LaTeX Keyboard in the Firefox OS Marketplace!

Google Summer of Code 2014 is about to end and next Monday is the official pencils-down date in which our students should stop producing code. Fortunately, I’m proud to announce my mentee, Raniere Da Silva, has released his LaTeX Keyboard for Math in the Firefox OS Marketplace. Notice you need Firefox OS 2.0 or greater to use it.

The keyboard includes:

  • Five layouts for a default English input, numbers and symbols, greek letters (with uppercase variations), functions and operators.
  • The common forms of functions and operators contain alternatives for less common variations of themselves.
  • An input assistant to automatically enter and leaving LaTeX math contexts.
  • Placeholder navigation between LaTeX math commands.

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Freedom of speech, be ashamed

Edit: I was thinking about removing this post for a long time. Recent events in Mozilla, by  February 2017, convinced me of removing the post but instead, I decided to keep it and add this note instead so you can see how I thought and how I think.

I regret of this post for several reasons: it was an attempt to give a political/social opinion in a programming blog, the title is click bait, content is written in a prescriptive and moral judging style, you can perceive anger through my words… The sensationalism blurred the original intention and although I continue thinking there are a lot of things wrong with the CREDO petition, now, with much more vital experience on my side, I can understand the roots of anger in the petition.

I’m not proud of this post, I can not change what I said but I can recognise my errors, make the proper amendments and move on. Here it is the original version:

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Article 19 of the Universal declaration of human rights.

Sorry for the dramatic title but I was torn between that and this: today is a bad day for the Internet and Mozilla. Drama possessed me at the last moment.

Long time has passed since the last time I write here and I did not expect to write about this matter but yesterday I read Brendam Eich has resigned from its position as CEO of the Mozilla Company due to the pressures of LGBT collectives about the donation of 1,000 $ Brendam gave to California’s Proposition 8. And that is sad. It is sad because one of the Mozilla’s co-founders, one guy that have spend more than 15 years fighting for a more open and global Internet and a person I respect, I consider smart and with the aptitudes to lead a company like Mozilla helping with its real mission is now out of the game simply because «he did not think like majority».

And it scares me a lot: the same Americans claiming for openness and equality are denying a person their right to be a legitimate CEO due to a completely legal action. The law is the moral of people. A democratic society elect people who write down the moral judgements in terms of law. And laws prove themselves valid if they survive successive legislatures cause this means moral decisions became culture believes. If gay marriage and rights have been accepted wide globally is thanks to this effect. Thanks to our democratic society that allows the freedom of though and expression and give the citizen the power to convince without the use of force. Or, at least, to try to convince.

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Trabajando en FirefoxOS

Como os prometía, aquí tenéis la traducción al español del artículo que se publicaba ayer sobre cómo era trabajar con Mozilla en Firefox OS:

Escuchando las noticias del MWC 2013 y a la mayor parte de la prensa especializada te das cuenta de casi nada se ha dicho del enorme esfuerzo realizado por Telefónica I+D en materia de desarrollo en FirefoxOS (aunque se puede encontrar una importante mención por parte de Gary Kovacs en la rueda de prensa completa). Quizá Telefónica no tenga la mejor reputación en España pero puedo asegurar que la división de investigación y desarrollo, TID, está llena de personas de gran valor y que la compañía está haciendo lo mejor que puede por reclutar desarrolladores y managers con talento.

Quiero hablar de cómo es trabajar en FirefoxOS. Como probablemente sepas (o no), me trasladaron al proyecto OWD (Open Web Device) de Telefónica I+D en Mayo de 2012. OWD es el nombre de la iniciativa dentro de TID apoyando el desarrollo de FirefoxOS tanto en back-end como en front-end. Esto significa que hay código de los miembros de TID dentro de Gecko y de Gaia. Gecko es el navegador haciendo de sistema operativo mientras que Gaia es la capa de software con la que el usuario interactúa. Puedes ver el video de demostración del MWC 2013 si quieres conocer más sobre la plataforma.

Trabajar con Mozilla está siendo una experiencia muy enriquecedora permitiendo a miembros de ambas compañías abrir sus mentes a otras formas de trabajar, gestionar, culturas comerciales y motivaciones.

Se dice que los desarrolladores de Mozilla se encuentran entre los mejores hackers del mundo y os puedo asegurar que es mayoritariamente cierto no sólo porque cuenten entre sus filas con reconocidos profesionales sino por la dedicación y pasión que ponen en los retos que enfrentan. Y exactamente lo mismo puede decirse de los ingenieros de TID. Nunca estuve en un equipo tan virtuoso lleno de buenos desarrolladores y managers tan volcados. Este trabajo es mi primera aproximación a un proyecto tan grande con equipos diferenciados para desarollo, calidad y experiencia de usuario.

Sin embargo, también existen puntos de confrontación como es natural en cualquier relación.

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Working on FirefoxOS

I was thinking about writing in English and expand the scope of the blog as it is widely read around the Spanish-speaking community. So this is my first English post but I’m planning to translate most visited posts as well. Anyway, I promise to publish another post with the translation of this 😉

Listening the news from MWC 2013 and most of the specialized press media, you realize that almost none is said about the big development effort made by Telefónica I+D on FirefoxOS (but can find an important mention from Gary Kovacs in the complete press conference). Maybe Telefónica does not have the best reputation in Spain, but I can ensure the research & development division, TID, is full of valuable people and the company is pushing hard to chase talented developers and managers out there.

I want to talk about how working on FirefoxOS is. As you probably know (or not), I was moved to OWD (Open Web Device) project in Telefónica I+D in May, 2012. OWD is the name of the initiative inside TID supporting FirefoxOS development both in back-end and also in front-end. This means there are code from TID members inside Gecko and Gaia. Gecko is the browser acting like the operating system while Gaia is the software layer the user will interact with. You can see the demo video of the MWC 2013 if you want to know more about the platform.

Working with Mozilla is being a very enriching experience allowing members from both companies to open their minds to other ways of work, management, company cultures and motivations.

Mozilla developers are said to be between the best hackers in the world and I can assure you it is mostly true; not only because they have recognized experts in their ranks but because the passion and dedication each of them put in the challenges they face. And exactly the same can be said about the engineers in TID. I’ve never been in such talented team plenty of good developers and willing managers. This job is my first approach to a big project with differentiated teams for Development, Quality Assurance and User eXperience and I’m proud to say I’m in this awesome team.

Although, there have been some confrontation points too as it is natural in any relationship.

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