Online Rich Text Math Editor for
AsciiMath and LaTeX

• This point is specific for AsciiMath:
  Enclose math expressions with backticks (grave accent) like this
  `int_0^pi f(x)dx=9`,
  which will render like this
  

  `int_0^pi f(x)dx=9`

  Tip 1:
  `arccos 3/4` will render like this `arccos 3/4`
  but
  `arccos   3/4` will render like this `arccos  3/4`   This is because there are two spaces between arccos and 3/4.
  
  Tip 2:
  You can create extra space within math by inserting space characters. In some browsers you need to insert space an even number of times, like two times, or four times, etc.
  
• This point is specific for LaTeX:
  Enclose free standing math expressions with   \[   and   \]    , and expressions within lines of text with    \(   and   \)  .
• You can copy and paste images into the editor (left side of screen).
• You can create hyperlinks in your document (). Such hyperlinks will be clickable in the rendered area (right side of screen) and also in a saved HTML file.
  
  They will not be clickable in the editor area (left side of screen). However, if you want to follow the hyperlink from the editor area then you can do that by right clicking it and select to follow link.
  
  They will also not be clickable in a PDF file (which you create by printing to PDF).
• One way to share your math document is to create a URL link (by clicking the "Link" button to the right of the file name box.) You can for example send that link to someone in an e-mail. When someone follows it, the Rich Text Math Editor will open with your math in it.
• Make sure you check out the samples (from the "sample" drop down).
• Math is rendered blue, but when you save it to an HTML or an image file or when you print it, it will be black.
• When you save to an HTML-file you can then open that file as a stand alone HTML-file and it will render your math again. But you can also open the file again in the editor and continue working on it. Opening the file in the editor can be done in three ways.
  • Clicking Open in the editor and selecting the file.
  • Dropping the file on the editor.
  • Pressing F2 when you view the file on your computer (the file will then open in the online editor).
• You can evaluate an expression by selecting it and pressing Alt-L, like this example:

  

  You can even select more than one line to get a more complex evaluation, like this:

  

  This is mostly useful when you work with AsciiMath, since that format can often (but not always) directly be understood by the evaluating routine used. It will work even if you happen to include backticks (" ` ") which are used to delimit AsciiMath.

  While in evaluation mode, you can change your expression, and the evaluation will then be updated in real time.

The following information is useful but some parts are not relevant for the editor above.
ASCIIMathML.js (ver 2.0): Syntax and List of Constants

The main aims of the ASCIIMathML syntax are: -- 1. close to standard mathematical notation -- 2. easy to read -- 3. easy to type

(Copy and paste the following lines to see what symbols they produce)
You can use the following ASCIIMathML constructs: `(x+1)/(x-1) x^(i+j) x_(ij) sqrt(x) root(n)(x) stackrel(+)(->) text(any) "any"`
Operation symbols `+ - * ** // \\ xx -: @ o+ ox sum prod ^^ ^^^ vv vvv nn nnn uu uuu`
Relation symbols `= != < <= > >= -< >- in !in sub sup sube supe -= ~= ~~ prop`
Logical symbols `and or not => if iff AA EE _|_ TT |-- |==`
Miscellaneous symbols `int oint del grad +- O/ oo aleph ... cdots \ quad qquad diamond square |__ __| |~ ~| CC NN QQ RR ZZ`
Standard functions `sin cos tan csc sec cot sinh cosh tanh log ln det dim lim mod gcd lcm`
Grouping brackets `( ) [ ] { } (: :) {: :}` Arrows `uarr darr rarr -> larr harr rArr lArr hArr`
Accents `hatx barx ulx vecx dotx ddotx` Font commands `bbA bbbA ccA ttA frA sfA` Matrices `[[a,b],[c,d]] ((1,0),(0,1))`
Greek letters `alpha beta chi delta Delta epsi eta gamma Gamma iota kappa lambda Lambda mu nu omega Omega phi Phi pi Pi psi Psi rho sigma Sigma tau theta Theta upsilon xi Xi zeta`

If you type

amath x^2 or a_(m n) or a_{m n} or (x+1)/y or sqrtx endamath

you pretty much get what you expect: amath x^2 or a_(m n) or a_{m n} or (x+1)/y or sqrtx endamath. The a``math ... enda``math tokens are used to start/stop the new auto-math-recognize mode. Of course one can still use the `...` back-quotes to delimit math formulas explicitly (\$...\$ should only be used for LaTeX formulas). The choice of grouping parenthesis is up to you (they don't have to match either). If the displayed expression can be parsed uniquely without them, they are omitted. Printing the table of constant symbols (below) may be helpful (but is not necessary if you know the LaTeX equivalents).

It is hoped that this simple input format for MathML will further encourage its use on the web. The remainder of this page gives a fairly detailed specification of the ASCII syntax. The expressions described here correspond to a wellspecified subset of Presentation MathML and behave in a predictable way.

The syntax is very permissive and does not generate syntax errors. This allows mathematically incorrect expressions to be displayed, which is important for teaching purposes. It also causes less frustration when previewing formulas.

The parser uses no operator precedence and only respects the grouping brackets, subscripts, superscript, fractions and (square) roots. This is done for reasons of efficiency and generality. The resulting MathML code can quite easily be processed further to ensure additional syntactic requirements of any particular application.

The grammar: Here is a definition of the grammar used to parse ASCIIMathML expressions. In the Backus-Naur form given below, the letter on the left of the ::= represents a category of symbols that could be one of the possible sequences of symbols listed on the right. The vertical bar | separates the alternatives.

c ::= [A-z] | numbers | greek letters | other constant symbols (see below)
u ::= 'sqrt' | 'text' | 'bb' |     other unary symbols for font commands
b ::= 'frac' | 'root' | 'stackrel' binary symbols
l ::= ( | [ | { | (: | {:          left brackets
r ::= ) | ] | } | :) | :}          right brackets
S ::= c | lEr | uS | bSS | "any"   simple expression
E ::= SE | S/S |S_S | S^S | S_S^S  expression (fraction, sub-, super-, subsuperscript)

The translation rules: Each terminal symbol is translated into a corresponding MathML node. The constants are mostly converted to their respective Unicode symbols. The other expressions are converted as follows:

In the rules above, the expression `S'` is the same as `S`, except that if `S` has an outer level of brackets, then `S'` is the expression inside these brackets.

Matrices: A simple syntax for matrices is also recognized:
l(`S_(11)`,...,`S_(1n)`),(...),(`S_(m1)`,...,`S_(mn)`)r     or     l[`S_(11)`,...,`S_(1n)`],[...],[`S_(m1)`,...,`S_(mn)`]r.
Here l and r stand for any of the left and right brackets (just like in the grammar they do not have to match). Both of these expressions are translated to
<mrow>l<mtable><mtr><mtd>`S_(11)`</mtd>... <mtd>`S_(1n)`</mtd></mtr>... <mtr><mtd>`S_(m1)`</mtd>... <mtd>`S_(mn)`</mtd></mtr></mtable>r</mrow>.
For example {(S_(11),...,S_(1n)),(vdots,ddots,vdots),(S_(m1),...,S_(mn))] displays as `{(S_(11),...,S_(1n)),(vdots,ddots,vdots),(S_(m1),...,S_(mn))]`.
Note that each row must have the same number of expressions, and there should be at least two rows.

Tokenization: The input formula is broken into tokens using a "longest matching initial substring search". Suppose the input formula has been processed from left to right up to a fixed position. The longest string from the list of constants (given below) that matches the initial part of the remainder of the formula is the next token. If there is no matching string, then the first character of the remainder is the next token. The symbol table at the top of the ASCIIMathML.js script specifies whether a symbol is a math operator (surrounded by a <mo> tag) or a math identifier (surrounded by a <mi> tag). For single character tokens, letters are treated as math identifiers, and non-alphanumeric characters are treated as math operators. For digits, see "Numbers" below.

Spaces are significant when they separate characters and thus prevent a certain string of characters from matching one of the constants. Multiple spaces and end-of-line characters are equivalent to a single space.

Now for a complete list of constants ( standard LaTeX names also work):

Numbers: A string of digits, optionally preceded by a minus sign, and optionally followed by a decimal point (a period) and another string of digits, is parsed as a single token and converted to a MathML number, i.e., enclosed with the <mn> tag. If it is not desirable to have a preceding minus sign be part of the number, a space should be inserted. Thus x-1 is converted to <mi>x</mi><mn>-1</mn>, whereas x - 1 is converted to <mi>x</mi><mo>-</mo><mn>1</mn>.

Greek letters: alpha `alpha` beta `beta` chi `chi` delta `delta` Delta `Delta` epsilon `epsilon` varepsilon `varepsilon` eta `eta` gamma `gamma` Gamma `Gamma` iota `iota` kappa `kappa` lambda `lambda` Lambda `Lambda` mu `mu` nu `nu` omega `omega` Omega `Omega` phi `phi` varphi `varphi` Phi `Phi` pi `pi` Pi `Pi` psi `psi` Psi `Psi` rho `rho` sigma `sigma` Sigma `Sigma` tau `tau` theta `theta` vartheta `vartheta` Theta `Theta` upsilon `upsilon` xi `xi` Xi `Xi` zeta `zeta`

• Evaluate selected expression
• Continuously evaluate expression on current row