Why openoffice math does not use Latex syntax

[lognbow]

I use openoffice.math to write equation at times. It's syntax is intuitive and easy to learn. However, I still wonder why it does not support latex syntax.

Latex's equation syntax is also simple, and has many many users. support latex syntax will certainly make it very easier for them to use openoffice.math.

[Villeroy]

http://extensions.services.openoffice.o ... t/ooolatex
Hope this helps a little.

[JJ_Dunbar]

My 2 cents:

My frustration with OOo not supporting LaTex has always stemmed from my inability to do certain things that I am able to do with LaTex. However, I think if you figure out how to use OOo Math the way you want, your documents have a much better look. Also, I went through and replaced my OOoLatex objects with Math objects, I saved about 40% disk space on my document.

Just FYI, for me the biggest problem has always been a very limited symbol set, but I recently discovered how to manually add symbols via the Unicode number to Math.xcu. (The GUI to do it just wasn't displaying the symbols I wanted, no matter the font).

So in general, if you're wishing for LaTex support in OOo, try asking how to do what you're having trouble doing. Because OOoLaTex is a bit of a pain, the PNG mode doesn't look too good, and the EMF mode is VERY finicky, you can't choose your own font, and the character set is missing very important characters. (For example, I could never get EMF mode to work if my formula had an '=' in it!)

[syockit]

FYI, OpenOffice uses a modified version of W3C MathML (source:http://idippedut.dk/post/2008/01/Do-you ... athML.aspx). There are certain things where LaTeX can't be translated correctly into MathML, therefore it's quite hard to implement direct LaTeX. Still, for simple equations, I think an extension that does what you want will be very handy. I know BASIC, and I think OpenOffice BASIC is not far off, but there are a lot of API involved to develop such extension. As my motto goes "It's never impossible, it's just lots of work".

Same thing goes for OOLatex. Development has stopped for a long time now, I think the author has no free time to continue it. The code itself is open, anyone is free to modify it provided he/she has the expertise and free time. One thing I'd like to see fixed is it's reliance on MSYS to run its script on Windows platform, when Windows already has its own script language (DOS Batch).