In a previous post, I wrote about using Linux to study maths. Now, looking at it, I can say it was a good first approach, but it can be done in a better way.

MyPaint → Xournal

1$ sudo apt-get install xournal

MyPaint is a great package, the most recent version of the software has some new nice features, that can make you play for hours. Nonetheless, MyPaint was not the right tool to use as a notebook.

In my search of a program that filled my needs I found Xournal. It had everything that I needed to do my stuff: I have the possibility to chose the type of paper, its size, the color of paper and pens and even the pressure applied to the stylus. A good tool, even to discuss things on-line.

Maxima → Maxima + graph.tk

1$ sudo apt-get install wxmaxima

Nothing to do here. Maxima is just a great package to manipulate algebraic expressions.

If you want to get nice and quick graphics, go to http://graph.tk/

Gvim with latex support → Gummi

1$ sudo apt-get install gummi texlive*

You just have to use the right tool, and in spite the first approach writing latex files with vim, gave me the possibility to know how to write it properly, it wasn’t enough. It is still valid but every time I needed to see how the document was being built I had to specify what type the final document was going to be, compile it, open it, etc. So, if there was a typo, I had to repeat the process and so on.

Then I found Gummi. What is special with this one? I can see a live preview automatically with no need to recompile the document aaaaall the time. Just waiting a second to have it detecting I’m not writing, it will do the rest by itself. I’m still working on discovering its whole potential, since I’m aware you can use BibTeX.

Why is that so important?

To summarize what I’ve shown here, I’m going to talk about the advantages of doing these things.

• Taking notes with Xournal lets you check them anytime, editing them, and export them to pdf. It also lets you organize your thoughts towards whatever you’re doing.
• Maxima, simply lets you manipulate algebraic expressions faster, and http://graph.tk/ lets you get nice graphs, that you can include into your documents.
• Gummi. Perhaps this is the most important part of this post, not just because this package is a good one, but having you writing latex properly, forces you to think better about whatever you’re writing. If you do it so, you can get nice documents you can share, publish, and also export to your reader and study in the bus before your exams 😃