Stefan Seefeld wrote:
> I'm writing a spec file containing lots of MathML, and I very much love
> the MathML support that is part of XXE. In particular, I have come to
> appreciate the simple math expression parser, as it makes me really
> productive.
>
> Is there a way to represent special mathematical characters, such as pi,
> without having to get out of the equation writing mode ? Right now the
> only way I can edit an equation containing pi is by using the pulldown
> menu for "Variables & Numbers". Would it be possible to teach the parser
> things like "\pi" (or some other equally simple spelling) to stand for
> the math constant of pi ?
>
> Many thanks for a great tool !
Hussein Shafie wrote:
> We would like to keep the simple math expression parser, well, simple.
>
> Basically this means: unlike the excellent TeX/ASCIIMath/MathJax, there
> should be almost no markup to be learned and remembered by the user.
>
> However, if we find a very simple way to express constants (may be the
> '\' you suggest, may be something else), we'll implement this feature in
> a future release.
>
We have implemented your RFE. It'll be part of v5.4.1 (to be released in
about one month).
Excerpts from the history of changes:
---
The simple math parser (i.e. type simple math in an empty m:mi or m:mn
element, then press Ctrl+Shift-SPACE to convert it to proper MathML) now
translates the following special, case-sensitive, identifiers to a
single math character:
* Lower-case Greek letters: alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon,
zeta, eta, theta, iota, kappa, lambda, mu, nu, xi, omicron, pi, rho,
sigma, tau, upsilon, phi, chi, psi, omega.
* Upper-case Greek letters: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon,
Zeta, Eta, Theta, Iota, Kappa, Lambda, Mu, Nu, Xi, Omicron, Pi, Rho,
Sigma, Tau, Upsilon, Phi, Chi, Psi, Omega.
* Miscellaneous symbols: NN (ℕ), ZZ (ℤ), QQ (ℚ), RR (ℝ), CC (ℂ),
emptyset (∅), infty (∞).
---
Basically, we have considered that an author typing "cos(pi/2)" seldom
wants to get <mi>pi</mi> in the MathML generated by the simple math
parser, and on the contrary, almost always wants to get <mi>π</mi>.
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