写作方法2020mathoverflow.net
前LaTeX时代如何撰写数学论文（2010）
Writing math papers in pre-LaTeX era (2010)
导读
这篇 MathOverflow 讨论回顾 LaTeX 普及前数学家如何写论文，借亲历者经验和 Nash 博士论文等例子，呈现打字机时代的排版限制与权宜做法。对写作者的价值在于：排版工具和符号形式并非中性，会反过来塑造表达习惯与学科惯例。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
排版条件会塑造表达习惯：容易排出的符号和版式更可能被采用，写作时要意识到工具对形式的隐性影响。
- 02
在限制下要分清主次：优先保证论证清楚，符号和格式可用手写、留白或替代记法，但必须让读者可读。
- 03
同一符号系统应尽量与读者共同体保持一致；历史上因工具形成的差异会带来长期沟通成本。
- 04
修改和排版时检查数学表达式周围的留白与标注方式，避免格式选择造成歧义。
HN 评论精选
排版难度会影响学科或行业记法，工具惯例可能演变成长期分歧。
我有一个推测：约一半的游戏/图形业界使用行向量记法，而不是数学中更常见的列向量记法，是因为 RenderMan 诞生时排版工具还很难用。排 M*[x,y,z,w] 比排竖排的列向量容易得多（就像这个文本框里仍然如此）。Direct3D 1.0 等早期 3D 图形先驱深受 RenderMan 启发，于是向量记法连同坐标系朝向一起，成了 3D 领域的又一场“字节序战争”。如今排版容易多了，列向量记法正以与数学界保持一致的名义慢慢占上风。
corysama查看英文原文
I have a theory that ~50% of the games/graphics industry uses row-vector notation, rather than the column-vector style that is more common default in mathematics, because when RenderMan was created typesetting tools were still so difficult. So, it was much easier to typeset M*[x,y,z,w] than to typeset a vertical column vector. (Much like it still is in this textbox). Direct3D 1.0 and several other early trendsetters in 3D graphics took a lot of inspiration from RenderMan. And so, along with coordinate system orientations, vector notation became yet another endian-war in 3D. Now that typesetting is much easier, column notation is slowly gaining ground in the name of consistency with the math community.
打字机限制迫使作者做大量折中，手写符号、留白和替代标点都会影响可读性。
一个前 LaTeX（甚至前 TeX）时代的论文例子是 John Nash 的博士论文。我的关注点：连希腊字母、上下标都没有！我高中用 MS Word 写数学时还觉得自己很难。括号有，但我不明白为什么他在正文注释处用方括号，而今天我们会用圆括号；而且他的打字机似乎没有方括号，所以他是手写的。PDF 第 10 页有几行给数学表达式留的空太大；我不清楚为什么会这样，因为文档大部分排版相当紧凑。我觉得他尽量打字很逗：比如会有“Let <量化> for <定义域条件>”这样的短句，而“Let”和“for”都是打出来的！我大概会把整行手写。
skytreader查看英文原文
An example of a paper from the pre-LaTeX era (heck pre-TeX): John Nash's dissertation https://library.princeton.edu/special-collections/sites/default/files/Non-Cooperative_Games_Nash.pdf My points of interest: - Greek letters aren't even available! Or even sub/super-scripts! And I thought I had it hard in highschool, writing up on math with MS Word. - Parentheses are available (PDF p. 22) but it escapes me why he uses brackets for in-text annotation where today we'd use parentheses (as I am doing right now). And it seems his typewriter doesn't even have brackets available so he hand-writes it (PDF p. 26) - In PDF page 10, there's a couple of lines (P_{i\alpha}(s*)...) where the space left for the math expressions are too generous. I wonder how that came to be especially as for most of the document the typesetting is pretty tight. - I am very amused at the dedication to typewrite as much as possible. For instance, there will be short lines here and there to the effect of "Let <quantification> for <domain condition>" and the words "Let" and "for" will be typewritten! I would've handwritten that whole line by myself.
补充了一篇关于铅字与排版历史的可读材料。
听听那个时代过来人的经验很有意思。对这个主题感兴趣的话，我记得读过一篇也连贯覆盖该主题的文章，值得一读。
yammd查看英文原文
Interesting to get experiences from people who lived in that era. For those of you interested in the subject I remember enjoying reading this essay also covering the topic in a cohesive way: http://www.practicallyefficient.com/2017/10/13/from-boiling-lead-and-black-art.html
工具是否易学、快速，会直接影响科学写作工具的实际流行。
曾经有一段时间，有一个程序能生成类似这里的输出，当然比 TeX 差很多，但在当时的 PC 上非常快、也容易学，因此在带公式的科学写作中很流行：ChiWriter。
acqq查看英文原文
There was a time where a program that produced output like here, much worse than TeX of course, but very fast on the PC computers of that time, and easy to learn, was very popular for scientific writing with formulas: https://nomdo.nl/cw.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChiWriter
同类还值得读
被低估的工程技能：把文章写好
Undervalued Engineering Skills: Writing Well
这篇文章讨论为什么“写得好”是被低估的工程能力，以及它如何在团队协作、系统设计和职业发展中持续带来回报。
写作方法2019 · 1,109 分 · 371 评4 条写作要点编辑精选每行只写一句话：让写作和修改都更轻松的排版法
Writing one sentence per line
这是 Derek Sivers 的一篇短文，主张写作时每行只放一个句子，而不是按段落排版。
写作方法2022 · 849 分 · 297 评4 条写作要点编辑精选书面沟通是远程工作的超级能力
Written communication is remote work super power
这篇文章讨论远程工作中书面沟通的价值，评论区则补充了异步与同步沟通的适用场景，并提醒读者：备忘录、结论先行、结构化命令格式等书面沟通传统早已有之。
写作方法2020 · 831 分 · 190 评4 条写作要点编辑精选如何写出有用的文字
How to Write Usefully
保罗·格雷厄姆在这篇文章里给"有用的写作"下了一个可操作的公式：有用≈重要×新颖×正确×清楚，任一项为零，整篇文章就等于零；他还主张敢下确定判断、删掉让自己心虚的句子。
写作方法2020 · 821 分 · 285 评4 条写作要点编辑精选如何写得更清楚、想得更清楚，并学会复杂材料（PDF）
How to write more clearly, think more clearly, and learn complex material [pdf]
这份 PDF 讨论如何把文章写清楚、把思路理清楚，并用写作来学习复杂材料。
写作方法2022 · 779 分 · 153 评4 条写作要点编辑精选