Introduction

Here we describe the Natural Math program. It is easy to use. Start with a file whose extension is .nat, for example, test.nat. This tutorial was created by the file tutor.nat.

Each line of your file xxx.nat is written in what we call ``natural math,'' that is, math written as you might naturally express it if you only had a simple typewriter. You will use numbers, letters, and symbols, although anything that can be expressed in symbols can also almost always be expressed in letters.

What the program will do is to convert the natural math file into a LaTEX file. You run it like this:

naturalmath xxx.nat

This will create a file xxx.tex.

Here is an example of lines of input, followed by the output that would be created.

integral from 0 to infinity of e ^ (-x^2/2) dx 
= sqrt (pi over 2)

$$\int _ {0} ^ {\infty} {e} ^ { - {x} ^ {2} / 2} \,d x = \sqrt{\frac {\pi} {2}}$$

Each formula is created by a sequence of such lines, terminated by a a blank line. Let us first give an example, where we attempt to solve a homework problem. First we give the input, then the output.