Lectures - nice app for scientific notes

[Abednego]

Hi there,

While browsing the sourceforge software listings, I came across an app called "lectures". Even though it is still far from being finished, it is something I have been waiting for since I first used a hi-res screen.

So what does it do?
Lectures is a notepad with inline support for scientific formulas and sketches.
You can simply use latex notation to enter a formula and the program will render and display it - alternatively you can also use a symbol-palette. The procedure is quite similar to the way of entering formulas works in openoffice.org. Every formula can be edited and there also is a preview option which comes in hany if you're not entirely professional in TeX (I need it a lot).
Sketches (monochrome bitmap style) can be added "as characters" in the note so they are displayed in the text.

The finished notes can be named (world formula, infinite improbability drive, ...) and categorized (physics, normality theory, bistromatics, ...) and also be exported to html in a custom directory on the VFS.

http://www.commcore.de/Lectures_sample.jpg

It should be noted however that the program still has some faults - for example it will soft-reset and not load anymore after being set to use small fonts. For users with non-russian and non-english OS there are also (minor) problems with text entry of non-standard letters... and I've probably not found all the bugs.

Anyways this is an open-source project (sourceforge, you remember) which I think fills a niche that had been previously unoccupied in the PalmOS software ecosystem.

Here are the links:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/lectures
http://lectures.sourceforge.net/

Have fun with it,
Abed

[SoS]

Hi there,

While browsing the sourceforge software listings, I came across an app called "lectures". Even though it is still far from being finished, it is something I have been waiting for since I first used a hi-res screen.

So what does it do?
Lectures is a notepad with inline support for scientific formulas and sketches.
You can simply use latex notation to enter a formula and the program will render and display it - alternatively you can also use a symbol-palette. The procedure is quite similar to the way of entering formulas works in openoffice.org. Every formula can be edited and there also is a preview option which comes in hany if you're not entirely professional in TeX (I need it a lot).
Sketches (monochrome bitmap style) can be added "as characters" in the note so they are displayed in the text.

The finished notes can be named (world formula, infinite improbability drive, ...) and categorized (physics, normality theory, bistromatics, ...) and also be exported to html in a custom directory on the VFS.

http://www.commcore.de/Lectures_sample.jpg

It should be noted however that the program still has some faults - for example it will soft-reset and not load anymore after being set to use small fonts. For users with non-russian and non-english OS there are also (minor) problems with text entry of non-standard letters... and I've probably not found all the bugs.

Anyways this is an open-source project (sourceforge, you remember) which I think fills a niche that had been previously unoccupied in the PalmOS software ecosystem.

Here are the links:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/lectures
http://lectures.sourceforge.net/

Have fun with it,
Abed

meant to reply to this before..this looks absolutely superb. Havent been brave enough to mess with alphas on my new LD but will definitely give it a go on my old TT!! Ihope development continues on this. Great heads up Abed!!

[dip]

Wow, now THAT's really really interesting stuff! Congrats for finding this, I'll test it as soon as I get my UX back.

[SoS]

Wow, now THAT's really really interesting stuff! Congrats for finding this, I'll test it as soon as I get my UX back.


good job...let us know how it goes!!

[rcxAsh]

AHHH!!! Where was this when I needed it last year?!?! :( :(

I have a Tablet PC now, so I don't need it anymore... but I would have loved this sooo much. Nearing the end of my last physics course, I was trying out taking notes using a combination of Documents to Go and MoePaint. But this software would have been awesome.

[Abednego]

Man, I really envy you, rcxAsh - a tablet PC would be really great for entering all the data and semi-freeform-stuff like formulas and illustrations. Have you seen the stuff at www.xthink.com? OK, they want real money for it, but at least it looks cool... :-)

Originally I wanted to use the CO for that but I couldn't live with it's plentiful bugs and now I survive with the Memopad and some pseudo-LaTeX-code :-) ... Oh yes - and MoePaint also helps (DiddleBug is also quite nice).

Alas, in the meantime I removed Lectures from my TH55, since I had to reinstall two times (complete loss of data) after the program decided that it wouldn't start anymore. Perhaps it has got something to do with the non-russian localization of my PDA... :-(

I am hoping for further development on this really fine app, although I'm afraid that there hasn't been much progress since May. Well, let's hope for the best.

Slightly OT:
DTG doesn't really suit my neets that good - I'm about to switch to MobileOffice. The main reason for this is that the DTG spreadsheet component is UNABLE to plot x-y-diagrams. DataViz support told me that they would probably add this "feature" in a later version since several customers requested it. However I am not willing to pay another time for a feature that basic - especially as x-y-plotting works fine with MobileOffice.
OK, enough OT-raving from "some mad scientist" ;-)

[rcxAsh]

Man, I really envy you, rcxAsh - a tablet PC would be really great for entering all the data and semi-freeform-stuff like formulas and illustrations. Have you seen the stuff at www.xthink.com? OK, they want real money for it, but at least it looks cool... :-)
Yah, I was getting my first notebook computer for university, and thought that it would probably be a better idea to get a tablet instead of a plain notebook. I have seen xThink's stuff. Pretty amazing, but as you say, the price is steep :(

Actually, though, they have a thing going on now where if you help them with the development of the next version of MathJournal, you are able to get it for free. However, that consists of writing out over 1000 math problems to help with the recognition engine. I don't know if I'd want to devote that much time...

That's too bad that Lectures isn't working out for you. Just too buggy? Hopefully the author puts out a stable version soon, as the Palm platform has needed this type of software for the longest time. I've had the idea to write something similar in the past (after seeing OneNote), but I have no clue how to program for PalmOS lol; and my skills aren't that good.