Handcalcs: Write calculations in Python, rendered automatically as Latex

This is a library that I use daily in my work as a design engineer for quickly writing and printing calculations. My company has agreed that I may publish it as free and open source.

In the engineering world, often times Excel is king. However, it is not transparent: you type a formula in a cell and 1) the formula only contains cell references (unless you define cell names) and 2) the formula is hidden. For accountability, you have to separately type the formula in an adjacent cell so you can print your sheet out as a report or calc sheet. However, the formula you typed is just text: the resulting value has no relationship with the formatted formula you typed out and you have to change both to update. This makes maintenance cumbersome.

I wanted the formula I typed to be the same as the formatted representation of the formula I typed -- change the representation and the result changes. SMathStudio and MathCAD do this but you still have to layout formulas on the sheet and, most importantly, none of these software packages show the numerical substitution, critical for quickly checking correctness of calculations. I wrote handcalcs to address this problem.

To use: run Jupyter and use the cell magic, %%render, then just type in your calculations. Run the cell to see them all rendered out in Mathjax or Katex.

While it is designed to work in Jupyter, it also has a decorator interface for use in other environments that render Latex (e.g. Streamlit).

The intended audience for handcalcs is engineers, estimators, teachers, students, or anyone else that tends to need to perform documented calculations. However, I am guessing that this may be useful to many others in ways I do not know.

Open to feedback and suggestions for enhancement!