[Tex/LaTex] Convert latex math to matlab math

conversionMATLAB

This may seem like a weird question, but the reason I'm asking is as follows. If I type a long list of equations in latex, and then want to turn them into matlab expressions, I basically have to convert text such as :

x=\frac 1 {f(t)} \cdot y

into

x=(1/f(t))*y

The problem with this is, that if I have a long list of expressions (>20 equations), it is easy to make a mistake somewhere, and hard to parse.
Latex on the other hand, can easily be checked for errors, since we can simply execute the latex file and see symbolic expressions.

Therefore my thought is: if we can automate the transition from latex to matlab, then I can error-check the math in symbolic form in the pdf output of latex, and then be confident that the matlab code is correct.

Does such a program exist? if not, does it exist between other similar languages?

Best Answer

the following document typesets as

and puts

MATLAB
x=(1)/(f(t))) *y

on the terminal and log file.

\documentclass{article}

\def\zzz#1{%
\[#1\]
{\def\frac##1##2{(##1)/(##2))}
 \def\cdot{*}
 \typeout{^^JMATLAB^^J#1^^J}}}

\begin{document}



\zzz{x=\frac 1 {f(t)} \cdot y}


\end{document}

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] How to import an exam or assignment from Word into LaTeX

I'm sorry I wont be able to provide any answer other than: "Don't do it!"

Other than using some of the converters that you and other people have suggested, which may give you a reasonable place to start, there is really no satisfactory solution to convert an existing Word document into a LaTeX one. This is difficult to implement, and for a good reason. Word and LaTeX have two completely different approaches at describing and encoding documents. Word (as most people use it) stores formatting information while LaTeX encodes the "logical structure" of a document (which then gets translated to TeX formatting instructions while compiling). Trying to get a LaTeX document out of a Word document is somewhat similar to trying to obtain a C++ program from it's binary: You can do it, but the results wont be pretty.

You are better off taking a printout of your assignments and typing the whole thing yourself in LaTeX. Of course you can copy/paste large bodies of text, but for equations there is nothing better than typing them yourself. If you do this for a while, and show your beautiful documents to your teachers and colleagues, you might be even able to convince them to switch to LaTeX all together.

LaTeX is not a format to store pretty documents, it is a fully-fledged system to create those documents.

[Tex/LaTex] Convert a picture or figure to EPS or PDF file

In general I recommend you to place all your complicated figures into separate files and use e.g. the standalone class to be able to compile them separatly and then \input them easily in the main document with the standalone package.

For your existing document you can use the preview package (which is used internally by standalone). It only compiles things wrapped in a preview environment and every such environment as a page. With the tightpage option you get tight pages as I requested.

I would use code like the following to redefine figure to use preview environments and to disable (or include) the \caption. The resulting PDF should have one picture per page. You can then use the page=<number> option of \includegraphics to include it or split it into several PDFs using tools like pdftk allfigures.pdf burst output figure%02d.pdf or Ghostscript.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[active,tightpage]{preview}

\makeatletter
\renewenvironment{figure}[1][]{%
    \begin{preview}%
        \renewcommand\caption[2][]{}% or
        %\def\@captype{figure}% If you want to include the caption
}{%
    \end{preview}%
}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

text text text text 

\begin{figure}[!t]
    \rule{5cm}{8cm}% dummy replacement
    \caption{some caption}
\end{figure}

text text text text 

\begin{figure}[!t]
    \rule{8cm}{5cm}% dummy replacement
    \caption{some caption}
\end{figure}

text text text text 


\end{document}

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] How to import an exam or assignment from Word into LaTeX

[Tex/LaTex] Convert a picture or figure to EPS or PDF file

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