I'm a little surprised by how much JS code it took to handle editing XML files directly in a specific manner. But I can now claim that my template editor for the Abacus project is now at a point where I don't need to edit the files with a text editor.
This means that one-third of the Abacus MathML editor project is stable (if not quite complete). The next part, the actual MathML editor, I don't anticipate a lot of problems with. Though when it comes to reading in a MathML fragment that's already there and not Abacus-compliant yet, I may have some trouble. I haven't figured out yet how to take in a MathML fragment that's all presentation markup or all content markup yet, and sooner or later I'll have to...
I really wish I could release an 0.1 of Abacus based on what I have right now, but without a working MathML editor to demonstrate just what I'm doing, it would be counterproductive in the extreme.
Posted by WeirdAl at June 13, 2004 3:28 PMNot much to say, just that I'm really looking forward to this.
Being a physicist the ability to easily draft MathML is going to be a real blessing. I've been so sick of Word and it's crappy equation editor, and having to use something like that in the first place when standard web technologies will handle equations just fine.
I was actually thinking about setting off on a MathML project over this summer, but at this point I'll just satisfy myself by wishing you luck (and perhaps a little beer money a little down the road).
Posted by: Chris Carlin at June 13, 2004 6:58 PMChris: If you want an easy way to produce mathml, take a look at OpenOffice (or StarOffice if you prefer).
Unlike word's equation editor, you can enter in a formula entirely with the keyboard using a syntax that is similar to TeX, but without the backslashes. For example, you can type "x = {n(n - 1)} over 2", and it will create the render the corresponding equation.
You can then save the formula as a MathML file that can be inserted into an HTML document. Unfortunately, inserting a forumla into OpenOffice's HTML editor doesn't save as inline MathML -- it creates an image instead.
Alex: what sort of interface are you planning for your equation editor? Will it be closer to Microsoft's one or OpenOffice's one?
Posted by: James at June 13, 2004 8:27 PMExcellent news indeed!
Posted by: Daniel Glazman at June 14, 2004 2:11 AMI will say that the inspiration for my MathML editor is Amaya. I've not yet tinkered with OpenOffice's MathML editor. The one thing I dislike most about it is the math editing will take place in a modal dialog (as opposed to inline in the master document as a W3C-linked document recommends).
Abacus 0.1 will not feature any TeX translation capabilities. Courtesy of a modified ASCIIMathML.js, that should show up in Abacus 0.2.
I should warn you up front that 0.1 will be a bare-bones (meaning pretty much only arithmetic and comparisons) math editor. So it's going to suck, initially. I put a lot of work into the template editor, though, so it's not all bad...
Posted by: Alex Vincent at June 14, 2004 10:05 AM