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Plugins Web>PluginPackage>LaTeXToMathMLPlugin (2008-12-12, SopanShewale)

LaTeX to MathML Mathematical Equation Plug-in

This plugin translates embedded LaTeX-like equations into in-line MathML. It requires a MathML enabled browser, such as Mozilla.

see TWiki:Codev.MathMarkup for some Javascript-only client-side alternatives

-- JonathanGraehl - 05 Aug 2004

LaTeX to MathML Mathematical Equation Plug-in

Syntax Rules

The syntax rules for embedding equations are identical to those of the TWiki:Plugins/MathModePlugin and are based on LaTeX's own markup for equations. The equations themselves are expressed in a language very, very similar to LaTeX called Itex. (Apparently the major differences are in the way equation arrays are handled.)

To put an equation in-line with your text, enclose it with percent signs and the dollar sign,

   %$ put your math here $%

for example:

   %$  \frac{\partial u}{\partial x} = U(x) $%

here the opening and closing delimiter must be on the same line.

For equations set on their own line, use the

   %\[ put your math here \]%

notation, for example:

   %\[  \frac{\partial u}{\partial x} = U(x) \]%

and the font will be slightly larger.

For equations written over several lines in the original TWiki document you use the

%MATH<nop>MODE{ "a=b" }%

delimiter. The value in quotes is type set, whether or not it is on a single line. However, unlike the other delimiters, this is also typeset in <pre> environments.

Examples

%$ \sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{1}{n} $% is divergent, but %$ \lim_{n \to \infty}\sum_{i=1}^n \frac{1}{i} - \ln n $% exists.

This is an %$\frac{\partial u}{\partial x} = U(x)$% inline equation.

This equation %\[\frac{\partial u}{\partial x} = \pi \int_a^b F(x) dx\]% should be typeset on its own line.

This equation %MATHMODE{" \frac{\partial u}{\partial x} = \omega \int_a^b F(x) dx "}% is broken over several lines of source text.

Resources for MathML

Mozilla's MathML Project contains information on how to get started with MathML in Mozilla. A default installation from a major Linux distribution ought to be complete enough to use this plug-in. It is available for free. See notes below.
The itex2MML program is a FLEX/LEX parser by Dr. Paul Gartside at the University of Pittsburgh. This plug-in uses itex2MML to do the actual translation of the LaTeX equations into MathML.
At the W3C Math Home Page you can find the DTD for MathML along with authoring information. You can even read the 1993 proposal neglected for so many years. Advocates of the commercialization of the web: please note the delay and feel shame.
If your organisation does not allow Mozilla then there is a plug-in available at Design Science which may do the trick. (I haven't tried this one.)

LaTeXToMathMLPlugin Global Settings

Plugin settings are stored as preferences variables. To reference a plugin setting write %<plugin>_<setting>%, i.e. %INTERWIKIPLUGIN_SHORTDESCRIPTION%

One line description, is shown in the TextFormattingRules topic:
- Set SHORTDESCRIPTION = Display LaTeX-like equations in-line using MathML

Debug plugin: (See output in data/debug.txt)
- Set DEBUG = 1

Plugin Installation Instructions

Note: You do not need to install anything on the browser to use this plugin (although your browser must be capable of displaying MathML). The following instructions are for the administrator who installs the plugin on the server where TWiki is running.

Install the program itex2MML on your system. The location must be somewhere that your web server can access.

At the location above I could not find any usable binaries. Had more success here -- RM

If you have it installed, disable the TWiki:Plugins/MathModePlugin by adding it to the DISABLEDPLUGINS line of your TWikiPreferences page. For example:
- Set DISABLEDPLUGINS = MathModePlugin

Alter the main twiki.tmpl template in the TWiki installation, in the ./templates directory, or in the sub-directory of any Web that will use this plugin. The line

 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

must be changed to support the MathML DTD. Over-write it with:

 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1 plus MathML 2.0//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/MathML2/dtd/xhtml-math11-f.dtd">

Sidenote: Why is it necessary to require strict XHTML?

My browser complains vehemently when any user-edited content isn't strict XHTML. That means that you don't even get to click an edit button to fix the problem! However, W3C gives instructions for using MathML that don't seem to require this: http://www.w3.org/Math/XSL/:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="http://www.w3.org/Math/XSL/mathml.xsl"?>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

with MathML elements enclosed by:

<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML">
      <mi>x</mi><mo>+</mo><mn>3</mn>
    </math>

update So, I tried it, and it doesn't work wink Renaming a test XHTML file to .xml did show MathML goodness. I did find an interesting javascript solution for displaying MathML : http://www1.chapman.edu/~jipsen/mathml/mathhtmltest.phtml and from the same source, a really nice javascript implementation of a plain-text math markup language (also supporting LaTeX -style input as well): AsciiMathML

Also, I tried to modify TWiki to output a

<[CODE[ ... ]]>

section so some Javascript didn't trip up the XML parser (when setting doctype to XML); TWiki seems to replace < and > that aren't part of html tags, by their

&gt; &lt;

entity equivalents, which isn't what I want. Where does this happen and how could it be worked around?

-- JonathanGraehl - 04 Aug 2004

Alter the lib/TWiki.pm file so that the content type is emitted not as text/html but rather application/xhtml+xml . This is a rather dire change. If you have done anything on your pages that is not legal XHTML then your browser may complain mightily.
The change is in sub writeHeader about line 505, where the statement
```
 writeHeaderFull( $query, 'basic', 'text/html', 0);
```
needs to become
```
 writeHeaderFull( $query, 'basic', 'application/xhtml+xml', 0);
```
I have a less drastic alteration than can be made. See the LaTeXToMathMLPluginDev topic, if folks think it's a good idea then I'll upload it.

Download the ZIP file from the Plugin web (see below)

Unzip LaTeXToMathMLPlugin.zip in your twiki installation directory. Content:

File:	Description:
`data/TWiki/LaTeXToMathMLPlugin.txt`	Plugin topic
`data/TWiki/LaTeXToMathMLPlugin.txt,v`	Plugin topic repository
`pub/TWiki/LaTeXToMathMLPlugin/xhtml-math11-f.dtd`	XML DTD for XHTML 1.1 and MathML
`lib/TWiki/Plugins/LaTeXToMathMLPlugin.pm`	Plugin Perl module

If your system does not have itex2MML on the default path, edit the line of LaTeXToMathMLPlugin.pm that reads:
```
 my $itex2MML = 'itex2MML'; 
```
to contain the whole path to the executable. For example:
```
 my $itex2MML = '/usr/local/bin/itex2MML';
```
Test if the installation was successful: the examples above should be rendered as equations, not text.

Notes

This plug-in conflicts with the TWiki:Plugins/MathModePlugin which will need to be disabled. If you re-enable it later, you may need to re-edit pages to update any graphics of math that it would have otherwise generated. You may wish to clean-up the graphics left by TWiki:Plugins/MathModePlugin in the pub/ directories.
Note that documents must be served to Mozilla as application/xhtml+xml for the MathML portion to be rendered correctly. This can pose some challenges for existing TWiki installations with less than tidy XHTML.
Mozilla on Linux has a problem with Xft, the FreeType renderer for fonts. This in turn causes problems with xfs, the X11 font server that uses Xft. For Mozilla versions before 1.4 (assuming this gets fixed in 1.4) you have to set the environment variable
```
  setenv GDK_USE_XFT 0 
```
to enable the correct rendering of the TeX Computer Modern fonts. You may also need to install those fonts, as noted on the MathML project fonts page.

Plugin Info

Plugin Author:	TWiki:Main/SimonClift
Plugin Version:	15 Apr 2003 (V1.000)
Change History:
15 Apr 2003:	Initial version
CPAN Dependencies:	none
Other Dependencies:	itex2MML, MathML Capable Browser (Mozilla)
Perl Version:	5.8
Plugin Home:	http://TWiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/LaTeXToMathMLPlugin
Feedback:	http://TWiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/LaTeXToMathMLPluginDev

Related Topics: TWikiPreferences, TWikiPlugins, TWiki:Plugins/MathModePlugin

-- SimonClift - 22 Apr 2003

PackageForm
TopicClassification	PluginPackage
TestedOnTWiki	01 Feb 2003
TestedOnOS	OsLinux
ShouldRunOnOS	AnyUnix
InstalledOnTWikiOrg	No
DemoUrl
DevelopedInSVN	No
ModificationPolicy	PleaseFeelFreeToModify

Attachments

Topic attachments
I	Attachment	Action	Size	Date	Who	Comment
md5	LaTeXToMathMLPlugin.md5	manage	0.2 K	2008-12-12 - 11:41	SopanShewale	checksum file , Uploaded as a part of Release Process
tgz	LaTeXToMathMLPlugin.tgz	manage	73.4 K	2008-12-12 - 11:40	SopanShewale	See LaTeXToMathMLPlugin for details. Untar and run the installer script, Uploaded as a part of Release Process
zip	LaTeXToMathMLPlugin.zip	manage	75.8 K	2008-12-12 - 11:40	SopanShewale	See LaTeXToMathMLPlugin for details. Unzip and run the installer script , Uploaded as a part of Release Process
EXT	LaTeXToMathMLPlugin_installer	manage	3.5 K	2008-12-12 - 11:41	SopanShewale	Installer Script, Uploaded as a part of Release Process

Topic revision: r16 - 2008-12-12 - 11:41:11 - SopanShewale

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