math-flash

Math Flash⚡

A cli tool for creating custom printable flash cards. Math flash comes with a host features such changing the number of flash cards printed on a single page, changing page sizes, previewing flash cards in realtime and more. 🙃

Getting Started

Installation

Installing math-flash is as simple as copying and pasting this to your terminal. Assuming you have node installed on your system.

npm install -g math-flash

Alternatively, you can install the package from source as follows:

git clone https://github.com/sihlecodes/math-flash
cd math-flash
npm install
npm install -g .

The Basics

To get started; create a new folder. Then using the following command you can generate a new flash card file with an example of the definition format.

math-flash -g chapter01.yaml

Using the following command you can start a live preview session. This will open http://localhost:3000 in your browser and allows you to view what your flash cards will look like whenever you make changes to chapter01.yaml (or whatever you called your flash card .yaml file).

math-flash --view chapter01.yaml

Finally you can export your flash cards to PDF format, ready for printing. This will create a folder called ./output/ which has a number of files / folders namely chapter01.pdf and chapter01.html (along with ./shared/) which is used to generate chapter01.pdf.

math-flash chapter01.yaml

When printing ensure that you print with the option: "Flip on long side"

Commandline Usage

Note: no matter what options you use, you must specify ${FLASH_CARD_FILE} which is just a YAML file containing flash card definitions.

Generation flags

Note: Cannot be used in combination with each other.

• --html-only don't generate pdf.
• --pdf-only don't save html files used for pdf generation.
• -g, --generate create a new flash card file using the default template.

Export options & flags

• -f, --format (defaults to A4) pdf output format. (note: ignored if --html-only is used along with this option.)`
• -l, --landscape export pdf in landscape.
• -m, --margins (defaults to 5mm) specify margins in a similar fashion to css margins but dimensions should be comma separated. (i.e. 10px,5mm corresponds to 10px top & bottom margins, 5mm left & right margins). Alternatively you can specify all 4 margins, comma separated of course :D.
• -c, --columns (defaults to 2)
• -r, --rows (defaults to 4)
• -o, --output-directory (defaults to ./output/)
• -n, --output-name (defaults to ${FLASH_CARD_FILE}) name of the resulting pdf and html files
• --font-size, (defaults to 9pt) specified in css units`

Live preview options & flags

• -v, --view launch a live preview in the browser
• -p, --port (defaults to 3000)
• --check-interval, (defaults to 100) interval for checking flash file changes (in milliseconds)

Flash Card Files

A flash card file is simply a .yaml file with the following basic definition properties.

Flash card definition properties

Properties displayed on the front side of the card:

• heading a heading displayed on every card.
• term should be either a question or simple statement that will be explained further by description.
• alias should be an alias of term.
• page should be the page number where term or description can be found.

Properties displayed on the back side of the card:

• description should be used to explain term in detail.
• list a shorthand for generating an html ordered list. Should be specified in a yaml list format. (i.e. separate lines that start with a hyphen or have the values comma separated inside []).
• listStyle changes the numbering style of list (current styles include decimal, roman, alpha, and bracket which is used in combination with one of the others to add a ) instead of . after numbering).
• footer text that goes right after the contents of list.

Tips for Editing Flash Card Files

Inside flash card files, you can:

• add multiple flash card definitions in the same file by separating them using ---.
• embed html tags inside properties.
• embed katex inside properties using $(insert katex code)$ (for inline katex code that is meant to be inline with other text) and $$(insert katex code)$$ (which is for display mode katex which allows you to write larger equations e.g. when writing sums or integrals).

Example Flash Card File

heading: Abstract Algebra

---
term: Characterization of *cyclic groups generated* by an element $a\in G$ in terms of subgroups.
alias: Theorem 3.1
description: |
   Let $G$ be a group and $a\in G$. Then the set $$<a>=\{a^k:k\in\Z}$$ is a subgroup of $G$. Futhermore, $<a>$ is the smallest subgroup of $G$ that contains $a$.
page: 53
---
term: Conditions for $H\sub G$ to be a <b>subgroup</b> (3-step).
alias: Proposition 2.9
page: 124
description: |
  A subset $H$ of $G$ is a subgroup if and only if it satisfies the following conditions.
listStyle: roman bracket
list:
  - The identity $e$ of $G$ is in $H$.
  - If $h_1,h_2\in H$, then $h_1h_2\in H$
  - If $h \in H$, then $h^{-1}\in H$
footer:
  Footer text goes here

License

Licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE.