ggtex-gawk

Description

You can define text objects in Geogebra containing complex math in LaTeX math mode, but the editor Geogebra offers for this is not very convenient.

For example, you must use your mouse to open a drop-down list and select an item everytime you want to insert the value of a Geogebra object (i.e., a number, a formula etc.) in the text.

ggtex.awk is a tiny script written in the gawk language to translate from modified LaTeX math mode to Geogebra code to define text objects.

With ggtex.awk, while using your favorite LaTeX text editor, you can reference Geogebra objects surrounding them with the symbol @.

If you want to preview the contents of your text, you can use the preview feature of your LaTeX editor, or you can compile your LaTeX document to your favorite format.

When you are done editing your math text in, say, file mymath.tex, you use ggtex.awk to convert it to file mymath.gg.tex, which is still valid LaTeX but now contains the Geogebra definitions of all math text in the original file.

You can compile the converted file mymath.gg.tex (e.g., to PDF) if you wish.

When you’re satisfied, you can copy each chunk of Geogebra math code (contained in a verbatim environment in the gg.tex file) and paste it into the Geogebra input bar.

ggtex.awk is a command-line script. It must be run in a terminal.

You need to have the GNU awk (gawk) language installed to run ggtex.awk.

Installation

GNU-Linux

1. Install gawk using your package manager or from this site.

2. Download the file ggtex.awk and save it somewhere, preferably in ~/bin.

3. Make it executable (if necessary, replace ~/bin with the directory where you saved the file):

   chmod a+x ~/bin/ggtex.awk
   

Windows

1. Install gawk from this site.

2. Download the file ggtex.awk and save it somewhere.

Usage

Using ggtex.awk on GNU-Linux

Method 1

1. Suppose you saved the ggtex.awk file as path/to/ggtex.awk and made it executable.

2. Open a terminal running bash.

3. To convert a file named path/to/file.tex, enter

   path/to/ggtex.awk path/to/file.tex
   

   or, if ggtex.awk was saved in a directory in your PATH, enter

   ggtex.awk path/to/file.tex
   

4. The translated code will be saved in file path/to/file.gg.tex. Open it in any text editor, copy the contents of the desired verbatim environment and paste them into the Geogebra input bar.

Method 2

1. Suppose you saved the ggtex.awk file as path/to/ggtex.awk.

2. Open a terminal running bash.

3. To convert a file named path/to/file.tex, enter

   gawk -f path/to/ggtex.awk path/to/file.tex
   

4. The translated code will be saved in file path/to/file.gg.tex. Open it in any text editor, copy the contents of the desired verbatim environment and paste them into the Geogebra input bar.

Using ggtex.awk on Windows

Method 1

1. This will work if your Windows system is configured to execute .awk files by sending them to the gawk interpreter. If it doesn’t work, try method 2 below.

2. Suppose you saved the ggtex.awk file as C:\path\to\ggtex.awk.

3. Open a terminal.

4. To convert a file named C:\path\to\file.tex, enter

   C:\path\to\ggtex.awk C:\path\to\file.tex
   

5. The translated code will be saved in file C:\path\to\file.tex.ggtex. Open it in any text editor, copy the contents of the desired verbatim environment and paste them into the Geogebra input bar.

Method 2

1. Suppose you saved the ggtex.awk file as C:\path\to\ggtex.awk.

2. Open a terminal.

3. To convert a file named C:\path\to\file.tex, enter

   gawk -f C:\path\to\ggtex.awk C:\path\to\file.tex
   

4. The translated code will be saved in file C:\path\to\file.tex.ggtex. Open it in any text editor, copy the contents of the desired verbatim environment and paste them into the Geogebra input bar.

How to write LaTeX code for ggtex.awk

• The file passed to ggtex.awk can be a full LaTeX source document. ggtex.awk will ignore everything outside of display math — i.e., everything outside of blocks delimited by \[ and \].

• There may be more than one math display blocks in the file. All of them will be converted to Geogebra math code.

• If you want to display text in Geogebra along with the math, use \text{} inside your math display block.

• You can embed Geogebra commands that generate text — e.g., values and definitions of Geogebra objects, fractions, formulae etc. — using the @ delimiter.

• Here is a more complex example:

  \boxed{
    \textbf{Completing the square:}\\
    \\
    \begin{aligned}
      @a@ x^2 + @b@ x
      &= @a@ \left( x^2 + @FractionText(b/a)@ x \right) \\
      &= @a@ \left( x^2 + @FractionText(b/a)@ x +
        @FractionText(b^2/(4*a^2))@ -  @FractionText(b^2/(4*a^2))@ \right) \\
      &= @a@ \left( x + @FractionText(b/(2a))@ \right)^2 
        - @FractionText(b^2/(4a))@
    \end{aligned}
  }

• This, after being translated by ggtex.awk and entered in Geogebra, renders as

  

• Try this example and play with the sliders in Geogebra.

• See the original and converted files in the examples folder.

Useful Geogebra functions for text objects

• The Geogebra text command reference lists some pretty powerful functions to produce text objects such as

  • Continued fractions

  • Fraction representations/approximations of real numbers: try FractionText(pi)

  • Numbers in scientific notation

  • Surd representations: try SurdText(2.439230484541326)

  • and more

• Geogebra’s Computer Algebra commands can also be useful in text objects.