Subject: [LON-CAPA-dev] Inline equation editor and Math in MapleTA

From: "GARRETT, DONNELL MAZON" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 7 Nov 2005 15:57:35 -0500

Hi

My school is currently looking at using MapleTA instead of lon-capa.  I
am evaluating this for them and have noticed they have an awesome inline
equation editor and awesome math capabilities.  

Instead of entering an equation in the form of: (3*pow(x, 3))*(exp(5))
as the answer in a formula response type question, they have the awesome
ability of just entering (3x^3)(e^5) via text, or even using a Microsoft
Equation Editor 3.0 type system to enter in actual superscript values
and have their parser intelligently know what the system means.

Are their plans to include functionality like this into lon-capa?  

They also have a full math library backed by their software Maple, which
allows for any math to be computed using that instead of using the
.library method we are currently using to attempt to extend lon-capa's
math capabilities.

However, I'm not convinced that we should change systems.  I know
lon-capa is working on their external response feature; however I have
not yet been able to correctly tie lon-capa to an external solver.  I am
more interested in their math capabilities than the easy of use
permitted by their inline equation editor, but it'd be nice to have
both.  I know in the next release that is slated for December that you
guys will add in complex number and matrix support, but I'm also
interested in derivative, integration, series support, and loads more
math.  Are there any plans to add any sort of better math engine to your
system?

Thanks
Donnell

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From: Guy Albertelli II <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 7 Nov 2005 16:13:06 -0500 (EST)

Hi Donnell,

> Are their plans to include functionality like this into lon-capa?  

Nothing immeadiate. We would love to have this ability but currently
we don;t have the prgramming resources to spend on implementing this.

> not yet been able to correctly tie lon-capa to an external solver.

What hasn't worked about this?

> I am

There has been a plan to do this for awhile, but unfortunately we
haven't had time to do this.

We have been spending most of our efforts on making the system
genearlly easy to use to try to attract a more divise group of users.

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[email-masked]   0-7-2-0-27,137