General Information

• Goals
• Basic Structure
• Download the Required Font Sets
• You need Netscape 3.0 or better.
• How to Set Up Netscape/Explorer To Optimize Viewing

Examples: Manual Layout
You MUST have downloaded and installed the fonts for your particular platform before viewing the examples.

• The Greek Letters
• The Special Math Letters
• Main Special Characters
• Accessing All Symbols in All Fonts

• Subscripts and Superscripts
• Prescripts and Staggered Scripts
• Fractions
• Roots
• Integrals
• Derivatives
• Limits

• Paper from AMS Arhive: Ruelle
• Miscellaneous Roots and Exponents Tests

Problems

• The Magnification Problem between Windows and Macintosh
• What About the Unix Platforms?
• Writing the TeX converters... (what a pain)

Implementation

• Manual Layout
• TeX Æ TTMath in PHP/FI (.phtml)
• TeX Æ TTMath in PERL
• AMSTeX Æ TTMath converters
• (AMS)LaTeX Æ TTMath converters
• Future design of font sets
• History of TTMath

Goals

Math expressions are, in their simplest form, just symbols arranged on the presented page in specific configurations. These symbols can be transmitted as text characters with special encoding instructions -- a markup language -- and the browser (and not the internet pipe) should do the work of presenting the symbols correctly.

As it seems that HTML 3.2 and illusive <math> tags are not soon to be implemented by the browser manufacturers directly into Netscape or Explorer, we need to take matters into our own hands. Most efforts in this vein have been GIF based; we depart from this solution by trying to typeset as much as possible with encoded text and fonts, using GIF typesetting only when TTMath is unable to generate the text-based typesetting.

We hope to put the text back into hypertext when in the math/scientific context.

Basic Structure

• TrueType Math Fonts to achieve the symbols involved;
• HTML Tables to achieve the layouts and symbol placement;
• Netscape's <sub> and <sup> (HTML 3.2) Implementation

The special characters are accessed in Netscape via the &#ABC character access escapes, in conjunction with the <font face="FONTNAME"> </font> TrueType font access available in Netscape since version 2.01.

Complex layouts are acheived by using the <table> tags, and special tricks with column widths to fool Netscape into laying out characters in ways it was not designed to do.

The eventual goal will be to have a series of converters allowing the author to write HTML tags such as <tex> *** </tex> with *** being either TeX, AMSTeX, or LaTeX coding. Potentially, larger converters will be written to convert full TeX or LaTeX files into TTMath-HTML files.

Download the Math Font Sets: Version 2 Fonts

Part A fonts are from the BaKoMa fonts for the Macintosh TeX programs, primarily for OzTeX, the most popular shareware TeX program for the Mac. They are converted to TrueType for both Mac and Windows.

The public-domain BlueSky TeX CM and AMS Fonts are being converted to be used here. It seems that my source for the BaKoMa fonts was in error when they reported them to be in the public-domain.

To install these fonts, follow the directions for each operating system:

How to Set Up Netscape/Explorer To Optimize Viewing

One main challenge in the TTMath system is the difference between Macintosh and Windows operating systems and how they deal with fonts.

Windows takes normally very nice fonts and magnifies them in sometimes unpredictable ways. For instance, the 12 point font for Netscape Windows is much larger than the 12 point font for Macintosh Netscape. Why? There are pages of theory I could go into right now - best left for another page at another time.

To counteract this problem on the Windows side, make sure you set your viewing fonts for Netscape at either:

• Times New Roman: 10 points (probably a little better) [proportional font]
  OR
• Times New Roman: 12 points (probably ok, but might be a little off on some things) [proportional font]

For the Macintosh, set the proportional font to either Times (or Times New Roman) at 12 points.

If you like a larger screen font for Netscape, then you take your chances with TTMath. No serious harm will occur, just that some expressions that will look OK with 12 point settings will not look so good in 14 or 18 point settings. This is one of the drawbacks of TTMath (that would be solved with proper math implementation in HTML.)

Maintained and Moderated by Robert R. Curtis and Diane Housken of WEBPRIMITIVES Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

WEBPRIMITIVES Making Your Mark On The World-Wide-Web http://www.webprimitives.com http://www.calculus.net calculus@internet