Math-o-mir 2.0

The main reason I increased the version number from 1.xx to 2.xx is because there are changes in the .mom file format that might compromise the backward compatibility. The new file format 2.xx is more compact and produces files half the size than the older 1.xx format. It is even much more efficient when storing documents that contain bitmaps – which is the main reason why I decided to change the file format in the first place.

However, being concerned about backward compatibility, I decided that the new MoM 2.0 will still store its files into 1.xx format by default (except bitmaps). If you explicitly want to use the new 2.xx format, you should choose “save as…” and then choose the 2.xx format… Maybe I was too much of a coward, I admit. Anyway, in the next version the Math-o-mir will save in 2.xx format by default. And in some even further version, it will loose the ability to save 1.xx format altogether…. The ability to read the 1.xx format will remain ‘forever’.

Other major news are as follows:

Toolbox options are rearranged. New symbols are added (corresponds to, D’Alambert, triangle, real part, imaginary part), some symbols are deleted
The “very large” toolbox size option is added to support high-resolution monitors
New commands: \varpi (inserts pi variant); \Ups, \ups (generates upsilon)
Spacebar+Enter keystroke can be used to toggle text/math typing mode (in addition to the Alt+Spacebar keystroke)
New variable decorations are available: triple dot, tilde, hacek
The function plotter is speed up and improved. Up to 4 functions can now be plotted simultaneously. Numerical integration of the plotted function is implemented.
The uppercase delta sign is handled in a special way – no automatic separation from the following variable. The double ‘u’ stroke generates Greek mi letter (not the upsilon)
Redesigned the drawing box handy menu
45 degree lines can now be drawn using the section-line drawing tool
keyboard arrow key handling improvement
I eradicated some bugs. I also removed several features: the auto-clipboard-semi-transparent menu, snap-to-grid option (it is now always active when the grid is displayed), parentheses-height options… The documentation is updated: the Users Manual, the Brief Guide and the Tutorial. All in English language. (However the German version of the software itself is also released).

For following days I will be lurking for bugs that I generated with the new version. Please report any that you find… I wish a happy new year to everyone reading this!

It is possible to use Spacebar+Enter keystroke to toggle math/text typing mode. I figured that some people might prefer Spacebar+Enter instead of Alt+Spacebar (which remains available), especially those running Math-o-mir with Wine.
More conversely, the index and exponent of a variable will not be horizontally aligned any more if the variable is in italic font (slanted). Instead their alignment will be slanted too. I wonder what are you going to say about that.
Expression written in indexes are now rendered in a more condensed way. In fact, both indexes and exponents are now moved closer to the variable.
It is now possible to type a Greek letter behind the delta sign (like typing DDww will create delta-omega)

I was struggling very much to finish this release. My goal was to establish the Final and Definitive Keyboard Usage Scheme. I had plans to find the best possible keystroke arrangement and to never think about it again. But I failed miserably. My indecisiveness was legendary. And I am not sure what happened.

But we still have some keyboard news – I think for the better.

To enter a measurement unit, start typing it with the period (dot) key. For example, to enter 10.3kg you can type 10.3.kg. Why? It’s fast and general – the software does not need to have the list of all units. You can, for example, enter .myfreakingunit
This is it. The invention that measurement units can be typed by starting them with the period (dot) key is the coolest invention in this release. Related to it, there are some additional keyboard readjustments.

To execute the Autocomplete, use the comma key instead of the period (dot) key.
To paste from Auto-clipboard, use the Spacebar+period instead of the Spacebar+comma (or you can still use the Insert key).
To enter degree-of-arc you can type .deg or .”’ or just type the apostrophe (prime) three times behind a number: 37.3”’
To enter degree-of-Celsius you can type .degC or .’C or just type ‘C behind a number: 23.3’C
To enter the ohm symbol (resistance unit), type .ohm
Of course, there are several other keyboard-related changes. Some of them are dubious so I hope I will hear from you how you like them.

Shift+Backspace can be used to splice single-letter variables into a multi-letter variable. If you type a b c and then hit the Shift+Backspace two times, variables a, b and c will join into one variable abc… Much more useful than you might think.
If you start typing digits behind an already existing number, these digits will be appended to the existing number
After you create a function, you can delete its argument box by hitting the Del key (the Enter key can still be used for the same)
The Enter key will not wrap a text line if the line is inside a table cell. Instead, the cursor will jump into the next cell. To wrap the text line, you should use Alt+Enter keystroke. This is the dubious one.
Usage of Del and Backspace keys is a bit different in tables/matrices. It is not possible to delete content of neighboring cells any more.
Symbols %, $ and ? are always cast in upright font when typing math
Say you started a new equation box and toggled the typing mode to plain-text. If you now move the empty box around (using cursor keys) the plain-text mode will persist.
Only now, I am revealing another ‘big’ news: by default Math-o-mir will use serif italic font when you type mathematics. I decided to switch from upright sans-serif to italic serif in order to better distinguish between uppercase i and lowercase L. If you are an ‘old’ user you might not see any difference because Math-o-mir will import your current settings instead to force factory defaults.

Finally, let me conclude the what’s new list:

I reworked the font-handling user interface. The new one is, I hope easier to understand. You can now choose from 8 uniform and one mixed font sets. Here is how the interface looks now:
uniform

mixed

The maximum number of guidelines is increased from 8 to 12
The ‘Headline‘ toolbar button now behaves in a different way. By pressing this button repetitively you can choose between three various headline sizes.
The watt-hour measurement unit is added
You can add line endings to opened lines/curves (ones without branches, vertices and loops). Just right-click at the curve and the pop-up menu will display options:
line_endings

Curly brackets and section lines that you can quickly draw with the mouse cursor (without entering the drawing mode) are now thinner a bit
Height of parentheses is increased a bit. Integral sign shape is corrected. Round parentheses are thicker in presentation mode.
I renamed ‘General variable mode’ into ‘Prefer Multi-Letter variables‘ and I also renamed ‘Simple variable mode’ into ‘Prefer Single-Letter variables‘. I think it is clearer so.
In both these modes, Multi-letter and Single-letter, rules when typing indexes are identical now. There is a new menu option: Options->Keyboard->Use complex indexes that you can use to change typing rules when indexes are typed.
When the typing mode is inactive, you can quickly select an object by pointing your mouse pointer at it and hitting the Enter key (until now it was Alt+Spacebar keystroke that was used for the same).
Last, I removed the feature to automatically store all deleted text/math into the Auto-clipboard (implemented in v1.91). I found it to be annoying.

A block of text (or even a multi-line block of math) can now be appended with a new line by a simple mouse-click. Just point your mouse pointer slightly below object’s lower-left edge – a guideline will appear. However, if you point close to the object, the guideline will not be yellow-colored but might be green-colored or blue-colored. If so, just click at the guideline and a new line will be added to the existing object… (Until now you had to click after the last word and then hit the enter key to start the new line)… This feature only works if guidelines are enabled and if the object is left-aligned.
Simple page numbering is implemented. You will find page-numbering options under ‘View->Page->Page numbering’. Only several options are available. The major disadvantage is that you cannot control margins yet.

‘Improved’ the way plain text is rendered when the presentation mode is enabled. I hope that the rendered text is now more readable than before. The inter-character spacing is now more uniform (on the expense of varying inter-word spacing). This might create some unwanted rendering effects as it takes some testing time to fine-tune.
At the beginning and at the end of a plain-text line I am now displaying insertion points a bit more distanced from the text than before. To make this possible I also had to add some more space (right and left margin) around text in a matrix/table cell. Thus, matrices/tables will be slightly wider than before.
The cursor-up keyboard key handling is slightly improved: if you hit it while the keyboard cursor is positioned at the first place under the root sign, the cursor will move into root ‘index’ field (if this field exists). Also, if the cursor is positioned at the first place in a variable index, it will be placed at the end of the variable.
When you want to use the quick-type feature to type some plain text you will do this by first hitting the spacebar key. The difference is that when you hit the spacebar key, an empty ‘T’ object (a text placeholder) will not be created any more. Instead, the familiar green ‘T’ symbol will appear for a short time to inform you that you can now type plain text.

А то приходится из картинок переводить вручную в текст в Word, а потом уже в EXCEL и там считать - время тратится

Page size is now properly set when you open a .mom document file by clicking on it from the windows explorer (the bug was visible on Win7)
Inappropriate flashes of the selection frame are solved – this occurred occasionally when mouse was clicked.
When objects were selected, drawing boxes activated even if the mouse pointer was not hovering above them – this is now solved.
Most controversially, when printing and when exporting images, those ‘invisible’ edges of drawing items that are behind other drawings will not be visible any more. That is, the printed/exported images are now generated the same way as you can see them on the screen… The funny thing is that I cannot recall why drawings were implemented ‘transparent’ in earlier versions. If someone will miss this ‘feature’, remind me please.

Если хорошо знать WORD, то вписывать формулы не сложно. Самый простой вариант это вставить в виде маленькой картинки.

While typing plain text, double upercase strokes CC, RR, KK, ZZ and NN (normally used to produce bold, serif letters) will now revert back to double-letter combination if you continue to type further. Due to a bug, this was not happening in the earlier version of the software.
In a similar way, some double-stroke combinations will not turn into alternative symbols when typed inside a variable index or while you are typing a plain text.
If you exit the typing mode (either with the Esc key or by right-mouse-click) while your cursor at the beginning of a newly created text line, the empty text line will be deleted. In the former software version, the empty line at the end of a text box was not deleted and this caused some awkward rendering.
It is still possible to select some objects with your mouse while the typing mode is still active. However, all selected objects will be deselected when you continue to type. The good thing is that you can use Del and Ctrl+X to delete/cut selected objects without exiting the typing mode (just select objects and hit the Del or Ctrl+X).
It cannot happen any more to carry something while the drawing mode is active – this possible due to a bug and was confusing.
The Math-o-mir crashed if you tried to compute expressions like: “1/(2/3)”. This now works.
There was a bug when you tried to compute expressions like “(a+b)*c” instead of “(a+b)c” (that is, when real multiplying dot symbol was used). This also works now.
The software will now generate parentheses around function arguments for function names that end with a number. For example \r3 command will generate the r3() function. In fact, am thinking that maybe it should generate parentheses for all function names except most common ones (sin, cos…). Not sure what to do.
I enlarged spacing between a word and symbols like dot, comma, question mark, exclamation mark… when the presentation mode is enabled.

News regarding keyboard handling:

If you press a letter key and hold it down for about 0.3 seconds, the letter will turn into uppercase. This works for most keys – the long key hold generates a shifted character. This way, for example, instead of using Alt+Shift+R to place an uppercase ‘R’ letter into an exponent, you can use Alt+R (for 0.3 seconds).
You can adjust Math-o-mir to use the CapsLock key to toggle between math typing and text typing modes. If you want to use this option check: ‘Options->Keyboard->Use CapsLock to toggle typing mode’. Note that if you decide to use the CapsLock to toggle the typing mode, you can still use Shift+CapsLock to activate/deactivate the CapsLock function.
Keystrokes ‘i.’ and ‘j.’ will now typecast ‘i’ and ‘j’ letters into italic-serif font, intended to depict imaginary units. If you need to generate ‘i( )’ and ‘j( )’ functions instead, you should use ‘\i’ and ‘\j’ commands. I believe that imaginary units are typed more often that ‘i( )’ and ‘j( )’ functions and this is why I decided to use the handy ‘i.’ and ‘j.’ keystrokes to generate imaginary units.
Greek symbols are still generated by timed double-strokes, but now the timeout time is much longer. You can double-stroke fairly slowly and still obtain Greek symbols.
If an exponent box is empty and you hit the Enter key to exit the exponent box, the box will be deleted.
The symbolic calculator cannot be activated by the “= =” sequence any more. Instead, you must now use the “??” sequence. This is because the double-equal sequence is now used for another purpose.
The ‘= =’ sequence now behaves similar as the ‘++’ or ‘- -‘ sequence. It will exit a box (parentheses, fractions, functions…) and will place the equal sign outside it. If the double-equal sequence is used at the outmost equation level, then it will wrap the line. The line will be wrapped in a smart way: if the former line contains an equal sign, the new equal sign in the next line will be aligned with it (try typing: ‘m=1+2==3’ to see the effect).
The tab spacer character now has adjustable length. You can adjust its length using the mouse – click at its arrow tip and drag to the desired length.
When you hit the Alt+Enter key to wrap a math line, the lines are now left-aligned by default (until now lines were center-aligned).
When you type into index, or when the General Variable mode is selected, the third hit to the same letter will revert the character from Greek back to Latin. I agree, this is somewhat non-intuitive and some other way to revert Greek characters to Latin characters would be nice.
News regarding hand-drawing:

The colorbox is completely redesigned and is now permanently visible (except when the typing mode is active). Three additional options are added to the colorbox: node edit, crosshair cursor and select-last-drawn-object.
By a long right-mouse-click (hold down the right mouse button for about 0.5 seconds until a pale blue box appears, then release the button) you can display the handy hand-drawing toolbox – the same one that shows when you hit the F4 key.
It is possible to draw section lines and curly braces even if the typing mode is not active.
The way to edit drawing nodes is now different. You can turn on the ‘node edit’ icon in the colorbox and then you will be able to edit nodes for any drawing item you mouse-touch.
If you hold down the shift key while you are using the ‘section line’ tool, the tool will draw very thin horizontal and vertical lines – useful to draw helper/guide lines.
When a drawing tool is selected, the pencil-shaped mouse pointer will show a spot at its tip of the size and color that matches to the currently selected line thickness and line color.
It is now possible to move/stretch/rotate selections while the hand-drawing mode is active (until now you had to exit into the editing mode). You can, for example, draw something, click ALT+Spacebar to select it, and then while still in the drawing mode you can move/stretch/rotate the selected drawing.
The crosshair cursor is implemented. You can turn it on by enabling an icon in the colorbox, or by holding down the Ctrl key.
It is possible to use the spacing-feature even in the hand-drawing mode. Point your mouse pointer very close to the left border of the document window and wait until the vertical ruler appears. Then you can click-and-drag on the ruler.
Other news:

The ‘oneshot’ formatting mode is removed. However, the ‘oneshot’ feature can still be used because it is now possible to flag any of the ‘uniform’ formatting as ‘single-shot’ (if you do so, that uniform formatting will have an upside-down arrow displayed). In addition, uniform modes can now have various colors.
Two new math symbols are added: the ‘because’ symbol (three dots in a triangle formation) and the ‘per mille’ symbol. To type the ‘per mille’ symbol, hit the ‘%’ key twice.
Two new commands are implemented: ‘\because’ to generate the ‘because’ symbol, and ‘\angle’ to generate the angle symbol (the angle symbol is also changed a bit).
The ‘very large’ toolbox/toolbar size option is added to support high-resolution monitors.
The new section ‘Mouse’ is added into the ‘Options’ menu. Here you can define your preferences about mouse-wheel usage (zoom/scroll selection, right-button + wheel usage, scrolling speed…)
It is possible to hold down the right mouse button while you are turning the mouse wheel in order to toggle the mouse wheel functionality (from scroll to zoom or vice versa). The scroll function is now default function for the mouse wheel for all new users (it was zoom until now).
Font sizes (small, large, very large) are now a bit different. Sorry if this will cause problems to you when editing old documents.
You can now define the default zoom level by choosing from ‘Options->Font Size & Zoom’. The zoom level will be adjusted to the default zoom level any time you click at the ‘1:1’ icon from the toolbar.
It is now easier to type formulas directly into the function plotter window because you can now mouse-click anywhere on the formula to change the cursor position.
A left-mouse click anywhere outside the context menu box will close the context menu. Until now it was only closed when you right-clicked.
The “wide keyboard cursor” option is removed. Also, the “parentheses height” options are removed. The ‘/T/’ option is removed from the toolbox and does not exist any more.

In comparison to the last beta, there are several news:
A new symbol is added into the toolbox – the ‘because’ symbol (three dots in a triangle formation). Also the new command is enable (\because) that can generate this symbol.
The CapsLock key can now be used to toggle between Math Typing Mode and Text Typing Mode. This will only work if you enable the following options: Keyboard->Options->Use CapsLock to toggle typing mode. Of course, once you enable this option, the CapsLock will not toggle the uppercase/lowercase letters any more. Instead, to toggle uppercase/lowercase letters then, you will have to use Shift+CapsLock or Ctrl+CapsLock.
Handling of Formatting modes is changed in order to simplify it. The ‘O’ (oneshot) mode is removed and now you will only find two Formatting mode icons in the toolbox (the ‘U’ and the ‘M’). However, you can still create oneshot-style fonts by checking the ‘use as singleshot’ option while defining a uniform font….. If you already created many personalized oneshot formatting styles, you will not have them any more. Sorry.
While defining fonts for uniform ‘U’ formatting styles, you can now also choose font color.
A nasty special handling is introduced when typing indices (indexes). If you now hit the same letter three times in a row, a Greek symbol (that is going to be created after the second key hit) will be reverted back into two Latin letters… This special handling was needed to enable easier typing for variables with double-Latin letters in indices (like ‘Vcc’ or ‘Vpp’).
The Handy Help is updated

The double-stroke timeout time for typing Greek symbols is extended considerably. It is now set to about 1s, while it was set to 250ms in earlier versions. I hope that this will make it easier to stroke Greek symbols… (To type the same Latin-script variable twice, one after the other, you should hit the spacebar in between to speed up your typing.)
If an exponent-box is empty and you hit the enter key to exit from it, the exponent-box will be deleted.
The handy popup-drawing-toolbox that gets displayed when you hold down the right mouse button for about 1sec now behaves less intrusive. The toolbox is not fully shown until you release the right-mouse button. This way the toolbox does not interfere that severely with the right-click-and-drag screen scrolling feature.
Typing the ‘==’ (double equal sign) sequence now has the revised behavior! Instead of activating the symbolic calculator, the ‘==’ sequence now behaves similarly as the ‘++’ and ‘—‘ sequences (wraps the line, or exits from a child box).
To activate the symbolic calculator, instead of the ‘==’ sequence use the ‘??’ sequence (double question mark)… I am aware that using ‘??’ is less convenient than using ‘==’.
You can now modify the length of the tab spacers using your mouse.
In this beta I tried to make it easier to type multi-line equations. You can now use the ‘==’ sequence in three possible ways (the picture below shows these three methods side-by-side)
Type the ‘==’ sequence at the end of a line. The line will be wrapped, and the generated equal sign will be aligned with the first occurrence of an equal sign in the previous line.
Type the ‘==’ sequence at the beginning of a line. First wrap a line using Alt+Enter and then use the ‘==’ sequence to align the equal sign with the first occurrence of an equal sign in the previous line. The difference compared to the first point is that in this case there will be no equal sign at the end of the previous line.
Type the ‘==’ sequence at the beginning of a new object. This is similar as in the previous point, but instead of Alt+Enter you would simply use the Enter key at the end of a line. The result is that each line is a separate object.

I also corrected a problem with typing differentials of indexed variables. Until now you couldn’t use the fast ‘spacebar+letter’ method to type the index of something like “dx1”. Instead you had to use the underline key to type the index down.

Сколько времени убил, чтобы в ворде одну формулу написать..

An embarrassing bug was found in build 4 and build 5 – when certain commands were executed by the space-bar key, one additional space character was mistakenly inserted. The bug was result of the new experimental feature implemented in v1.82 buld 4.

I AM SO MAD AT MYSELF! I had to see this bug earlier. What else can I say now than I am sorry… I think I will have to release several more builds of v1.82 – I want to be sure that there are no more stupid bugs inside.