Preface

Proud of being a ten-year LaTeX user, I was humbled down to the earth again when I recently learned that the easiest way to write a matrix is:

\[
\begin{pmatrix}
a & b\\ c & d
\end{pmatrix}
\]

Besides pmatrix, there are also bmatrix, Bmatrix, vmatrix, and Vmatrix from the amsmath package in LaTex.

Motivated by how little I know about LaTeX and R Markdown (my favourite two document preparation systems), I initiated this album to deposit the tips and examples related to creating nice handouts for undergraduate mathematics classes. The album has two parts:

  • Part I: LaTex
  • Part II: R Markdown

Here is a quick comparison of the two systems. Both are adequate for creating nice PDF handouts. However, R Markdown can produce dynamic handouts (in HTML format) with various interactive components, which is helpful for classroom demos (especially for online teaching in the pandemic era). I am curious to see if (and how) the dynamic handouts may change the way we teach in the years to come.

Table 0.1: A quick comparison of LaTex and R Markdown.
TeX Support Embedded Computation Document Type
LaTex Yes Sage PDF
R Markdown Yes R, Python, Sage, etc PDF, HTML, etc

The latest developing version of the album is available at https://albums.yuanting.lu/handbookforhandouts.

PS: Bless my heart. I had been writing matrices for ten years using:

\[
\left(
\begin{array}{cc}
a & b\\ c & d
\end{array}
\right)
\]

Macon, GA

June, 2020