Means of presenting mathematics in the Web

FINNISH

This information is primarily based on the software information in the math page of World Wide Web Consortium.
Some general information on different possibilities to present math in the Web.

SOFTWARE:

Tex

 Htex
 Textogif
 Tth
 LaTeX2HTML
 HyperTeX
 Techexplorer

MathML

WebEq
Mathtype
Amaya
Ezmath
TechExplorer 
(more info in  http://www.webeq.com/mathml )
Others 
Maple

TechExplorer -plug-in 

TechExplorer is a plug-in you install to your web browser. After the installation the browser can read tex, latex and amslatex-files. (Not perfectly yet!)
There are two versions of this Plug-in: Introductory (free) and Professional (commercial, $28).

Introductory-version is currently supporting a large subset of  commands in TeX, LaTeX and AMS-LaTeX (this means it doesn't support ALL of them).
In addition it understands a little of Mathematical markup language MathML.
You can insert hyperlinks, pictures, links to audio and video files, so called alternative links (links when clicked show an alternative text) to your text. And you can launch applications form your PC, have pop-up windows and menus with Techexplorer.

With the Professional -version you can print and control Texhexplorer with  Javan or Javascript.
Techexplorer Hypermedia Browser  is a trade mark of  IBM Corporation.

Enviroments: Windows 95 OR Windows NT with service pack 3, at least Netscape 4 or Internet Explorer 4.
NOTE! The UNIX version is coming soon.
Price: Professional Edition $28.

Home Page  of TechExplorer. Here you can also download the introductory version.
User Guide as a zip file
To view any examples you need the plugin installed into your browser. There are examples in the User's guide, and you can test your own Tex-files.
Examples: Koe.tex  Ana1198.tex  Checkout.tex
 
Pluses:
+ It suffices to know Latex or Plain TeX, the user doesn't need to learn any new languages
+ One can put Tex-files to the web as such, no intermediate steps or software needed
+ has interactive elements 
+ supports navigation in and between documents 
Minuses:
- the viewer of the pages has to install the plugin to his/her own PC
- the plugin doesn't and won't work in Windows 3.1
- You can't print from the Introductory version


Hypertex

is a standard, with which one can add links to Tex and latex files. The user needs a separate program to view dvi-files that can show these links. The author of the documents needs one of certain tex macro packages, which are available as are the dvi viewers.

Enviroments: You can find dvi-viewers to both Unix and Mac. In Windows you can use a Java-applet called IDVI.
Price: - ,
An example that uses IDVI  as a viewer
More information on Hypertex
HyperTex FAQ


LaTeX2HTML

LaTeX2HTML converts LaTeX files to HTML files. All references, citations and footnotes are converted to hypertext links. Equations are showed as gif images.

Enviroments: Unix. Price:  -
 LaTeX2HTML home page
An Example from the Latex2html home page

More examples Koe, Ana1198, Checkout.


Tth 

Tth is again sotware that converts Tex files to HTML files. It doesn't convert equations to images but uses the fonts and elements available in HTML, especially tables (see example below).

Enviroments: Unix, Linux, Windows, OS/2.
Price: free for non-commercial purposes
There is a commercial version Tex2HTML, the price depends on the number of users and where you use it. For example in academid server use with Windows the licence costs $150 for the first year.

A little example: Möbius mapping is

fw(z) =  w-z 
1-
z
 
,    w ÎD.
 
Home page
Examples: Koe   Ana1198  Checkout
 Example from the home page of TTH
 
Plusest:
+ The author only needs to know Tex, the user only needs a browser
+ Tne numberings of headings and equations work out well. The program can convert the references to links. 
Minuses:
- mathematical  layout is not the best possible, especially when dealing with fractions

Textogif

is a little Perl-program, by which you can convert single tex equations to gif images.
Enviroment: Unix. Price: -
Homepage
Additional requirements:
 
Perl 4.0 Patch level 36
TeX 3.141 (C version d)
LaTeX2e patch level 3
dvips dvipsk 5.521a
Ghostscript  2.6.1 (5/28/93)
pstoppm.ps (version supplied with Ghostscript 2.6.1)
Netbm 1 March 1994
Pluses:
+ it's free
Minuses:
- the additional requirements are so demanding that installing the program might take some time
-  many images in your page make the loading of the page quite slow
- works only in Unix
- you have to convert every equation separately 

 Htex

Htex is a preprocessor that converts the <eq>-tags in the html-document to gif images with the help of the previous program Textogif. So you need to write a html document in which the equations are put inside the special <eq>-tags but otherwise are written with LaTeX. As a result you get a html file in which the equations appear as gif images.
Enviroments: Unix and DOS. Requires EmTex, and installation sounds to be quite difficult (I have not tested). Price: -
 Home page

MathML related software

With MathML (Mathematical Markup Language) you can present both the structure and content of mathematical text. The ultimate goal is to present math in the web with this language.

MathML means actually two different kind of languages. The first, so called Presentation Markup Language aims to convey the visual appearance of mathematical text. The second , Content Markup Language tries to convey the content of mathematical text. Then also other (mathematical) applications can understand what is it all about.

Amaya

Amaya is a browser-editor developed by  World Wide Web Consortium. They use Amaya in design and development, and so Amaya understands MathML and you can create MathML with it. At this moment you can create MathML with Amaya only with the  Presentation Markup language.
Home Page


WebEq

WebEq is a suite of Java programs. There are two programs in it: Editor is a Wysiwyg editor for writing mathematical text. You can then save your text in MathML form or as a Java-applet.
Wizard-program takes as its input a html file in which mathematical equations are written with so-called  WebTex language (which of course resembles Tex). Then Wizard converts the equations either to Java-applets or to images.

Enviroments: all enviroments that have Java Runtime Enviroment 1.1.5, and sufficiently fast processor. It probably demands at least Pentium 166Mhz, as working with Pentium 120 Mhz was hopelessly slow.
Price: A server licence with one editor licence $79, a server licence with 25 editor licences $195. A free 30 days evaluation version.

Home page
Example(Java-applet; it takes some time to load it)


Mathtype

Mathtype is a commercial editor aimed at producing mathematical text.  For example Equation Editor in MS Word is actually an earlier version of Mathtype, from the same authors. In a future version the user will be able to save equations in MathML form.
Environments: Windows and Mac. Price: normal price $129, for academics 99, no update for those alredy owning Equation Editor or commercial TeX.

Ezmath

again one editor for mathematical text. Author will use Ezmath-language which is based on how one would say mathematical expressions in English.
For example
{function f of x} = a sub 0 / 2 + sum from n=1 to infinity of (a sub n cos {n pi x}/L  + b sub n sin {n pi x}/L)
After writing this the user copies this to the clipboard either as EzMath text or as MathML text (as Content markup). Then he pastes the text to his own html-document using <embed> or <object> tag.
The viewer must install to his/her browser the EzMath-plugin.
Enviroments: Windows 95 and Windows NT. Coming later to other enviroments.
Price: -
Home Page
 
Pluses:
+ free
+ one can use it to produce MathML 
Minuses:
- doesn't contain the most peculiar mathematical symbols and structures
- the author must learn a new language
- the viewer must install the plugin to his browser


 

Maple and internet 

One can find many Maple workhseets designed for teaching from the internet.
There the actual facts are as usual text and in between you find Maple commands that you can run, which of course demonstrate the subject.
 Home page of Maple
Maple can convert its files to both LateX  and HTML files. Here you can see an example
of a Maple worksheet converted to a HTML file. All the pictures (plots) are there, and the structure of the document is preserved by using links and frames. Equations are converted to gif images.  The author of the file is Joe A. Marlin <marlin@math.ncsu.edu>, and I found it from
 http://www2.ncsu.edu/eos/info/math/maple_info/www/MA141Contents.html

Conveying Maple files as text

One can save a Maple file as a so called Maple text file. As a result you get a usual text file, in which ordinary text is marked with #, and excutable paragraphs (Maple input groups) are marked with >. Maple output paragraphs are presented with ordinary ascii symbols.  An Example:
 
# Let us introduce an algebra of linear recurrence operators in n and k.
     #  Sn and Sk denote the shift operators in n and k respectively.
     > A:=shift_algebra([Sn,n],[Sk,k]):
     # We compute first-order recurrences satisfied by the summand (which we
     # denote by h).
     > h:=binomial(n,k)*binomial(2*k,k)*(-2)^(n-k);

                                                         (n - k)
                h := binomial(n, k) binomial(2 k, k) (-2)

     > Sn-normal(applyopr(Sn,h,A)/h,expanded);

                                      -2 n - 2
                                 Sn - ---------
                                      n + 1 - k
When you open this text file with Maple, it converts the file back to Maple workhseet with the help of # and > marks.



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