Sunday, December 28, 2008

Latex Flash Cards

I posted a new program (python script, really) I wrote a while ago on my program page. It's a simple flash card program that reads properly-formatted plain text files. Also, the flashcards may contain latex.

Screenshot:


If you want to use it, you'll need python, latex, dvipng and probably a Unix-ish environment (Linux, Mac OS X, cygwin, etc.). I've only tested it on Linux (Ubuntu and Fedora), though.

I don't think it will work on Windows proper because I don't think os.system() works properly on Windows (in my limited experience trying to get a python script running on Windows). Also, I use Unix-like command flags, whereas the windows versions of dvipng and latex probably use Windows-style command flags...

I originally wrote latex_flash.py this summer to help study for the physics GRE. To that end, I have included a sample deck of flashcards containing some physics formulas. I have a bunch of small utilities like this I've written over time, but most of them aren't in any condition to be distributed.

Making something fit for distribution is difficult and time-consuming: you need instructions, helpful error messages, comments, a simple way to configure (in this sense, latex_flash.py kind of fails... you have to modify the source in order to configure stuff), general polish, and a name for the program (again, here latex_flash.py kinda fails).

1 comment:

Portable Penguin said...

Great little script. Nothing fancy but entirely useful!

I like the fact that it replicates a paper based system in its use, and doesn't get fancy with bells and whistles!