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Is there any free Equation Editor Control?

Mathematical notation in Y!A - equation editor needed?

  • I've been answering on Y!A for a few months now, and given this and the work that I do, I've become used to writing maths out linearly using keyboard text characters, writing x squared as x^2, integrals as int(from a to b) [...]dx, etc; but this is very unwieldy, unpretty, and can sacrifice comprehension for completeness. Some people seem to have a bank of characters to work with - my questions are then 1) To the people who have access to symbols - how/where are you getting them? Can anyone give me links to copy and paste from? 2) Is there any way we can get Y!A to put in a little Java (or something) equation editor, or some sandbox facility where we can write maths like we want it to appear, and then copy and paste some code or something to get it to display? There are already some quite good equation editors that work in Word (like Mathtype) which once you learn the key shortcuts you can write maths very quickly; or perhaps we could type it in as LaTeX and have it display properly? Or some other method? This would be really handy, I'm sure people would agree - can we make it happen?

  • Answer:

    A) Answering your first question: Here down there is a set of math symbols. Yo can copy and paste them on your own YA profile text area or on a ready to use text file (and of course arrange them following your preferences of use): « » x² # %ƒ € ¶ µ ß × Å ° ± ² ³ Ø "a" ∈ |R ⇔∀ ⇒ A ∩ B - {a} ≠ Ø ; "a" ∈ |R ∀ ⇒ A ∩ B ≠ Ø ; ∫ √ π ¶ ° ¹ x² ³ ⁴ ª ⁿ ₁ ₂ ← → ⇒ ∀ ∃ ∇ ∂ ∑ ∞ µ ß ± ≅ ≈ ≠ ≤ ≥ ½ ⅓ ⅔ ¼ ¾ ⅛ ⅜ ⅝ ⅞ α β γ δ ε ζ η θ λ μ ξ ρ Σ σ φ ψ ω ϒ Θ Δ Ω Φ ↑ ↓ ↔ ↵ ⇐ ⇑ ⇓ ⇔ | ∅ ∈ ∉ ∋ ∝ ∏ ∠ ∧ ∨ ∩ ∪ ⊂ ⊃ ⊆ ⊇ ⊈, ⊉ ∴ ∵ ∼ € ¥ ⊤ ⊥ ∧¬ ℕ ℤ ℚ ℝ ℂ ∂/∂x ∂/∂y ∂/∂z ❶ ❷ ❸ ❹ ❺ ❻ π ▲►▼◄ =>✈ ∫ ∮ ∯ √ ∛ ∜ ¶ π ° ¹ ² ³ ⁵ ⁶ ⁷ ⁸ ⁹ ₀ ₁ ₂ ₃ ₄ ₅ ₆ ₇ ₈ ₉ ⁴ ⁴ ª ⁿ ₁ ₂ ← → ⇒ ∀ ∃ ∄ ∇ ∂ ∑ ∞ µ ß ± ∓ ≅ ≈ ≠ ≤ ≥ ≡ ≢ Я ¢ © ® ≪ ≫ € № % ‰ § ½ ⅓ ⅔ ¼ ¾ ⅛ ⅜ ⅝ ⅞ • ❶ ❷ ❸ ❹ ❺ ❻❼ ❽ ❾ ≥ ≤ Α Β Γ Δ Ε Ζ Η Θ Ι Κ Λ Μ Ν Ξ Ο Π Ρ Σ Τ Υ Φ Χ Ψ Ω α β γ δ ε ζ η θ ι κ λ μ ν ξ ο π ρ σς τ υ φ χ ψ ω ↑ ↓ ↔ ↵ ⇐ ⇑ ⇓ ⇔ | ∅ ∈ ∉ ∋ ∝ ∏ ∠ (complete set in http://barzilai.org/math_sym.htm ) <<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> B) Your second question. As far as I know, any equation editor (working in Word, html pages, etc.) produces an image. And it is not possible to paste images in this YA window text (this is plain text). But I would suggest some alternatives for you to choose from or at least to consider: ========= B1) You can open a free space in geocities (of Yahoo) (or any other easy place, of course). For complex typographical answers, you can produce a LaTeX pdf document, transfer (FTP is very easy there) it to that location, and link to the document, such as in one of my answers: http://es.geocities.com/sibilapitia/beautiful.pdf ========= B2) Open a Personal Wiki Free Site. http://www.wiki-site.com/index.php/Main_Page There you can create as many pages as you want. You can write with LaTeX commands in a WYSIWYG modality (What You See Is What You Get). When answering a YR question, a link to the site page will suffice: Here is a sample: http://www.wiki-site.com/index.php/ECarrollia ========= B3) Another environment where you can write with LaTeX commands is the WordPress blogger. You can see an example here http://hicsuntdraconis.wordpress.com/2008/03/01/primera-entrada/ You answer by a blog post, and then link to that post in your answer. (Nevertheless, I would rather recommend the wiki site). ========= B4) Supposing you have (you can create a free one, the web is plenty of sites) a web page permitting you to edit in HTML code, the link provided by mervin39 ---thanks, mervin--- will prepare the HTML code of any formula to include in your page, such as I did in (see down side) http://sites.google.com/site/ecarrollia/banco-de-pruebas This works even in naive blogs, as you can see here: http://hicsuntdraconis.blogspot.com/search?q=f%C3%B3rmulas+matem%C3%A1ticas But have into account that it is code linking to an image, so you cannot copy and paste it in the YA plain text area. Y/A should provide access to edit in html code. ========= Hope it help. Have a nice day. Note: There is little hope that YA will provide us with a typographical math equation editor, or let us edit in html code. As the product needs to be an image, it will mean a big amount of extra space required, apart from certain loss of information control (plain text is easy to scan, images are not so easy). Same problem with the possibility to insert images or graphics. Whenever you want to show a geometrical graphic, for instance, you need to develop it apart, upload to a web site, and link it.

Dr Octavian at Yahoo! Answers Visit the source

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Using Windows, you can access these characters with the 'character map'. Often found under "Start→Programs→Accessories→System Tools" , it can also be accessed by "Start→Run" and then typing "charmap". (XP and earlier-I'm not sure about Vista) I keep a shortcut to "charmap" on my desktop for just this purpose. (Right click on desktop, select "New shortcut", and enter "charmap" in the location box) Many characters are also available using "Alt codes" Holding down the Alt key and entering a code on the keypad will produce certain symbols, although you'll need to memorize them. See http://www.theworldofstuff.com/characters/ for examples. I agree however that YA should include some sort of equation editor if they expect quality answers in Mathematics. Not all characters are available in all type fonts, and depending on your browser and the character encoding selected therein, some characters might appear as a square box rather than what they should be. EDIT: Again, here's where the type font comes in. Under character map, try choosing Lucida Sans Unicode. This font contains many more symbols than Times New Roman for instance. ⊆, ⊇, ⊈, ⊉ are some of the set symbols available, as well as many others, but as I indicated, you may not be able to view these even now depending on your browser and its settings. p.s. I've contacted YA about their text editor drawbacks in the past, with no response. (There's also the issue about long strings being abbreviated and an ellipsis added. This requires that long numbers or equations include spaces somewhere within a certain limit in order that the entirety of it be seen. i.e., 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419… must be written: 3.141592653589793238462643383279502884 197169399375105820974944592307816406286 , where a space is added after ...884) But I'm sure that the more people that raise the issue the likelier they will do something about it. I encourage everyone who agrees to contact them.

Scott R

Dr Octavian, I posted a question of a similar nature roughly a week ago, and as with the rest of the posts, Y!A does not compile Tex Code unfortunately.....Seems a tab unusual to me given its a Maths Forum!!. Given I was in the exact same situation, I decided as a pseudo solution was to use MathType to script my solution and then either (1) Convert to Tex Format (Mathtype has a built in function to do so) and compile in the likes to TechNix and save a image (2) Save the Mathtype script as a .gif file (supported by Mathtype - File-->Save As --> .giff So now I have my image, and given my html isn't that great, I found it easier to sign up to one of the free image file sharing web applications ( I use Photobucket - however there are others i.e. ImageBucket) whereby I upload my image, which then is given a URL that I paste as my response to the question. As you can clearly see if you have a look at any of my Answers. It is tiresome to an extent, but far less time consuming then typing the maths out explicitly. Hopefully Y!A will get their act together and either implement a basic Java Applet with Maths Symbols (as you suggested) and or enable the compilation of tex code. Hope this helps, David

DavidG

I find the following site useful: http://www.codecogs.com/components/equationeditor/equationeditor.php You type in LaTeX (or click the buttons for symbols) and it generates a img tag pointing to a dynamic image which is rendered on demand. However, I don't know if yahoo allow images on answers. We shall see <img src="http://latex.codecogs.com/gif.latex… e^{\pi i}+1=0" title="e^{\pi i}+1=0" /> I previewed this reply and it doesn't seem to. However, it may be useful in other areas (i.e. not YA). It is particularly good since all you need to do is wrap your LaTeX up in the url of the site and put it in an img tag, without going to the site itself. What might be useful is to have a word document in which you collect useful symbols; cut and paste when you see one you want, and keep the file! :edit: Since it didn't work anyway, I've split the code up over two lines so you can see the syntax without it being truncated with an ellipsis, just in case you find it applicable on less restrictive forums.

mervin39

I just always have a window of Word open whenever I'm working a problem, so I can go to "insert" ---> "symbol" whenever I need something like an integral sign, a Greek letter, or whatever else might pop up. It's not usually the smoothest-looking thing when you're finished, but I've found that it hardly ever is a barrier to comprehension. For what it's worth, -J

John

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