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https://github.com/neldredge/mathgen

Generate random nonsense math papers
https://github.com/neldredge/mathgen

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Generate random nonsense math papers

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README 

        
Mathgen

=======



Mathgen is a tool to randomly generate fake mathematics papers.



Online version: https://thatsmathematics.com/mathgen/

Blog page: https://thatsmathematics.com/blog/mathgen/

Source code (Github): https://github.com/neldredge/mathgen



Prerequisites

=============



Mathgen was developed and tested on Ubuntu Linux.  It should work on

other flavors of Unix also.  I have not tried other systems; if you

have a reasonable Perl installation I would guess you should be okay,

but I make no promises.



To run Mathgen, you will need:



- Perl

- LaTeX

- BibTeX

- zip (for --mode=zip)



You will need the following LaTeX packages:



- AMS-LaTeX

- fullpage

- mathrsfs

- natbib

- truncate



If you want to produce books (--product=book), you will need the

following additional LaTeX packages:



- geometry

- txfonts

- hyphenat

- textcase

- hyperref

- titlesec

- makeidx

- url

- tocbibind



You will also need the `makeindex' program.



Running

=======



The main Mathgen program is `mathgen.pl'.  For a summary of options,

run:



$ ./mathgen.pl --help



The current default behavior, if `mathgen.pl' is run without options,

is to generate an article with one randomly generated author and view

the output with `evince'.



NOTE: since recent versions of Perl no longer search the current

directory by default, if you get an error saying "Can't locate

scigen.pn in @INC", you can run `perl -I. ./mathgen.pl` instead.  This

will eventually be replaced with a proper installation procedure.



Examples

========



Generate an article with author "J. Doe" and view the output with

xpdf:



$ ./mathgen.pl --product=article --mode=view --author="J. Doe" --viewer=xpdf



The same, but write the PDF to `mypaper.pdf':



$ ./mathgen.pl --product=article --mode=pdf --author="J. Doe" --output=mypaper.pdf



Give yourself a famous collaborator, and create a zip file with the

source and PDF:



$ ./mathgen.pl --product=article --mode=zip --output=mypaper.zip --author="J. Doe" --author="P. Erd\H{o}s"



Tip: To randomly generate an author's name, you can use

`--author=FAMOUS_AUTHOR' or `--author=GENERIC_AUTHOR'.



Generate a book:



$ ./mathgen.pl --product=book --mode=pdf --output=mybook.pdf --author="J. Doe"



Note that this may take a couple of minutes to generate and compile.



Merchandising

=============



As an unofficial fundraiser for the American Mathematical Society, I

am selling randomly generated textbooks via Lulu.com.  For more

information, visit



https://thatsmathematics.com/blog/mathgen-books/



US$5.00 from each sale will be donated to the AMS.   I earn no other

money from these books.



Currently available titles (the author names are also randomly generated):



_Galois Knot Theory_ by J. Maruyama.  Paperback, 323 pages.



_Convex Algebra_ by E. Brown.  Hardcover, 314 pages.



_Higher Group Theory_ by H. Smith.  Paperback, 351 pages.



Each is professionally bound, looks impressive on your desk or

bookshelf, and would make a great gift!



You can also use Lulu.com (or another self-publishing site) to produce

your own personalized Mathgen textbooks.  The output from

`--product=book' is set for 6x9 inch paper and should work directly

for Lulu's "US Trade" size.  



Source code

===========



A quick road map to the files in the source distribution:



- mathgen.pl: Main driver file, processes options and disposes of

  output.



- scigen.pm: The SCIgen grammar engine.  Reads the rules files and

  generates the output.



- scirules.in: Common grammar rules, included into the following

  files.



- sci{article,book,blurb}.in: Grammar rules specific for the

  corresponding products.



Credits

=======



Mathgen was written by Nate Eldredge ,

incorporating code from SCIgen (https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/scigen/),

by Jeremy Stribling, Max Krohn, and Dan Aguayo, without whom this

project would not exist.  Jordan Eldredge wrote most of the web

interface.



A list of names of famous mathematicians, used in the program, was

extracted from the web site The Greatest Mathematicians of All Time

(https://fabpedigree.com/james/greatmm.htm) by James Dow Allen, and is

used by permission. A list of countries and other place names was

taken from Wikipedia

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_adjectival_and_demonymic_forms_of_place_names)



License

=======



Mathgen is free software.  You are welcome to share, copy, and modify

it, under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 2.0.

See the file COPYING.