Converting Maple code into LaTeX markup

### Converting Maple code into LaTeX markup

There are two ways to get LaTeX code out of Maple. First of all, you can convert an entire Maple worksheet into a LaTeX file by using the LaTeX option on the Export As feature on the Maple File menu. If your system has the file maple2e.sty installed in the LaTeX search path, then you should be able to run the resulting LaTeX file through latex with no further tinkering. The file maple2e.sty defines certain LaTeX environments, similar to the verbatim environment, that disable LaTeX processing on Maple input and output regions, while letting LaTeX do its formatting magic on textual regions.

Of course, you can print a Maple worksheet directly from the File menu, so you will not need the Export As feature for everyday use. However, LaTeX is more powerful than Maple for text processing, so you might sometime want to use LaTeX to massage a file originally written as a Maple worksheet; or you might want to include a Maple worksheet as a section of a longer LaTeX document. (The commercial product Scientific Workplace attempts to combine Maple and LaTeX directly in a unified program.)

Instead of converting an entire Maple worksheet, you can convert snippets of Maple code into their LaTeX equivalents. Maple has a command latex that translates a mathematical expression into LaTeX code. For example, the Maple command latex(sin(x)); returns the result \sin(x).

The Maple command latex(Int(sin(x),x=0..Pi/4)); returns the result \int _{0}^{1/4\,\pi }\!\sin(x){dx}, which LaTeX typesets as in the first figure.

Notice that Maple-generated LaTeX code may not be optimally pretty; you might type instead \int_0^{\pi/4}\sin x\,dx, which LaTeX typesets as in the second figure.

The upshot is that if you can display a formula in Maple, then you can typeset the formula in LaTeX with no more effort. For example, the Maple command linalg[hilbert](4); produces a 4×4 Hilbert matrix, and latex(linalg[hilbert](4)); spawns the LaTeX code

\left [\begin {array}{cccc} 1&1/2&1/3&1/4\\
\noalign{\medskip}1/2&1/3&1 /4&1/5\\
\noalign{\medskip}1/3&1/4&1/5&1/6\\
\noalign{\medskip}1/4&1/5&1 /6&1/7
\end {array}\right ]


which typesets as in the figure.

Exercise

Typeset the following matrices with LaTeX. Hint: make Maple do (most of) the work. The (i,j) entry of the first matrix is the derivative of the exponential of i sin(jx), and the second matrix is a block matrix composed of Hilbert matrices. Read the Maple help on matrix to learn how to map a function onto a matrix.

The Math 696 course pages were last modified April 5, 2005.