Does it math?

The question I set out to answer with the Paper Tiger blog was really just about whether Ghost was a credible platform. After a couple of months, I can say that I think it is, with caveats.

The fuller question was whether Ghost was fit for use as a blog/newsletter system on an isolated development network and could it be modified locally to support some proprietary requirements. Here, the answers are check, check, check.

Next, is it suitable for sophisticated technical communication? Does it math? Here, the answer is ghostlier and I lack the qualifications of Doctors Venkman, Spengler, and Stantz to really answer this. My qualifications are closer to those of Stantz’ alter ego Dan Aykroyd — college dropout, funny at parties, and able to play act research.

Still, we press on. Speaking of press, Ghost works terribly with chalk. I tried the regular chalks that I’m checked out on and I also snuck a butt of math-grade Hagoromo. All were terrible on the touch screens I use most frequently. The bright orange of the Hagoromo really pops on the TPU cover of of my 12.9” iPad Pro, but the strokes are not registered on the device itself. This turns out to be because the cover puts the device to sleep when used as intended.

If we approach our arithmetic in a more modular way, we detach the cover from the device and it is then possible to use the device camera to take a picture of the work. While this may not be as clunky or distasteful as MathML, it is still somewhat inelegant. As a bonus, a modest investment in a tripod simplifies the capture of math stroke-by-stroke as video. With a wider frame, math gestures may be captured also. With audio, math utterances come along. I did not try the traditional stick in the sand of a classical geometer, but we may extrapolate from the iPad cover. Erasure would be easier in the sand.

A stick of chalk may be made from a single stone, but math itself is no monolith and there are many orthodoxies. Pencil goes largely as chalk here, though there are digital styli that may suit some. These include Apple’s own line of ‘Pencil’ devices. Perhaps pair one with a Paperlike screen protector for more rigor. Ghost can import locally-captured drawings as images. With a plugin or script injection, it could capture math from the stylus in situ.

Classic punk Letraset rub-on math transfers are beyond the scope of this colloquium and will not be discussed further. Also, they are likely to permanently damage a digital screen if applied directly.

Typeset math has become more widely accepted in recent centuries and here Ghost excels. Although no plugin presently exists to directly drive a hot lead Linotype machine, Ghost is able to directly generate camera-ready phototypesetter commands with script injection. The built-in Ghost editor allows raw Postscript to be entered at the keyboard and preserved as raw Postscript.

%!PS
%
% set up font:
%
/mainfont /Helvetica findfont 32 scalefont def
mainfont setfont
%
% Move point to specific location
%
225 450 moveto
%
% Print text on page
%
(Hello, World!) show
%
% "Show" results by printing or other method
%
showpage

Ghost can do one better. By script injection of Jslinux, a Ghost session can support Ghostscript directly for Postscript interpretation. The same goes for TeX. Ghost supports TeX in the sense that it can actually run TeX. You can Beamer up in there if your discipline and dignity demand it. Using the same facility, Ghost can let you directly embed an automated theorem prover — not just static examples.

So can Ghost math? Our Paper Tiger review is 3 % 5 paws. Capable, but at the end of the day you’ll know it’s not real.