On Tue, May 07, 2002 at 10:44:01AM +0200, geof wrote:
> > Things like that work (rudimentarily) already for Maple and Octave in
> > 1.2.0.
> What can be done with these features?

Not much in fact.

> And how to access it in lyx?

Through the 'math-extern' LFUN.

'math-extern octave' simply pipes the contents of the cell the cursor is in
through octave and appends a '= result' to the cell, or, if there is
some highlighted stuff, replaces that stuff by the result. You can invoke
this by calling the function from the minibuffer (by typing 'M-x
math-extern octave')  [And of course you can setup a key binding if you
need this on a regular base]

This way you can get access to some kind of simple calculator within LyX:
Type  1+2 in a math box, issue  'M-x math-extern octave' and the cell will
transform into '1+2=3'.

'math-extern maple' is slightly more sophisticated as it uses an extra
argument and pushes the selected contents through the maple command of the
same name. So 'math-extern maple simplify' e.g. would call Maple's
'simplify' function.

To see this in action, open a math box, type  \int x_a ^b dx, call
'math-extern maple simplify' to get  '\int x_a ^b dx = 1/2 b^2 - 1/2 a^2'.
Now you can select the right hand side of this equation, and call
'math-extern maple factor' to get '\int x_a ^b dx = 1/2 (b - a) (b + a)'. 

There are lots of things that do not work yet in this area, so do not
expect too much...

Andre'


-- 
Those who desire to give up Freedom in order to gain Security,
will not have, nor do they deserve, either one. (T. Jefferson)

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