One of the best features of MaplePrimes is that members can incorporate typeset 2-D mathematics into their posts—a huge advantage over text-only forums like Usenet, for example. MaplePrimes currently allows math input using either Maple syntax or MathML. There may be a straightforward way to support the input of 2-D math using TeX/LaTeX as well. This post suggests one possible way to add this new functionality to MaplePrimes. The ORCCA website has a TeX/LaTeX to MathML online translator which anyone can use to convert TeX/LaTeX input to MathML input in order to enter 2-D math in MaplePrimes. Of course, one has to copy the resulting MathML from the ORCCA website and manually paste it into a MaplePrimes post. Since Maplesoft and ORCCA are so closely affiliated, perhaps Maplesoft could get permission to use the ORCCA translator engine directly in the MaplePrimes website. That way, MaplePrimes members could enter 2-D math simply by putting TeX/LaTeX input directly into their posts. Since TeX/LaTeX is much more popular than MathML for entering typeset mathematics, and since TeX/LaTeX supports a much larger collection of mathematical notations than Maple, this new feature would dramatically increase both the ease of use and the power of 2-D math entry in MaplePrimes. As always, I thank you for considering my suggestions! -- Frederick W. Chapman, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Waterloo http://www.scg.uwaterloo.ca/~fwchapman/

Please Wait...