Editing Math Formulas

[lbrtchx]

I am trying to write up a page with Math formulas (statistical ones)
~
http://www.geocities.com/tekmonk2005/OnLineStats02.html
~
The thing is that I am not able to make it look OK using HTML. I
would like to somehow mark up parenthesis using the character entities
for vertical bars and solid front and back slashes, but
~
<td align="left">|</td>
~
doesn't appear to be working
~
Does it make sense to waste your time learning MathML (http://
www.w3.org/TR/REC-MathML/) or is it better using a format like PDF?
~
Also I would prefer to use and authoring tool like scribus and save
files as PDF. Any tutorials that make sense out there. I have had
cases in which "Google" made me waste time. This is why I would rather
ask
~
lbrtchx

[lbrtchx]

I think I will end up going for a three prompt strategy
~
1._ using LaTeX to author Math documents and produce pdf printer-
friendly docs.
I really don't think that the web was design as the next "TV set" or
"book" to me the web is just a "click and go" medium. Besides most
tech people I know like to print out their own papers and jot down
their own notes on them
~
Even the firefox people recommend to use LaTeX
// __ http://www.mozilla.org/projects/mathml/
"The lingua franca for formula-intensive documents is TeX/LaTeX and
the use of MathML is not yet widespread."
~
2._ use these off and online LaTeX MathML translation packages
// __ http://pear.math.pitt.edu/mathzilla/
~
3._ Advising people to install Firefox (which is my site's designed
for and preferred browser)
~
lbrtchx

[Scott Bryce]

lb*****@hotmail .com wrote:

3._ Advising people to install Firefox (which is my site's designed
for and preferred browser)

This really isn't a good option. You will be making your site too
cumbersome to read for those who do not already have FireFox installed.

Besides most
tech people I know like to print out their own papers and jot down
their own notes on them

If this is the way you expect the output from your site to be used, just
go with PDF.

[fred wang]

On Apr 9, 3:55 pm, lbrt...@hotmail .com wrote:

I think I will end up going for a three prompt strategy
~
1._ using LaTeX to author Math documents and produce pdf printer-
friendly docs.
I really don't think that the web was design as the next "TV set" or
"book" to me the web is just a "click and go" medium. Besides most
tech people I know like to print out their own papers and jot down
their own notes on them
~
Even the firefox people recommend to use LaTeX
// __http://www.mozilla.org/projects/mathml/
"The lingua franca for formula-intensive documents is TeX/LaTeX and
the use ofMathMLis not yet widespread."
~
2._ use these off and online LaTeX >MathMLtranslat ion packages
// __http://pear.math.pitt. edu/mathzilla/
~
3._ Advising people to install Firefox (which is my site's designed
for and preferred browser)
~
lbrtchx

ok, good luck ! And don't forget to save your page in xml format.

Fred

[Paul Hirose]

"fred wang" <fw*******@gmai l.comwrote in message
news:11******** *************@y 80g2000hsf.goog legroups.com...

You should better use MathML than HTML to code mathematical
formulae.
The W3C specification indicates that MathML is not supposed to be
coded directly. You can use a WYSIWYG editor such as Amaya.

Thanks for motivating me to fix my MathPlayer installation. A few
months ago it quit working after I updated to Internet Explorer 7.
(Not a big deal since normally I use Firefox.) I never got around to
repairing it till seeing your postings. It was time to get a fresh
download anyway; I hadn't been keeping up with the updates. It only
took a few minutes on dial up. Seems to be working fine.

One annoyance is that my IE 7 security settings are fairly strict, and
they block MathML content unless the site is on my "trusted" list. But
I get much the same deal from Firefox: it tells me some content is
blocked, and I have to explicitly give permission to let it through.
Even so, I like equations in MathML better than images.

Just for entertainment I have used Windows Notepad to manually create
the MathML for some horrendous equations. It can be done. The secret
is to first do all of the topmost level, then fill in the detail one
level down, etc. In anything complicated it's too easy to get lost if
you try to code the equation in one pass from left to right.

--
Paul Hirose <jv********@ear INVALIDthlink.n et>
To reply by email remove INVALID

[fwsmail35]

>Thanks for motivating me to fix my MathPlayer installation. A few

>months ago it quit working after I updated to Internet Explorer 7.
(Not a big deal since normally I use Firefox.) I never got around to
repairing it till seeing your postings. It was time to get a fresh
download anyway; I hadn't been keeping up with the updates. It only
took a few minutes on dial up. Seems to be working fine.

>One annoyance is that my IE 7 security settings are fairly strict, and
they block MathML content unless the site is on my "trusted" list. But
I get much the same deal from Firefox: it tells me some content is
blocked, and I have to explicitly give permission to let it through.
Even so, I like equations in MathML better than images.

I also had this problem with IE7, but I didn't try to update
Mathplayer. I'm a bit surprised that MathML content are blocked with
your browsers... BTW, I forgot to say that IE7 seems to refuse
application/xhtml+xml content, so it could be a problem if MathML is
in a xml file. On my website, I send a text/html header to IE7 thanks
to a PHP script.

>Just for entertainment I have used Windows Notepad to manually create
the MathML for some horrendous equations. It can be done. The secret
is to first do all of the topmost level, then fill in the detail one
level down, etc. In anything complicated it's too easy to get lost if
you try to code the equation in one pass from left to right.

At the beginning, I generated some fragments of MathML with Amaya, I
completed manually, I made several copy/paste etc. I know this is
possible, but I don't think I is a good idea when you have to make
complex formulae. In the W3C MathML specification, it is said a
WYSIWYG editor should better be used. I agree with it and that's why I
contribute to the W3C's editor.

[VK]

On Apr 8, 8:36 pm, lbrt...@hotmail .com wrote:

Does it make sense to waste your time learning MathML (http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-MathML/) or is it better using a format like PDF?

I say it is a per case question. The deal is that MathML is for "math
amateurs". Any real scientific exchange goes in TeX / LaTeX format, in
this format scientifics are posting, preparing their works for
publishing and it will never change for MathML (and for what sky
blue?)

There is a number of tools to convert (La)TeX to MathML, but because
of principal structure differences this process is "one-wayed". So you
can convert TeX to MathML, but there is no reliable way to say save
TeX as MathML, edit it, save changes as TeX etc.

This way the options are:

1) You want to make a few formula-intensive pages for display without
planning any further shared editing. The pages are intended for a
particular auditory where you know that the troubles to install - if
missing - required software are lesser important than an ability to
have well structured math data in supported format.

MathML may be your friend then. For non-Gecko browsers there is free
MathPlayer plugin
http://www.dessci.com/en/products/ma...r/download.htm

On IE 7 it also leads to security dialog, but see what is said above
about priorities.
2) You want to make a few formula-intensive pages for display AND
planning some further shared editing (scientific feedback,
corrections, additions etc). The pages are intended for a particular
auditory where you know that the troubles to install - if missing -
required software are lesser important than an ability to have well
structured math data in supported format.

In this case use the standard TeX format right away. This plugin
http://groups.google.com/group/sci.m...beac943b52f63c
got a good feedback so far, but there are more of course.
3) You want to make a few formula-intensive pages for display without
planning any further shared editing. The pages are intended for the
most wide Web auditory.

Use images or Flash on your HTML page or make the whole page in PDF.