Recent changes to 59: Rainbow bracket matching!

#59 Rainbow bracket matching!

Roland Baudin — Sat, 10 Feb 2024 16:53:50 -0000

Yes, but obviously the Document Foundation does not have the resources of Microsoft and we can understand that improving macros is not its priority.

#59 Rainbow bracket matching!

Nick Abbott — Sat, 10 Feb 2024 16:25:21 -0000

OK, thanks Roland.
What a terrible shame that is but we'll still use nothing else!

#59 Rainbow bracket matching!

Roland Baudin — Sat, 10 Feb 2024 15:23:36 -0000

I don't think they will do something like this. The UNO part of LibreOffice does not evolve anymore these days.

A solution would be to completely rewrite the UI part of TexMaths using some graphics toolkit (GTK? Qt?) but of course this would require a lot of work and skills that I don't have.

#59 Rainbow bracket matching!

Roland Baudin — Sat, 10 Feb 2024 14:17:33 -0000

Hi, I fully agree with you that TexMaths lacks syntax highlighting.

However, due to limitations in LibreOffice UNO text widget (the one used in the TexMaths dialog), it is not possible to apply some text formatting (color, bold, italic, etc.) to the equation text.

Rainbow bracket matching!

Nick Abbott — Wed, 07 Feb 2024 15:06:51 -0000

I have been working with some very experienced Mathematics teachers in recent months - some in the 70s - and while they are not technically superheroes I have managed to get them successfully using using LaTeX for their Maths in Libre Writer AS LONG AS I KEEP IT REALLY SIMPLE and of course, because of TexMaths!

The LaTeX I get them using is deliberately very simple but often the upshot of that we end up with a whole load of nested braces and it can become quite easy to get lost.

I have a suggestion that I think might be relatively easy to add but would make many lives easier, here goes...

While I completely understand that full LaTeX syntax highlighting is a whole different ball game (see:https://sourceforge.net/p/texmaths/feature-requests/24/) I do think that simple coloured brace {} and maybe bracket () matching would really help.

Rainbow colouring as in the attached screenshot (VSCode) would be fabulous even it were simply that when position the caret on a particular brace, to see it's 'closing match' coloured or emboldened would still be a life saver.

Anything is better than having to count!

Thanks