Women in Mathematics (WIM) Electronic Newsletter

Spring 1999, Issue 3

May 1, 1999

http://www.math.umd.edu/~wim/Spring99/Issue3.html

WIM Graduate Student Seminar Update

 Thank you to our most recent speakers: Elizabeth Williams, who spoke on her project for NSA to shift their computing work from a Cray-based system to a group of workstations, and Katharine Gurski, Chris Hoffman, and Ravi Shankar, who served on the job search panel. One of the most important assests in the job search is your curriculum vitae. For advice on preparing a CV, check out http://www.math.uic.edu/jobs/vita.html; for examples (from our panelists), you can view KT's CV at http://www.wam.umd.edu/~kgurski/webcv/webcv.html, or download a copy of Ravi's from his webpage http://www.math.umd.edu/~krs. For general tips on finding a job, go to http://www.math.uic.edu/jobs/jobs.html.

That concludes the WIM seminar series for this semester. We'll have more speakers in the fall; would you like to be one of them? WIM talks (given either by women graduate students or women working in a math-related field) are on a wide range of topics, geared to a general mathematics audience, and should last between twenty and thirty minutes. If you'd like to participate, please get in touch with Ruth Auerbach (rauerb@math.umd.edu).

WIM Brown Bag Lunches

 The next lunch will be Wednesday, May 5th from 12:30 to 1:30 in room 2400.

We are going to plan a picnic (sponsored by SGA). If you have ideas for the picnic, but won't be able to join us for lunch, please email to wim@math.umd.edu with your suggestions.

What We're Reading Now--special TeX edition

 Math into Latex by George Grätzer (Birkhäuser Boston, 1997, 2nd printing)

Writing definitely as a nonexpert in Latex, I must first confess that whenever I am using it, the thought that that keeps crossing my mind is, "This is harder than it has to be." Your first experience "Latexing" might be writing a one-line equation. Then you may move on to a multi-line equation. Then perhaps a full-blown theorem and proof with text and multi-line equations in which the equations are actually aligned the way you want them. Finally, if you are very bold, you will attempt tables and graphs within your text.

What needs to be emphasized is that all the above tasks involve computer programming rather than text editing, as one engages in when one uses, say, Microsoft Word. For many this is fine and perhaps the way it ought to be because, they may feel, the intricacies of writing mathematics require a higher level of sophistication than a Microsoft Word. I, however, do not share in this thinking; indeed, writing mathematics is hard enough and I would be quite happy for my text editor to be one which was simpler to use than I have found Latex to be. Indeed, I can remember spending an entire afternoon learning how to properly align equations within text. And as for placing tables and graphs exactly where you want them, I have found no one to date who has completely mastered this art.

Needless to say then, having at hand some decent Latex books is a must. As you might imagine, there are several Latex books floating around and I am in no position to recommend one above all. One book I have found to be helpful is "Math into Latex" by George Grätzer (Birkhäuser Boston, 1997, 2nd printing). Grätzer presents a nicely laid out book covering a wide variety of topics. His table of contents and index are quite good usually making it easy to find the desired information. He also provides numerous examples which are invaluable since learning Latex chiefly involves others' work. Of course all this could be said about a dozen other Latex books, but Grätzer's certainly should be included on that list.

Having said all this, I am not sure you should actually buy the book since like many technical books it is a little pricey ($40 for the paperback edition). Rather, you should first borrow it from someone who owns it; if you really fall in love with it, have someone give it to you as a gift. And if you do figure out how to put tables and graphs right where you want them, I would be interested in learning how it is done.
ed. note: Thank you to Eric Liefer for the preceding review. Any questions, requests to borrow his book, or advice on inserting tables & graphs can be directed to wim@math.umd.edu.

TeX for the Impatient by Paul Abrahams with Karl Berry and Kathryn Hargreaves (Addison-Wesley, 1992 (reprint with corrections))

This is a great book for those who have some familiarity with TeX, but keep forgetting the names of things (sound familiar?). My favorite part is the extensive index--you don't have to wander through long expository sections to find out how to get the character you're looking for. And all of the math symbols are grouped in a single chapter to make them easier to find. No, you won't gain a deeper appreciation for the beauty of TeX by reading this book, but you can turn out papers people can read in less time than it takes to drive a mathematician insane.

Read any good books lately? If you have something you'd like to suggest, please let us know! You can send author, title, and publisher information to caj@math.umd.edu so the editor (a voracious reader) can sink her teeth into it, or you can write the review yourself and send it to wim@math.umd.edu in whatever format is most convenient.

Editor: Cathy Jones (caj@math.umd.edu)
Organization: WIM (wim@math.umd.edu or http://www.math.umd.edu/~wim)
Last modified: Sat May 1 14:20 1999