Setup Instructions
Here follows computer requirements and setup instructions. General Resources will be in the Resources file.
Computer requirements:
Bring your wireless-enabled laptop. MAA assures that there will be adequate wifi for the workshop in our room.
Get set up for using MBX on your computer. This involves the following (and see below):
Getting some "command line tools", including xsltproc and git
Finding a text editor you may like - NOT a word processor like MS Office or Open/LibreOffice
Downloading the actual MathBook XML processor using the "git clone" command
If you want the workshop leader to be able to easily see your documents, you may wish to use the cloud option in addition to on your local computer (or exclusively, if you have little experience with command line options).
Optional: start making MBX documents! See the resources for MBX below, as well as the videos. The site http://mathbook.pugetsound.edu/quickstart.html is a good first place to look for how to make your first document.
Optional for the workshop, but long-term probably not: Install LaTeX on your computer. See below.
Depending upon your OS choice, there are more or fewer steps for setting up MBX.
Videos
Informational videos for setting up your computer, as well as processing your first MBX document, are in my Google Drive folder at https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1cVidfJQblveWh0TnhuQVpqdWc
Instructions
Setup instructions on various systems
Cloud
The easiest option for starting is using a cloud solution, since it only requires a modern browser. This is a good long-term solution for team projects, but for individual ones it has the obvious handicap of requiring one to be online. Thanks to the generosity of SageMath, Inc., we can provide free upgraded projects through Jan. 31 which include everything needed except MBX itself. Google Chrome recommended as browser.
In this case, to begin you will need to create a SageMathCloud account - you should have received a separate email invitation to the “course” for this workshop. Once logged in, you should be have a project in your Project List with the name of the Course, “JointMeetings2017MBX”, plus your name. Click on that.
At this point, you just need to find the “New” button at the upper left and add a new Terminal. You should be able to run the following command: git clone https://github.com/rbeezer/mathbook.git If this doesn’t work, please email me immediately so I can make sure you have internet access.
To start making MBX documents, go again to “New” and click the “File” drop-down menu, choosing “Xml” toward the bottom.
Relevant video instructions also at https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1cVidfJQblvQU1DR2NSSGxYT3M
Linux
If you have Linux, we assume you know how to apt-get or yum or whatever the stuff you need. The prerequisites include xsltproc and git. Then you will need to run “git clone https://github.com/rbeezer/mathbook.git” wherever you want to install MBX.
See also the Cloud instructions and the video at https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1cVidfJQblvQU1DR2NSSGxYT3M for relevant information.
Mac
On Mac, the main hurdle is to open the Terminal window. You will need to get to the Finder, and then open the Utilities folder. One way is with “Shift+Command+U”. Inside here is the Terminal; open this.
The easiest way to get started will then be to issue the command “git clone https://github.com/rbeezer/mathbook.git” directly. However, you could alternately navigate to a different folder where you wanted to put it. I put it near my MBX projects, but putting it in your home directory is fine for now.
If you already have command line tools for Mac OS, you will see the mathbook folder download. If not, you will be asked several questions about installing “command line tools”. Just accept the defaults and minimal installation; this is all you should need for getting the necessary stuff.
See also the introductory video at https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1cVidfJQblvX3A3YmxaVWFKRmM for how to then create and use your first MBX documents. It uses the pico/nano text editor to create documents, but there are also many other options.
Windows
As one might expect, Windows is not as natively great at processing stuff developed first on Linux. However, it turns out to be relatively straightforward to install, if somewhat tedious and requiring familiarity with making folders in Windows.
I have made a video outlining this process in excruciating detail at https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1cVidfJQblvdmJTRFlReF9jbFE It follows closely with the instructions in the Author’s Guide at the MBX website, or you may enjoy reading the MBX source for this at https://github.com/rbeezer/mathbook/blob/dev/doc/author-guide/windows.xml
The main thing is that you will have to download “Git bash” for Windows, and then a lot of annoying little downloads for xsltproc to work its magic. But it actually does work reasonably well, once you get there.