[Xerte] Displaying Algebra with Latex

Julian Tenney Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk
Thu Dec 11 10:29:33 GMT 2008


We've had difficulty for some time in dislaying complex formula on the
screen in. Until now, the only way to do it was to capture an image of
the formula from some other tool, and then load up the image. That isn't
very convenient, and doesn't lend itself at all well to dynamically
generating algebraic problems.

Xerte now supports (indirectly) latex - a markup language for lots of
things, but in particular for displaying mathematical and chemical
formula.

You can see an exmaple here:

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/toolkits/play_595

If you download the latest Xerte build, you can try it yourself. You'll
need to find some latex resources to help you will the language.

Latex is entered in a <tex src="latex here"> tag in a text icon. For
example:

<tex src="E=mc^2">

Xerte will then request an image from a server that represents it, and
display the image instead of the tag in your text.

Right now, we are using an external service to provide the images that
get displayed. It seems reliable enough, but I'd like to host an
equivalent service here at some point, so we can guarantee the service.
In the meantime, have a play around,

J


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