Patrick Reany
3/24/2023
On 3/22/2023 I asked BingChat if it can understand LaTeX coding. It said
that it could, so here is my test of it.
Patrick: I have some LaTeX coding questions for you, please.BC: Sure! What do you need help with?
Patrick: I need the code for a 4 by 4 square diagonal matrix with big zeros
on the top right and bottom left.
BC: Here's the code for a 4 by 4 square diagonal matrix with big zeros on the
top right and bottom left:
\[
\begin{bmatrix}
0 & 0 & 0 & \Huge{\textbf{0}} \\
0 & 0 & \Huge{\textbf{0}} & 0 \\
0 & \Huge{\textbf{0}} & 0 & 0 \\
\Huge{\textbf{0}} & 0 & 0 & 0
\end{bmatrix}
\]
BC did give me a lot of useful information, but it missed the mark. Granted, this
was a difficult problem for the AI machine to solve, but a human knowledgeable
in math would know exactly what I wanted. For starters, BC coded for an anti-diagonal
matrix (sort of), though I asked for a diagonal matrix.
So, let's start to modify what BC gave me, step by step. (All modifications
to this original solution I did without further interaction with BC.) First,
I wanted a diagonal matrix,
\[
\begin{bmatrix}
a_{11} & 0 & 0 & \Huge{\textbf{0}} \\
0 & a_{22} & \Huge{\textbf{0}} & 0 \\
0 & \Huge{\textbf{0}} & a_{33} & 0 \\
\Huge{\textbf{0}} & 0 & 0 & a_{44}
\end{bmatrix}
\]
Next, let's get rid of the off-diagonal regular zeros:
\[
\begin{bmatrix}
a_{11} & & & \\
& a_{22} & \Huge{\textbf{0}} & \\
& \Huge{\textbf{0}} & a_{33} & \\
& & & a_{44}
\end{bmatrix}
\]
Now, some horizontal-vertical adjustments:
\begin{equation}
\begin{bmatrix}
a_{11} & & & \\
& a_{22} & & \\
& & a_{33} & \\
& & & a_{44}
\end{bmatrix}\notag
\end{equation}
\vskip-.685in
\hskip2.3219in\mbox{\Huge{\textbf{0}}}
\vskip.0685in
\hskip1.787in \mbox{\Huge{\textbf{0}}}
And that is more what I had in mind. At this point in time, there may
be a LaTeX macro for this kind of thing, but I'm not aware of it.
So, how should I score BC on this problem? Well, I'll give 4 points
out of 5, because 1) the problem is difficult and 2) my description
of the problem was rather limited. On the plus side, BC did get the
solution started.
Next, I asked BC to help me write code for an itemized list:
Patrick: I need the code for a list of the following four lines:BC: Here's the code for a list of the following four lines: Python, HTML, C++, Rust,
Python, HTML, C++, Rust, and I want the item marker starting each
line to be an alphabetic letter (lower case) in order.
\begin{enumerate}[a)]
\item Python
\item HTML
\item C++
\item Rust
\end{enumerate}
This worked well, but only after I included the command '\usepackage{enumerate}'
in the header. I believe that the user should be informed if special packages are
required for the code to work. Nevertheless, I'll give BC's solution 4 points out of 5.
Patrick: Do you know the LaTeX xy-pic package?BC: Yes, Xy-pic is a package for typesetting graphs and diagrams using the principle
\usepackage[all]{xy}
Good! This time the user was informed. Now to the test problem:
Patrick: I need the Xy-pic code for a commutative diagram with four corners,
labeled as: A at top left, B at top right, A' at bottom left, B' at bottom right.
BC: Here's the Xy-pic code for a commutative diagram with four corners, labeled
as: A at top left, B at top right, A' at bottom left, B' at bottom right:
\[
\xymatrix{
A \ar[r] \ar[d] & B \ar[d] \\
A' \ar[r] & B'
}
\]
Excellent! I'll give BC's solution 5 points out of 5 on this one!
Patrick: I need the LeTeX code for the math variable H with subscript ["at time" \cr $t=0$ ]
[Note: BC corrected my spelling error.]
BC: Here's the LaTeX code for the math variable H with subscript ["at time" \cr $t=0$ ]:
H_{\text{at time}\atop t=0}
And this is correct! But the user has to be pretty smart about how to phrase the question.
I knew from PlainTeX that the symbol '\cr' meant 'carriage return'. That's was the point
of my challenge to BC: Could it tell me how to code a subscript with a carriage return in it.
Again, I'll give BC's solution 5 points out of 5!
The problem with me trying to get a chatbot to invent LaTeX code for me is that I have
to be so specific in my instructions, that I would be writing the code essentially already.
The last thing I may use the chatbots for is to debug LaTeX code to find an error.
That should be interesting.
Another use of a chatbot for LaTeX coding would be to ask it if it knows of the existence of
a particular package that can facilitate performing a certain function for the user or if it
knows of a particular user-defined macro out on the Web somewhere. Lastly, it might be
much faster to ask a LaTeX knowledgeable chatbot how to perform a simple LaTeX encoding
than to look it up oneself. Granted, the code you get back might have some minor errors
in it, but it could still be worth it. Overall, I'm very impressed with BC's knowledge of LaTeX.