1. Setting up Your Browser

In addition to ordinary HTML pages, the hypertext makes use of two XML technologies: the presentation portion of the MathML standard, and the scalable vector graphics standard SVG. These standards allow for the display of mathematical notations, formulas, and diagrams directly from the text, without special image files, and for a more general search capability.

To read the hypertext, you must ensure that your browser can:

• display a variety of mathematical fonts
• display mathematical text in the MathML standard
• display images in the SVG standard

2. Browsers

Some browsers that support MathML include:

• Mozilla version 1.1 and higher, all platforms (e.g. Windows, Mac, Linux/Unix)
• Netscape version 7.0 and higher, all platforms (except MAC: need 7.1 or higher)
• Internet Explorer 6.0 and higher on Windows, using the MathPlayer plug-in.
• Amaya, from the WWW Consortium

3. Mathematical Display

If you are using Internet Explorer, you will need to install the free plugin MathPlayer, from Design Science. There is no need to install mathematical fonts, as it comes with the MathPlayer installation.

If you are using Mozilla or Netscape, then you will need to install mathematical fonts. You can download a variety of mathematical fonts from the Mozilla MathML fonts page. There are free downloads for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

4. Display of Scalable Vector Graphics

For Internet Explorer on Windows, you need to download the Adobe SVGviewer, version 3.0.1 or above, and run the downloaded executable to install the viewer. Installation is more complicated for Mozilla/Netscape - see this installation page

5. Writing the Text

The text makes use of two Javascript tools written by Dr. Peter Jipsen: ASCIIMathML for mathematical text, and ASCIIsvg for scalable vector graphics. The text source for the hypertext page is translated upon loading to an XML page with MathML and SVG construct. The source text for mathematical expressions is fairly simple, readable and easy to write.

To start a page for the hypertext, begin with the standard empty page or the title page. These pages reference the Javascript files ASCIIMathML.js and ASCIIsvg.js.

Note: The versions of these Javascript tools used by the hypertext are identical to the original versions, with one exception: in ASCIIMathML.js, in the second non-comment line, the mathcolor variable is set to "Black" instead of "Red". This means that mathematical text appears in ordinary black type.

6. Links

Luc Devroye's mathematical fonts page contains a wealth of information on mathematical fonts.

Contact: Robert Mayans
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