Best app for WinXP desktop shell replacement & enhancement?

Jun 27, 2005 at 7:21 PM Post #31 of 37
Quote:

Originally Posted by Stephonovich
The manual for my TI-86 is over 400 pages. It has little to nothing in the way of onboard help, leaving you only with cryptic menus and functions. Yet I manage to remember it.


...However it is fairly hard to figure out how to use fx the diff function or the int function without the manual. It would be nice if they gave example of how to use it in the calc itself, wouldn’t it? TI’s are far easier to use than HP, though, although HP make better calcs.


Quote:

Yes, my bad, I meant *nix systems. As for how often it happens; try installing any non-mainstream distro (i.e. Slackware, Gentoo, Debian, *insert favorite here*), that doesn’t ship with pretty GUI configuration tools. In the case of Gentoo, you have to write the files yourself, and all you have available to you is a text editor. Nano by default, others on demand. Or for another example, take any Linux class at a college. You’ll be using text editors so much, if you didn’t know them when you started, you soon will.


I doubt I’d be able to install any of those distros unless a help file was included. I plan to install Ubuntu when I buy a laptop, since Windows is so damn expensive.

I’m certain that if you used your own laptop you could use whatever editor you’d like. In my case Emacs, in your case vi(m). Wouldn’t the schools computers have a decent amount of text editors installed by default too?
For LaTeX Emacs is superior though. Period.

Quote:

Code:

Code: 
[left]\[\bar nˆ*_j(s)=\frac{\left\{s\sum_{i=1}ˆk n_i(0)pˆ*{i,k+1}(s)+Mˆ*(s)\right\}\sum_{i=1}ˆk p_{0i}pˆ*{ij}(s)}{1-s\sum_{i=1}ˆkp_{0i}pˆ*_{i, k+1}(s)}+\sum_{i=1}ˆkn_i(0)pˆ*_{ij}(s)[j= 1,2,\dots,k].\][/left]

What?


And that is why you need Preview-LaTeX.

Quote:

The tiny difference in quality I’ll get with anti-aliased (I assume that’s how LaTeX pretties things up, much like PDFs) fonts is minimal. I’ve never had someone complain that a printed document I gave them looked fuzzy. As for the others, to each his own.


I doubt I can prove it. I might be imaginable. To me they look better when printed.
 
Jun 27, 2005 at 8:35 PM Post #32 of 37
Quote:

Originally Posted by pank2002
I doubt I’d be able to install any of those distros unless a help file was included. I plan to install Ubuntu when I buy a laptop, since Windows is so damn expensive.


Gentoo, at least, has the best installation manual I've ever seen, bar none. The others you're expected to figure out on your own, more or less. You at least have to get a working internet connection up so you can go bug people on forums
biggrin.gif


Quote:

I’m certain that if you used your own laptop you could use whatever editor you’d like. In my case Emacs, in your case vi(m). Wouldn’t the schools computers have a decent amount of text editors installed by default too?
For LaTeX Emacs is superior though. Period.


If they're using Red Hat Academy (which seems to be rather popular), you'll probably have Nano, vim, and gEdit. Emacs might be on the default installation, but I dunno. Never looked for it.
tongue.gif
We're using Enterprise 3 currently, so if you wish to check at Red Hat's site, go ahead. But my point was that you're very likely going to be forced to use a text-only editor. They discourage the use of GUI tools until you can prove you can accomplish the task with a CLI editor. Makes sense to me, too - if you always use a GUI tool, you'll be left high and dry when X refuses to launch one day.

Quote:

And that is why you need Preview-LaTeX.


What was that, anyway?

Quote:

I doubt I can prove it. I might be imaginable. To me they look better when printed.


Head-Fi... home of "It's better to me..."
biggrin.gif
 
Jun 27, 2005 at 11:07 PM Post #33 of 37
Quote:

Originally Posted by Stephonovich
Gentoo, at least, has the best installation manual I’ve ever seen, bar none. The others you’re expected to figure out on your own, more or less. You at least have to get a working Internet connection up so you can go bug people on forums
biggrin.gif



Speaking of bugging people on forums
rolleyes.gif


Quote:

But my point was that you’re very likely going to be forced to use a text-only editor. They discourage the use of GUI tools until you can prove you can accomplish the task with a CLI editor. Makes sense to me, too–if you always use a GUI tool, you’ll be left high and dry when X refuses to launch one day.


Fair enough, I follow your argumentation I just don’t see why you ‘punish’ myself by choosing a system which doesn’t give you help or make your file easier to distinguish. That is, after all why programs like vi(m) and emacs was developed. To make the job easier for the user. It can be done with simple coloring.
See these screenshots.
VIM
My Emacs with AUCTeX (I need to fix the colors though. The standard don’t go well with my bg-color)


Quote:

What was that, anyway?


Let me just answer it with a couple of other ‘screen dumps’:
Preview
No Preview

Quote:

Head-Fi... home of “It’s better to me...”
biggrin.gif


Amen! But I’m am telling the truth
tongue.gif
 
Jun 28, 2005 at 1:19 AM Post #34 of 37
Quote:

Originally Posted by pank2002
Speaking of bugging people on forums
rolleyes.gif



Yes, well... I have no life.

Quote:

Fair enough, I follow your argumentation I just don’t see why you ‘punish’ myself by choosing a system which doesn’t give you help or make your file easier to distinguish. That is, after all why programs like vi(m) and emacs was developed. To make the job easier for the user. It can be done with simple coloring.


Eh? vim (as in CLI) has color coding. I use it all the time. Nano doesn't by default, but it's available.

As for that string of gibberish and what it produced: wow. I'm impressed. I might have to look into Emacs after all. Not for coding, mind. Never. But that's just cool.
 
Jun 28, 2005 at 2:37 AM Post #36 of 37
Quote:

Originally Posted by steel102
another is Aston Shell:

http://www.skinyourscreen.com/skinwi...php/AstonShell


Yes, to pull this thread back on track... Aston is indeed quite nice, but commercial software (i.e. money is required), and there's not as many themes for it as, say, Litestep or Blackbox. Still, worth looking into. It's much easier to configure than most of the others, from what I've seen.
 
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