[rescue] octane question

[Dave McGuire]

On January 17, Joshua D Boyd wrote:
> >   Paper/pencil?  Eeeek, why?
> 
> Two reasons.  It is a faster way to pay bills when your bills are simple.

  I disagree...I pay most of my bills online.  Click, click, paid.  Done.

> Second, it is at this time a superior way to work on math, program flow ideas,
> and in general other things that require near realtime capturing of graphics
> from head to other medium.  Basically, Mathematica is a great way to test 
> ideas, but I can't "think" in Mathematica, and I think faster than my palm
> can keep up with.

  Ahh, now THIS is certainly understandable.  I tend to work on very
different sorts of things, so I don't often think about stuff like this.
I must confess, though, that I do sketch out program flow stuff for
complex constructs that I have difficulty visualizing in my head.

> Now, another project I've been kicking around is a idea for a new type of 
> symbolic math system.  The initial revision would be handwriting recognition
> of some sort (probably a modified graffiti) coupled to a system like Maxima
> and gnuplot typed together with a custom front end.  Basically the new stuff
> would be how you manipulate the equations, graphs, et al, on the screen in
> a more intuitive way that mathematica.  IE, emulating paper, except that you
> don't need to do the math in your head.

  That could be cool.  Sounds like a monumental undertaking, though.

    -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire
St. Petersburg, FL         "Less talk.  More synthohol." --Lt. Worf