4 ms·

Are there any programs that can render unicode maths correctly? Looks like we don't need MathML anymore.

by jxy 9y ago

whyever 9y ago
SymPy has Unicode output, you can try it here: live.sympy.org Note how "Symbol('alpha')" and "Symbol('x_a')" get converted to unicode. There are limitations though, "Symbol('x_b')" does not work, because the is no underscore "b". You can also try fancier things like "Eq(Symbol('gamma'), 1/sqrt(1 - Symbol('v')2))". (Make sure to enable unicode output, the default is latex.)
- yorwba 9y ago
  Interestingly, Unicode has subscript versions of most of the Latin alphabet: ₐbcdₑfgₕᵢⱼₖlₘₙₒₚqᵣₛₜᵤᵥwₓyz. I wonder why they don't complete the set.
  - ygra 9y ago
    Because Unicode is not about completing arbitrary sets people would like to see. It's about encoding characters either having appeared in other encodings (to allow legacy encodings to be easily convertible to Unicode), or characters that are in actual use. The existing subscript and superscript characters were never intended to provide a full Latin alphabet (which subset, anyway?). Some are used in IPA, some are used in other contexts or scripts, but in general nothing actually requires all Latin letters. There's also some Greek, some Cyrillic, a few Hanzi, and a bunch of characters that are not used in any script. Which set would you like to »complete« again and to what end? If it's just about having something that looks the part, then markup is preferred over plain text. The existing set serves a number of purposes but none of them are lacking more characters. Usually there has to be a fairly convincing need for encoding more characters and »I'd like to be able to write some text completely in subscript or superscript« doesn't tend to be a convincing argument.
    - zokier 9y ago
      I'm pretty sure that all ASCII alphanumeric characters have been widely used in at least subscript format in science, engineering and maths. Probably wouldn't be too difficult to find use of most, if not all, greek letters used as subscripts too in STEM literature So I'd say subscript characters definitely fall into category "characters that are in actual use".
      - ygra 9y ago
        But math is exactly one that needs a higher-level format than plain text, as is evident by things like TeX or, well, the paper being discussed here. I'd argue that there are few scientists who actually write in plain text without any higher-level markup.
        whyever 9y ago
        Funnily enough, the symbol for the newly announced particle cannot be written down with Unicode.
WorldMaker 9y ago
Based on the introduction it sounds like Microsoft Office applications can render it, at least. The next question is what does browser support look like? It's not a feature currently tracked on http://caniuse.com http://caniuse.com.
- sp332 9y ago
  This took a little digging, but it does work in Word. In the Insert tab, click "Equation" at the far right, then "Equation" again at the bottom of the list. Paste the UnicodeMath into the box that appears and then click "Professional" on the left side of the ribbon.

Are there any programs that can render unicode maths correctly? Looks like we don't need MathML anymore.

by jxy 9y ago

Are there any programs that can render unicode maths correctly? Looks like we don't need MathML anymore.

SymPy has Unicode output, you can try it here: live.sympy.org Note how "Symbol('alpha')" and "Symbol('x_a')" get converted to unicode. There are limitations though, "Symbol('x_b')" does not work, because the is no underscore "b". You can also try fancier things like "Eq(Symbol('gamma'), 1/sqrt(1 - Symbol('v')2))". (Make sure to enable unicode output, the default is latex.)

yorwba 9y ago
Interestingly, Unicode has subscript versions of most of the Latin alphabet: ₐbcdₑfgₕᵢⱼₖlₘₙₒₚqᵣₛₜᵤᵥwₓyz. I wonder why they don't complete the set.
- ygra 9y ago
  Because Unicode is not about completing arbitrary sets people would like to see. It's about encoding characters either having appeared in other encodings (to allow legacy encodings to be easily convertible to Unicode), or characters that are in actual use. The existing subscript and superscript characters were never intended to provide a full Latin alphabet (which subset, anyway?). Some are used in IPA, some are used in other contexts or scripts, but in general nothing actually requires all Latin letters. There's also some Greek, some Cyrillic, a few Hanzi, and a bunch of characters that are not used in any script. Which set would you like to »complete« again and to what end? If it's just about having something that looks the part, then markup is preferred over plain text. The existing set serves a number of purposes but none of them are lacking more characters. Usually there has to be a fairly convincing need for encoding more characters and »I'd like to be able to write some text completely in subscript or superscript« doesn't tend to be a convincing argument.
  - zokier 9y ago
    I'm pretty sure that all ASCII alphanumeric characters have been widely used in at least subscript format in science, engineering and maths. Probably wouldn't be too difficult to find use of most, if not all, greek letters used as subscripts too in STEM literature So I'd say subscript characters definitely fall into category "characters that are in actual use".
    - ygra 9y ago
      But math is exactly one that needs a higher-level format than plain text, as is evident by things like TeX or, well, the paper being discussed here. I'd argue that there are few scientists who actually write in plain text without any higher-level markup.
      - whyever 9y ago
        Funnily enough, the symbol for the newly announced particle cannot be written down with Unicode.

WorldMaker 9y ago

Based on the introduction it sounds like Microsoft Office applications can render it, at least. The next question is what does browser support look like? It's not a feature currently tracked on http://caniuse.com http://caniuse.com.

sp332 9y ago
This took a little digging, but it does work in Word. In the Insert tab, click "Equation" at the far right, then "Equation" again at the bottom of the list. Paste the UnicodeMath into the box that appears and then click "Professional" on the left side of the ribbon.