HP Functions

[Mickpc]

I have written a short ebook on functions with the HP Prime:

HP Prime Introduction

Thank you

Michael C

Edit: updated the link

[Giancarlo]

Hello,
Is there the possibility to see a couple of example pages just to verify if it can be useful? A booklet like the 48-49-50 would be useful,

Thanks
Giancarlo

[Mickpc]

Sure, here is the first six pages for you:

I am still working on it, so any suggestions are welcome.

Thank you

Michael C

[toml_12953]

(10-06-2014 06:46 AM)Mickpc Wrote:  Sure, here is the first six pages for you:

I am still working on it, so any suggestions are welcome.

Thank you

Michael C

The first heading in the introduction says Domain and Codomain but the text calls the codomain the range (a more familiar term to me) Maybe you could edit the sentence to say something like, "When dealing with a graph of a function the domain will be values of the x-axis, the inputs to the function, and the codomain (also called the range) will be the y-axis values."

[Mickpc]

The codomain is the more modern term for range. Wikipedia refers to codomain.

Thank you

Michael C

[Han]

Some suggestions:

Since a lot of mathematics is involved, you may want to consider using TeX or LaTeX -- you will get much better looking output than MS Word or any "office" word processor. Secondly, Tim had (not to long ago) released a font file for the keys. These would make your ebook look even better rather than having a long list of "click [some button]", and resulting an unnecessary amount of white space around said list.

Edit: Where to find the font: http://www.hpmuseum.org/forum/thread-1925.html

[Mickpc]

Thank you Han

Michael C

[dbbotkin]

Michael,
I just bought your "Functions" book on Amazon (actually on my iPad running the Kindle App) and based on my own experience with publishing on both Kindle and iTunes, congratulate you on the result. Comments about "better text processors" and use of special fonts are helpful only if the publishing medium will reflect the effort properly.

I am about a year out of touch with the current requirements, but need to get caught up and will report back here if things have changed in favor of non-fiction, reference books. Kindle has an annoying feature of expecting that once one is near the end of a book, it is finished. For "Functions" that is far from the truth as it is a resource that will be used repeatedly.

Had you considered doing an iBook? Apple seems to be more oriented to education and more likely to support equations, etc.

D

[Mickpc]

I just dropped the price down to the minimum amount possible and made significant edits.

Thank you

Michael C

[Mickpc]

(10-07-2014 11:44 PM)dbbotkin Wrote:  Michael,
I just bought your "Functions" book on Amazon (actually on my iPad running the Kindle App) and based on my own experience with publishing on both Kindle and iTunes, congratulate you on the result. Comments about "better text processors" and use of special fonts are helpful only if the publishing medium will reflect the effort properly.

I am about a year out of touch with the current requirements, but need to get caught up and will report back here if things have changed in favor of non-fiction, reference books. Kindle has an annoying feature of expecting that once one is near the end of a book, it is finished. For "Functions" that is far from the truth as it is a resource that will be used repeatedly.

Had you considered doing an iBook? Apple seems to be more oriented to education and more likely to support equations, etc.

D

Thank you for your kind words.

Michael C

[Han]

(10-07-2014 11:44 PM)dbbotkin Wrote:  Comments about "better text processors" and use of special fonts are helpful only if the publishing medium will reflect the effort properly.

Had you considered doing an iBook? Apple seems to be more oriented to education and more likely to support equations, etc.

The sample PDF file heavily suggests that the original document was produced on a word processor (presumably MS Word) and then saved as a PDF file. If that is indeed the case, then I don't see why the use of a Truetype font would not be properly supported. As for my suggestions...

A sample: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...sample.png
The "source" vs. the output: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaTeX

Until you have actually used TeX or LaTeX (in particular for technical work such as scientific or mathematical articles, books, etc), you won't really be able to appreciate the world of difference between this publishing toolset versus your typical word processor. With respect to "publishing medium" the most common file types for fixed-layout publishing are DVI, Postscript, and PDF -- all of which are standard output formats for TeX and LaTeX. Despite being fixed-layout formats, TeX and LaTeX allow users to easily customize the layout to create files for specific ebook readers (to address the issue regarding screen/display real estate).

Should you prefer something that isn't so restrictive with respect to the layout (i.e. supports reflow), you're still better off avoiding word processors if you require a lot of technical details (e.g. equations and graphs). If you look carefully at the preview PDF, you can see lots inconsistencies in the variable \( X\) and \(x \). This is easily avoided with TeX/LaTeX, but very annoying, tedious, and time-consuming to go back and fix in something like MS Word. Anyway, for reflowable ebook formats such as that used by iBooks (which even you suggested), one may still use LaTeX for mathematical equations (http://support.apple.com/kb/ht5321).


Even the very forums on which we type (and many other forums elsewhere) support TeX/LaTeX:
\[ f(x) = \int_a^x \frac{\partial}{\partial y} F(t,y)\ dt \]

You can even go as far as using the same source files to create two different outputs (fixed-layout vs reflowable) and each having specific content not available in the other. That's for another post on another day, I suppose...

[dbbotkin]

You are totally correct as respects posting and publishing on forums and print media. Publishing on iBooks, Kindle, etc. requires a different approach and pdf is one of the easy paths. Because of the flexibility of the medium, concepts like page numbers, type sizes and even choice of font are not as would be the case in print. Users can select bigger-smaller, often in a font of their choice and the document renumbers all the pages (although the numbers may only be displayed when searching in some cases). The fixed-layout ePub seems not to be the way of the future for a long list of reasons.

I didn't look at the pdf sample, I just bought the book on Amazon and wasn't overly concerned about the inconsistencies you mentioned, mostly because the Prime is not the most consistent of systems itself, either in function or documentation. (e.g. the difference between eigenvects() and EIGENVV() output has me baffled)

As I wrote in my post, I'm a bit rusty on the latest details of e-publishing and certainly a word processor like MS Word may not be the best choice for formulae, but in terms of publishing something useful, the "Functions" author has delivered excellent value for the $0.99 the book cost me. The "cut and paste" motif is retro enough to be almost charming and having the example actually "cut" from the display is an advantage for new users, I think.

Thanks for the advice on the apple support for LaTeX, I'll look into it.
(Now XyWrite, that was a real word processor!)

UPDATE:
Thanks to the good advice from Han, I followed the link suggested and ultimately found an iPad App that accepts handwritten formulae and poops out LaTeX or MathML for inclusion in an iBook among other things. The app is "MyScript MathPad" and is "free" with in app purchase $4.99 for the permanent unlock of the conversions mentioned above.

Wahoo! No excuse not to have pretty math . . ..

thanks to Han

[Han]

(10-08-2014 04:49 AM)dbbotkin Wrote:  Thanks to the good advice from Han, I followed the link suggested and ultimately found an iPad App that accepts handwritten formulae and poops out LaTeX or MathML for inclusion in an iBook among other things. The app is "MyScript MathPad" and is "free" with in app purchase $4.99 for the permanent unlock of the conversions mentioned above.

Here are some cheaper alternatives: http://onlyamodel.com/2011/ios-apps-for-...icionados/

I personally use detexify myself for those occasional obscure symbols.

[David Hayden]

(10-06-2014 06:46 AM)Mickpc Wrote:  I am still working on it, so any suggestions are welcome.

Nice job! And thanks for doing this. Personally I don't like seeing too much white space in a manual, so rather than this:

Quote:4. Click [Alpha]
5. Click [X]
6. Click [?2]
7. Click [+]
8. Click [1]
9. Click [enter]

Consider this:

Quote:4. Click [Alpha] [X] [x2] [+] [1]

For very long sequences you might want to break it up to help the reader avoid getting lost.

[Mickpc]

I am working on incorporating the fonts as Han suggested. But it involves more than just adding the font. I need to work out how to embed the font, in a format suitable for the ebook. I have yet to work out to do this.

Thank you
Michael C

[dbbotkin]

Hi Michael,
With Kindle, it might be a problem, but iBooks supports MathML which is one of the outputs from the iOS/Mac OS software I mentioned in my post. There is also a LaTeX conversion possible, if you want to go for the look of a juried journal.

If you want to go down the iBook path, I might be able to help you get started.
D

[Mickpc]

I don't own any Apple products, so the ibooks might be difficult.

Thank you
Michael C

[Eddie W. Shore]

(10-06-2014 06:46 AM)Mickpc Wrote:  Sure, here is the first six pages for you:

I am still working on it, so any suggestions are welcome.

Thank you

Michael C

This looks good. I echo the comments of having the keystrokes in one line, if possible. I like how you placed your screen shots and have them labeled.


Eddie

[dbbotkin]

(10-09-2014 10:41 PM)Mickpc Wrote:  I don't own any Apple products, so the ibooks might be difficult.

Thank you
Michael C

Oops! Yes, that might be a problem. The Kindle app on my iPad reads your book just fine. No worries.

Cheers,
D