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I'm a CS student looking for a Capstone project. A math student at my university approached me with the idea for an application that would allow a TA and a student to chat about math using the standard visual formulas instead of the handicapped method we use on computers (2^4=x or take the integral of 2x dx). For example she wants an application where she can switch between typing math formulas $\int 2xdx$ and text 'this is an integral' without having to learn LaTeX and in real time. I've found several chat apps online like MathIM, pidgin with the pidgintex plugin and DragMath but they all seem to require the user to know LaTeX to talk about math.

My question is, does anyone know of any type of chat application that supports displaying the formula without knowing LaTeX and without being slowed down by some type of drag and drop interface?

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 I didn't even know that there were Math Chat applications with LaTeX! – Christopher Drupieski Apr 11 2011 at 21:32
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 LaTeX is efficient, unambiguous, and most of all fast (fast enough to be typed real-time, in a chat environment). It does have a little bit of a learning curve, but if kids these days can learn to text, they can learn to TeX. Other solutions a la Microsoft Equation editor like toolbars are inelegant and slow. That said, there is one math interface that is eminently usable (so long as you don't try to type anything fancy): check out Mac OS X's Grapher. – Gilead Apr 11 2011 at 22:07
if one is willing to make the effort to learn and talk about some math, then learning a bit of latex on the way seems to be a non-issue. ok, there is the thing called inertia,... – S. Sra Apr 12 2011 at 7:08

closed as off topic by J.C. Ottem, Nate Eldredge, Andy Putman, Zev Chonoles, Charles Siegel Apr 11 2011 at 22:21

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