ago, and it’s totally changed how I do collaboration.
You might want to add a few things: one, to get the TeX’d output you do something like $$\LaTeX$$. Two, if you click on the equation, it reverts to the raw markup for easy copy-paste. Three, if you don’t have Equation Service installed, after you install it, you have to turn Adium off and on to make it work. Otherwise, it is beautiful, completely intuitive, and clean.
Alas, it doesn’t currently work in iChat. You can drag and drop pdfs from Equation Service into iChat and any other chat program that supports inline pdfs will display them. However, definitely NOT as pretty as Adium.
Also, it appears that all processing of the TeX markup into equations happens locally, and the chat sends only the raw markup to the receiving party. Thus you can cross-collaborate with people on Linux, BSD, and Windows who are running gaim-latex, which uses the same markup.
March 20th, 2006 at 3:02 am
Yes. Very useful addenda. Thanks Asher.
-cvj
March 20th, 2006 at 9:16 am
[…] The cool thing about it is that if you happen to have the OS X Equation Service installed, you can IM latex-style equations, and they are automatically converted to equations on the fly. There’s a post about it at Cosmic Variance. […]
March 20th, 2006 at 5:12 pm
Just a pointer for all the windows users out there, www.miranda-im.org this also supports some kind of equation implementation. It’s just not full LaTeX. It’s something else …
March 20th, 2006 at 5:25 pm
Helge, thanks! Yet another reason to make the switch!
-cvj
March 20th, 2006 at 6:28 pm
Is this feature AIM compatible? I’m a mac person, but an unfortunately large number of people i IM with are windows types…
–Q.
March 20th, 2006 at 7:27 pm
yo Clifford howzitgaan?
I recall you put me onto equation service a while back, I updated a bit ago to latexIT
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/26594
just thought Id let you know. it retains all your old equations which makes it pretty useful.
youd be proud of me, I was just expounding the virtues of LA public transit to a future resident. Mildly hypocritical I know since my old van (may she R.I.P.) contributed to a pink sunset or two while I was there…
nick
March 20th, 2006 at 8:30 pm
For those of us too cheap or stubborn to use OS X, there’s also gaim-latex for gaim — uses the same syntax.
March 20th, 2006 at 8:33 pm
March of the iNerds.
March 20th, 2006 at 9:07 pm
Oooh, Quibbler, the whole point of Adium is that it speaks a wider variety of AIM lingos than most applications.
If the other person is not using Adium, I imagine that the raw latex comes up….. Have not tested that…..
-cvj
March 20th, 2006 at 10:08 pm
That’s what happens with the gaim-latex plugin which does the same thing for gaim (which adium is based on) for linux and windows.
I discovered this to my disapointment when discoussing some thing from class with another student and being asked “what’s with all the dollar signs?”
But this should work cross-platform with gaim-latex on windows and linux.
March 21st, 2006 at 12:25 am
Nick,
How the devil are you, mate?
Yes, I know about LaTeXIT, but have not got around to using it yet. I like Equation Service so much….Thanks for the reminder. It does sound as though it has useful extra features that I should take advantage of….
Yes! Please continue to tell people about how they can get around LA without always using a car…. You owe it to LA after the van…. (That was a great van though…..)
Stay in touch!
Cheers,
-cvj
March 21st, 2006 at 12:51 am
After reading the relevant comment, I feel called upon to point out that the documentation states that some hacking needs be done if one wants to try to use gaim-latex in windows. The author flat out states that he did not and will not port it over, then gives his guess as to what needs to be done. Several discussions picked up by a google seach also say that it doesn’t work.
Which makes me damn jealous.
March 21st, 2006 at 11:16 am
Hi Clifford,
How do you incorporate your string theory diagrams into this exchange? How do you simulate real-time pointing (”and if you look at this …”)?
Your conversations with the butterfly are cute. This reminds me of the conversations Alice (of Wonderland fame) had with the Cheshire cat, the Mad Hatter, the caterpillar with the hookah, etc. etc.
March 21st, 2006 at 11:32 am
So, if I get a mac, not only will I look as cool as all hell, but I’ll be able to markup my equations for transmitting to all the other cool as all hell mac users via the miracle of IRC.
This much coolness endangers the very fabric of spacetime itself. Steve Jobs should be kept in a lead box for all of our protection.
March 21st, 2006 at 11:57 am
Adam,
There are no fundamental upper limits to coolness.
-cvj
March 21st, 2006 at 12:02 pm
And Clifford should know!
March 21st, 2006 at 12:05 pm
He is the argument of the delta function of cool.
March 21st, 2006 at 12:22 pm
Ok guys. That’s more than enough. Cut that out. Move along now.
-cvj
March 21st, 2006 at 12:28 pm
citrine:- Well, it shoudl be just treated like IM. But with equations. It is not intended to replace other means of discussion, but sit alongside them as a tool one can use for communication.
The “and if you can look at this” pointing can just be done by putting the “this” in the next line, etc….. just like in any IM conversation, etc, etc.
Standard figure files can be dragged and dropped into IM clients quite easily, by the way.
The butterfly and I are getting on rather well, in fact. We seem to be on the same wavelength.
This could be the start of a beautiful relationship…..
-cvj
March 21st, 2006 at 11:33 pm
[…] Now, over the course of multiple formats and OS installs, I’d forgotten all about LaTEX (but have still used Adium) until a few days ago when my friend Jeff (a math major) was putting it on his new MacBook Pro. Remembering the neat trick in Adium (and having basically set up all the software Jeff uses on his computer, through another recent mac convert), I told him about it, and he tried it out, and predictably he loved it. So much, that he told his professor about it; and so the reason for this post. Jeff’s professor happens to be Clifford Johnson, who also happens to keep a blog, Cosmic Variance. After he showed the whole Adium inline LaTEX thing, Clifford Johnson thought it was so great he wrote a whole post about it! […]
June 27th, 2006 at 4:26 am
[…] What really surprises me is that there is virtually no demand for wider integration of LaTex into the “everyday-Internet,” i.e. blogs, e-mail, chat. LaTeX is lingua franca of digital mathematics; it provides an easy-to-type (once you’re used to it) way to create documents with equations, graphs, and symbols. In fact, I’m stymied that math and physics students aren’t expected to learn LaTeX early in their undergraduate education… or at all, as the case was at Stanford. (I should note that there is one online community, homework-help forums such as Physics Forums, that regularly makes use of LaTeX.) […]