/itexToMML

INTRODUCTION:

This package contains the distribution for itex2MML. The source code is in the

itex-src directory. It should compile on most platforms by simply typing

     make

     sudo make install

The resulting itex2MML binary is a stream filter. It takes text with embedded

itex equations on STDIN, converts the itex equations to MathML, and outputs

the resulting text on STDOUT.

Also included are Ruby bindings. The easiest way to obtain them, with a recent version of Rubygems is

     gem install itextomml

Alternatively, if you have GNU make and SWIG 1.3, they can be

built manually with

     make ruby

     make test_ruby

     sudo make install_ruby

The Rubygem provides four public methods

       require 'itextomml'

       itex =  Itex2MML::Parser.new

       itex.html_filter(a_string)

               converts all itex equations in a_string to MathML, passing the

               rest of a_string unmodified. Returns the converted string. 

       itex.filter(a_string)

               converts all itex equations in a_string to MathML. Returns just

               the MathML equation(s), as a string.

       itex.inline_filter(a_string)

               treats a_string as an inline equation (automatically supplies

               the surrounding $...$, so you don't have to) and converts it

               MathML. Returns the MathML inline equation, as a string.

       itex.block_filter(a_string)

               treats a_string as a block equation (automatically supplies

               the surrounding $$...$$, so you don't have to) and converts it

               MathML. Returns the MathML block equation, as a string.

Note that the commandline tool and the Ruby library return MathML named entities in the output.

On the public web, it is safest to convert these either to utf-8 characters or to NCRs. For that,

the itex_stringsupport.rb library included with the Rubygem adds the following methods to the String class

  String#to_ncr

  String to_utf8

  String#to_ncr!

and

  String#to_utf8!

For Perl users, there are Perl modules, MathML::itex2MML and MathML::Entities (both available on CPAN), which

provide exactly the same functionality as described for the Rubygem.

Finally, there is a MovableType (2.6 or greater) plugin which provides two

Text Filtering options:

1) itex to MathML

2) itex to MathML with parbreaks

The plugin relies on the MathML::itex2MML Perl module (which you'll need to install) to do the actual

conversion. The first filter is a straight itex2MML translation. The latter

uses the "TeX" (and blogger's) convention that two linebreaks in succession

signify a new paragraph. (The bloggers also like to convert single linebreaks

to <br />, but that would mess with TeX formula entry, so we don't support it.)

A second plugin (also included) provides additionalText Filtering options:

1) Textile with itex to MathML

2) Markdown with itex to MathML

Details describing this plugin are available at: 

    http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/~distler/blog/archives/000374.html

It requires both the itex2MML plugin and the Textile and/or Markdown plugins.

See

      http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/~distler/blog/itex2MMLcommands.html

for more details on composing in itex and using the itex2MML program.

The version of itex2MML included here is greatly-enhanced, with

many bugfixes and support for a larger subset of LaTeX/AMSLaTeX syntax.

Below I've put some simple notes specific to the use of this plugin.

USAGE NOTES:

1) Tex equations are delimited by $...$ (inline) or \[...\] (display).

Alternatively, $$...$$ can also be used to delimit display equations. So,

just as in a TeX document, be sure you don't have any free-floating $'s

in your text. If you want to enter something that renders as a $, use

the unicode entity $.

2) The itex2MML stream filter does not distinguish between $$...$$ and \[...\].

Both result in display equations. However, the MovableType plugin and Maruku

    http://maruku.rubyforge.org/

the Ruby Markdown implementation, do distinguish between them. Both have

automatic equation-numbering: \[...\] results in a numbered equation. You

can add an optional label

    \[...\label{foo}...\]

and then you can refer to the equation with either (eq:foo) or \eqref{foo}.

These are automatically turned into hyperlinks.

2) If you are using the "itex to MathML with parbreaks" filter, paragraph

breaks are inserted automatically, whenever you insert a blank line in your

text.  If you are using the plain "itex to MathML" filter, you need to put

in the paragraph (and any other) XHTML tags yourself.

3) Mozilla only renders MathML when you serve the document as XML (ie

using the MIME type application/xhtml+xml rather than text/html). You had

better be producing 100% valid XHTML if you want to see *anything* when Mozilla

is operating in that mode.

4)The best way to serve up XML to Mozilla, while still catering to

other browsers is to use mod_rewrite rules in the .htaccess file of your

blog. See

    http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/~distler/blog/archives/000167.html

for how to do that.

PLUGIN INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS:

1) Put the contents of the plugins directory into your MovableType plugins

directory.

2) If you are running MacOSX or Linux, I've provided a precompiled binary,

so you can skip to step 3).

If these don't do the trick for you, or if you prefer to compile your own,

cd into the itex-src directory and type "make". The result should be an itex2MML

binary for your architecture.

3) Run

  cpan install MathML::itex2MML

to install the Perl Module

Itex2MML is Open Source software, released under a triple license: GPL, MPL and LGPL.