https://image.slidesharecdn.com/latexseminar-130324215215-ph...

That output is from the ancient equation editor (MathType Lite, effectively). It used a user-defined font (usuallly Times New Roman), so had no idea about what and where to kern. Output from Word 2007 onwards is significantly better as since then math typesetting is native to Word instead of an OLE object from another application. Also they have their own font (which I find okay for math but ugly for body text), which uses an OpenType table to define math-relevant spacing and kerning factors.

The syntax is something between ASCIImath and LaTeX and IMHO quite readable and way more writable than the latter. The syntax is also described in a Unicode Technical Note (http://unicode.org/notes/tn28/), so there's no reason it couldn't be used elsewhere, either.

What has been typed in Word (mostly; as it included cursor movement to get out of inner expressions again; thus can't be pasted right now):

    \iiint_G [u\nabla^2 v+(\nabla u,\nabla v)]\dd^3 V =\oiint_S (u \partial v/\partial n +v \partial u/\partial n)\dd^2 A

    ∭_G〖[u∇^2 v+(∇u,∇v)] ⅆ^3 V〗=∯_S〖(u ∂v/∂n+v ∂u/∂n) ⅆ^2 A〗

    ∭_G[u∇^2 v+(∇u,∇v)] ⅆ^3 V =∯_S(u ∂v/∂n+v ∂u/∂n) ⅆ^2 A

And yet, despite how much I like LyX, I keep using real LaTeX instead -- especially when there is complex maths. That's because the ability to create macros in maths eventually outweighs everything else readability-wise.

And I'm afraid the same logic applies to AsciiMath. Is there some equivalent to

    \newcommand[1]{vr}{\mathbf{r_#1}}

For example, a λ is just 'l'+tab.

Simarly, you can cycle through other symbols. For b: b->β->

Sadly, TeXmacs hasn't gotten as much love as it deserves: I find it way better than jupyter at producing notebooks/papers that involve math, interactive code, and prose.

Ouch, no Ubuntu package since Vivid? The screenshots look OK... is this worth building from source?

I mean you can always use evil-red-text. But then what is the point LyX?

I'd be curious to hear what you think about the equation editor in Desmos[1] (full disclosure, my employer).

We use an open source WYSIWYG typesetting library called MathQuill[2]. The keystrokes you use are very similar to AsciiMath, but the result is direct editing of the typeset math. E.g. you type '_' to move into a subscript, '^' to move into a superscript, '/' to create a fraction, 'sqrt' to create a radical, etc.

I believe that I can edit much faster with this interface than with Microsoft Equation Editor, and that it's approximately similar difficulty to learn. But I'm biased.

[1] https://www.desmos.com/calculator

[2] http://mathquill.com/

MS equation editor? It's got so much better! The version released when office 2007 came out allows a latex like syntax when writing equations. - still don't use it myself because that would require using ms office which was still broken in other ways when i last used it (2010).

I think I remember MS being better in some edge cases. OTOH, I haven't used it in so long maybe that speaks for itself.