The tool
The language HTML offers to some extent the possibility to represent
mathematical symbols in a web browser - without the absolute necessity
of browser plug-ins or downloading documents in formats other than HTML.
For example, did you know that the code
<font face="Symbol">p</font>
stands for the symbol symbol p (pi)?
(For a problem emerging with this way of representing special symbols in the browsers Netscape 6+ and Mozilla
and how to resolve it, consult the page on
optimal preferences).
maths online offers a tool which makes the generation of HTML code for
maths formulae a fairly easy matter - provided you have some elementary knowledge
of HTML, and provided the symbols needed are among the fonts a web browser may
access. The button
calls the application. It comes with a detailled description and shall help
learners and teachers to design attractive web pages (as for example the
worksheets of our
suggestions for the classroom).
You may as well obtain an offline version of the tool
(see maths online download resources)
which makes you independent of a web connection while working on your pages.
Further possibilities ...
... arise when you use other programs or languages when generating your formulae:
- If a document is written in LaTeX it may be converted into HTML by
the program
TTH: a TeX to HTML translator
which uses genuine fonts, much like our tool offered above.
Sophisticated formulae are represented by means of appropriate table
constructions, so that only few things are still not possible
(as for example symbols with vector arrow in a line of text).
The program is free for non-commerial use and works quite fast.
- Another application translating LaTeX documents into HTML
is
The
LaTeX2HTML Translator.
It represents formulae graphically, and is thus not restricted by any font limitation.
As a disadvantage, it generated a graphic file for ach formula, which makes
later corrections pretty difficult. Nevertheless it is frequently used.
- For the use of Java to represent mathematical formula written in LaTeX, see
HotEqn
and
WebEQ.
- Optimal strategies for implementing mathematical formulae is the subject of a numer
of projects. A good survey - concerning existing solutions as well as future
plans - is provided by the article
Approaches to WWW Mathematics Documents
by Ian Hutchinson.
The W3 consortium, devoted to the suggestion of standards for the world wide web,
recommends (since April 1998) the
Mathematical Markup Language (MathML). See the page
W3C's Math Home Page.
It also provides a list of applications
(e.g. computer algebra systems, browsers and editors) which have begun
implementing MathML, as well as related software. The project
Amaya - W3C's Editor/Browser.
is devoted to the development of a fully "maths enabled" web browser.
- If a document has been written in Word 97 it may be saved as a web page,
where the mathematical symbole (generated by Word's formula editor)
are represented graphically.
- Similar functionalities are becoming adopted by the newer versions of other applications
like editors and computer algebra systems.
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