Mathscript 3 Enhancement Utilities

(21st July 1998)

MathScript 3 is the Amiga equivalent of the equation editor Micro$oft provide with Word, and like most Amiga equivalents it's smaller, faster and easier to use...

However, there's never yet been a bit of software that couldn't be improved somehow, and MathScript is no exception. Thanks to the magic of ARexx (and to Simon for including an ARexx port in MathScript :-), I've been making my own improvements to MathScript, and these two utilities are what I've come up with so far.

If you haven't got MathScript, but you like the sound of it, head for Aminet where you'll find it in misc/math. The MathScript homepage can be found at http://www.mathscript.pair.com/

MathScript 3.x version notes

The current versions of StripCode and QuickCode will NOT function correctly with MathScript 3.0, you must be using either 3.1 or 3.2. Upgrade now, if you haven't already done so - it won't cost you anything!

Final versions...

Both these utilities now work the way I wanted them to when I originally sat down to write them, and since they are now apparently both bug-free (famous last words...) there are no more planned updates to be done. So, unless Mathscript gets upgraded in such a way that breaks these utils, or unless someone writes in with an idea I can't resist implementing, then these will be the final versions released.

StripCode (Version 1.2)

This small macro allows you to easily remove unwanted brackets and other formula elements. Normally if you had unwanted brackets, you'd have to select the contents of the brackets, cut them into the clipboard, select the brackets, delete them, and then finally paste the original contents back into the formula. With StripCode, you just position the cursor within the brackets and run the macro... You can just as easily get rid of over and underscores, square roots (and convert nth roots into square roots), and remove super/subscript levels. All in all a quite handy little macro, methinks! (I wouldn't have written it if I didn't need to do the things it does...)

is turned into
x = [(a+b)-c+d]/2

with a single keypress

Download StripCode (8 KB)

QuickCode (Version 1.11)

A far more substantial utility than StripCode, this provides a user-definable button bar from which you can select up to 10 formula elements for immediate entry into your formula. If, like me, you have certain elements that you're always using, QuickCode will speed up your formula creation by eliminating repetitive access to the standard MathScript symbol menus.

The QuickCode button bar (with optional clear button).

The prefs interface

QuickCode uses Gui4CLI, a script driven GUI builder. Whilst the QuickCode archive contains all the necessary parts of the Gui4CLI package, you may also want to download the complete Gui4CLI archive. Again, check Aminet in dev/gui. The Gui4CLI homepage is at http://users.hol.gr/~dck/gcmain.htm

Download QuickCode (99 KB)

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