If one wants to do Maths assignment on the computer, how would he/she go about doing it? I want to be able to use all the mathematical symbols, matrices, formulas and whatnot- the same way mathematicians do when they publish papers.
In other words: what software do people use when they publish Maths research paper, textbook, notes, etc?
On
You can try the software GNU TeXmacs if you've never used $\LaTeX$ before. It's pretty easy to use and it's also self-explanatory.
On
Another good possibility is LyX . It's a front end to LaTeX (as much as texmacs) built according to the concept "what you see is what you mean". Writing equations becomes bullet fast. It also produces a very nice LaTeX code (as opposed to texmacs) and it's fully supported and upgraded
$\mathrm{\LaTeX}$: search Google for many introductions.
(I have previously compiled a lot of $\mathrm{\LaTeX}$ resources here)