On May 30, 12:20 pm, "Justin C. Walker" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On May 30, 2007, at 09:17 , William Stein wrote:
>
> > On 5/30/07, Joel B. Mohler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >> On Wednesday 30 May 2007 02:50, William Stein wrote:
> >>>> *Asymptote(http://asymptote.sourceforge.net/) (GPL)
> >>>>Asymptoteparticularly might be interesting if you eventually
> >>>> want to do
> >>>> diagrams (2d or 3d) in SAGE.
>
> >>> ThisAsymptoteprogram is absolutely fascinating!! I've never
> >>> heard of
> >>> it. I'm extremely excited. Thanks for making me aware of this.
> >>> I really
> >>> like the sound of this "Asymptoteis a powerful script-based vector
> >>> graphics language for technical drawings, inspired by MetaPost
> >>> but with an improved C++-like
> >>> syntax.Asymptoteprovides for figures the same high-quality
> >>> level of
> >>> typesetting that LaTeX does for scientific text."
>
> >>Asymptotedoes look pretty exciting. I'd say the one big downside
> > Another big issue withasymptoteis that I think it fundamentally
> > depends
> > on latex. Latex doesn't come pre-installed in OS X or most Linux
> > installs,
> > though of course it is easy to install in Linux.
>
> For the record, there is a very simple way to drop LaTeX on a Mac
> (follow the MacTeX link from the TUG homepage).
>
> I think most mathematicians will have LaTeX already. I don't know
> that this will be the case for some of our target audience (beginning
> students, for example), but it is readily available and simple to
> install (for Mac OS, Linux, and Windoze, or so I've been lead to
> believe).
>
> Making a non-optional package with a dependency on a (large)
> "external" package may be problematic, though.
The configure script in building asymptote has a "--without-latex"
option, which seems like it would eliminate the latex dependency.
Similarly, the asymptote program has the option:
-tex engine TeX engine ("latex|pdflatex|tex|pdftex|none")
["latex"]
(you can choose "none" for your tex engine).
Jason
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