What's new

1.0.0

The first public version of Beermat: an engineering worksheet where you write math on the page as you would on paper, with real units, and it works out the results. The worksheet, the editor, units, plots, symbolic algebra, printing, PDF and Word export, .xmcd import, the beermat command, AI assistants through MCP, Beermat in the browser, the VS Code extension, Python functions in a sheet, and the manual. The previews’ notes, below, tell how it got here.

New since 1.0.0-beta.1:

• Type math in LaTeX: Ctrl+L (⌘L on a Mac, or TeX on the toolbar) opens a box where you type LaTeX, such as M = \frac{q L^2}{8}, and Enter turns it into math. On a statement, Ctrl+L shows it as LaTeX to change. Pasting LaTeX in $…$ makes math too. Fractions, powers, subscripts, roots, Greek letters, functions, matrices, sums, integrals, derivatives and units are read.
• Fixed: the update check told someone on 1.0.0-beta.1 that 1.0.0-dev3 was out; previews now come in order (dev, beta, rc).
• Fixed: in a text region, the same character typed twice quickly could arrive only once; Esc now hands the keyboard back to the page.

1.0.0-beta.1 (beta)

The first beta of 1.0: everything 1.0 will have, to try on Windows, macOS and Linux. Please report what you find in issues.

• The manual’s examples are drawn by Beermat, worked out as you’d see them on the page, with Open this example to try each one in the browser, and the sheet to download.
• On a Mac, ⌘ is the command key: ⌘Z, ⌘S, ⌘C, ⌘V and every other shortcut written with Ctrl work with ⌘ (Ctrl still works too); ⌘⇧Z redoes, ⌘-click adds a region to the selection, and the menus show ⌘. Ctrl+Shift+Z redoes on every system (#10).
• = after a name that means nothing yet starts its definition: typing x=5 makes x := 5 (#11).
• New units: h for the hour, GW and GJ (#9).
• Fixed: the update check found no new version while every release was a preview (#8); a preview now hears of the next preview, and a final version only of final versions.
• Fixed: a result that couldn’t be shown dropped the unit asked for; σ = ? kN with the wrong unit now shows σ = ■ kN above its error.

1.0.0-dev3 (developer preview)

The fourth preview: Beermat in VS Code, Export to Word, the manual’s pages in draft, and Python of your own. Please try it and report what you find.

• The web version brings its own fonts for symbols (→, ⋮, ▦…), so it downloads none.
• Making room on the page: with the crosshair on the page, Enter pushes everything below it down a line; Backspace and Delete take a blank line out above or below it.
• The web version says what needs the desktop app, and where to get it, rather than naming what’s inside it.
• The manual: the logo leads back to beermat.pub.
• Big arrays are tables: an array with more than 20 rows or columns, a result or one written in the sheet, shows 20 at a time with row and column numbers; the mouse wheel over it scrolls it. Fixed: .xmcd sheets with big input tables stopped the desktop app (“Can’t represent a width … in Constraints”).
• Fixed: regions past the page’s right edge couldn’t be scrolled to. They now print (and export to PDF) on extra pages after their page; File → Print single page width leaves them out.
• The system’s own file dialogs: on Windows, Open, Save As, Insert Picture and Export now use the modern Explorer dialog.
• A word and a space make text: typing a word and then a space at the crosshair turns the new region into a text region, and the typing goes on there.
• The manual’s reference: every built-in function with an example, every unit, worksheet setting and key. F1 on a function opens its page; Help → Keyboard shortcuts opens the keys.
• Your own Python packages: Tools → Python packages… installs packages such as NumPy or SciPy for the Python files your sheets use, without a terminal or admin rights, into a folder of yours that updates leave alone (beermat packages install numpy from the command line).
• Beermat in VS Code (first version): the extension opens .bbm files on their page inside VS Code, kept in step with the text, so undo, saving, git and other extensions work on the same file; Open as Text shows the Markdown beside it. Install beermat-….vsix from the release with code --install-extension. With the desktop app installed, symbolic algebra works there too, through its beermat command; Data files beside the sheet are read as well, and Python functions run after you allow the file, as in the app; Excel files are read too, and Beermat: Import .xmcd Worksheet… converts older worksheets. AI assistants work on the open sheet, live, as in the app (Beermat: Connect Claude Code).
• Open .xmcd worksheets in the app: File → Open converts one, and lists anything that didn’t come across; saving keeps it as a .bbm beside the original.
• Export to Word: File → Export to Word… (and a Word button in the web version) writes the sheet as a Word document: text with its formatting, every equation an editable Word equation with its result, tables, plots and pictures (beermat export --to docx too).
• The manual’s written pages (draft): getting started with a whole beam calculation, tutorials, how-to guides, explanations, and the reference for the math syntax, results, error messages, the file format and the MCP tools.
• Your own Python: for those who keep a Python of their own (a venv, Conda), Tools → Python packages… (or beermat python <path>) runs the sheets’ Python files there, with its packages. SymPy stays in Beermat’s own Python.
• Functions on arrays: a function that takes one number (sqrt, sin, ln, round…) works on every element of an array by itself, sqrt(v) without vec().
• Symbolic results with units are written as units are, q*L^2/8 -> ? giving 54 kN*m in the file and on the command line (it was 54000 \rm N*\rm m), with the engineering prefix as for =.
• A warning for a variable that hides a unit: after m := 5, writing 3 m (meaning metres) shows an orange warning under the statement, and beermat check reports it.
• Insert → Table: a new table at the crosshair (also ▦ on the toolbar), named so its columns can be used below it; right-click → Name… renames it.
• Fixed: nthroot of a negative number gave a complex root; an odd root is now the real one (nthroot(-8, 3) is −2).

1.0.0-dev2 (developer preview)

The third preview: everything a first public version needs, put out the way 1.0 will be, with the download page, the manual and Beermat in the browser. Please try it and report what you find.

• The beermat command comes with the desktop app: no separate download and no Java to install. On Windows the installer adds it to the PATH; on macOS and Linux, Tools → Install the beermat command.
• Fixed: the arrow keys moved the crosshair (and selected regions) without the page showing it until the next edit, in the browser and on the desktop.
• Results with engineering prefixes: with no unit asked for, 54 kN·m rather than 54000 N·m, 210 GPa, 12 mm. A sheet that prefers the plain units sets result: {prefixes: false}.
• Divisions on the line: Ctrl+/ (or typing ÷) gives a ÷ b, and right-click on any division chooses Stacked, Inline ÷ or Inline /. Imported .xmcd sheets keep their inline divisions.
• Angles and money as dimensions, for sheets that want them checked: angle: dimension makes rad a unit (a rotation stiffness is kN·m/rad, not a moment; asin gives degrees), and currency: AUD makes money a unit (120 AUD/m^3 · 4 m^3 = 480 AUD). Both are off by default; Format → Units turns them on.
• A global (≡) is defined once: redefining it with :=, or a second ≡ of the same name, is now an error, so a global means the same everywhere in the sheet.
• The manual has begun, at beermat.pub/docs: installing, your first worksheet, the command line. Help → Manual or F1 opens it, and so does the web version’s Manual button.
• The website has a download page for the newest version, and links to the web version and the manual. What’s coming is in ROADMAP.md.
• The web version: the name in the top bar and a beermat.pub button lead back to the website; “Get the desktop app” opens the download page; the browser tab has Beermat’s icon.

1.0.0-dev1 (developer preview)

The second preview, and the first with Beermat in the browser: beermat.pub/try, nothing to install. Please try it and report what you find.

• The web version: the same page, toolbar and keys as the desktop app. Open the examples, open and save sheets from your computer; your sheet stays in the browser until you save it. Printing, PDF, .xmcd import, SymPy, Python functions and the AI assistant (MCP) are in the desktop versions, shown greyed in the browser.
• Much faster on big sheets: sheets that fill arrays in loops, or define many local variables, run in seconds where they took hours.
• Solve blocks keep every part of a chained constraint (0 < L < L_max), and stay near the guesses, so a fit no longer jumps to a solution on the other side of a pole.
• Units: a zero matches any unit in a sum, and a plain 0 in an array of lengths is 0 m.
• The keyboard: the arrow keys move the crosshair (or the selected regions), Enter moves it down a line, and Tab goes on to the next region once no placeholder is left.
• Fixed: a symbolic result could show the answer to an earlier statement after the sheet was edited while SymPy worked; the toolbar no longer starts a wrapped row with a divider; the status bar says “AI/MCP”; the installer’s header shows only the logo.

1.0.0-dev0 (developer preview)

The first build to try: everything below under 1.0.0 is in it, along with what came since. It is a preview, so expect rough edges, and please report what you find.

New since the plan below was written:

• Python functions in a sheet: bt := use "beam_tools.py", then bt.moment(12 kN/m, 6 m). Units come from the function’s annotations (q: "kN/m"). Typing bt. lists the functions, and hovering shows their signature and docstring. A sheet asks before it runs a Python file.
• Units in symbolic results: q*L^2/8 → 54000 N·m, with the units checked.
• Tables with Excel-style cell references (B5, B2:B6), and a grid editor that pastes from Excel.
• Printing and PDF export, with selectable, searchable text; headers and footers with page numbers.
• Pictures in the sheet: insert, paste, resize.
• Data and numerics: curve fitting and interpolation, reading data files (CSV, text, Excel), eigenvalues, FFTs, ODE solvers, optimisation (Minimize, Maximize), temperatures in °C and °F.
• Numbers in other bases: 0x1F, 0o17, 0b101.
• Matrices can be resized after they are made (Ctrl+M inside one).
• Importing .xmcd worksheets is much more complete: controls, data tables and spreadsheet components come in as their values, and results are checked against the values saved in the files.