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Math Authoring for the Web Made Easier

Author(s): 
Thomas Leathrum (Jacksonville State Univ.)

Abstract:

This article was written using a new stylesheet which provides a hybrid of XHTML with some new elements intended to reflect LaTeX-like document structure. Most of the elements familiar from XHTML are available here, as is nearly all of SVG. Instead of remapping MathML, though, the embedding interface for Content Pseudo-TeX (CPT) is provided, with special tags. Also included are: topmatter formatting, including automatic generation of the table of contents, with internal linking; LaTeX-like elements for definitions, theorems, proofs, and similar environments; automatic numbering of sections, equations, and figures; basic citation formatting, including internal reference annotations; and identifier referencing with automatic internal page linking for citations and numbers.

Requirements:

This article requires a browser with native support for Presentation MathML, and must have a recent Java plug-in installed and JavaScript enabled. The author strongly recommends the Firefox browser (version 2.0 or later). Other technologies employed include XML, XHTML, XSLT, and AJAX, but as long as the browser supports them (and most do) the reader (and author using the stylesheet described in the article) will not need to know about these.

Warning: The Java plug-in version 1.6.0 updates 10 and 11 have a bug which, in this article, prevents math expressions from rendering correctly. To correct this problem, you should download and install update 12. The alternative would be to disable the "next generation" plug-in in the Java Control Panel.

Full article text

Table of Contents:

Abstract
Contents
1. Introduction
2. Getting Started
3. XHTML and SVG elements
4. Emedded Content Pseudo-TeX
5. LaTeX-Like Document Structure Elements
6. Topmatter Formatting
7. Automatic Numbering
8. Citations and Bibliographic References
9. Compatibility and Usage Notes
10. Conclusion
Appendix A: Remapped XHTML Elements
Appendix B: Remapped SVG Elements
Appendix C: List of All New Elements
References

Thomas Leathrum (Jacksonville State Univ.), "Math Authoring for the Web Made Easier," Convergence (February 2010), DOI:10.4169/loci003252