Re: Representing Cancelations of Terms in Fractions

On Fri, Apr 18, 2008 at 10:33 AM, Eliot Kimber <ekimber@reallysi.com> wrote:

>
>
> I'm working with education publishers on developing XML representations of
> things like textbooks and test prep manuals. These publishers are using
> primarily InDesign with InMath to author their equations. I can capture the
> raw InDesign data and InMath is working on an XML representation that
> captures the structure of the equations in a form that is almost MathML
> presentation.
>
> But, one sticking point is the representation of equations with canceled
> terms, such as fractions where common terms are shown canceled with a
> diagonal strike out.
>
> My understanding from reading the MathML 2 spec is that this can be
> represented using the menclose element with a notation of "updiagonalstrike"
> or "downdiagonalstrike". However, it's not rendered in Firefox and I can't
> MathType or Amaya to create anything other than a long division type
> enclosure.
>
> My questions are:
>
> 1. is my understanding of menclose and *diagonalstrike correct in that
> this is the intended way to represent strikeouts in MathML?


Yes, that is correct.

>
>
> 2. Is there any MathML renderer that will render diagonal strikeouts
> today?
>
> MathPlayer, the free plug-in for IE so that it renders MathML (and makes
it accessible) handles them all.  I've attached a screen shot (the last two
examples are nested mencloses).

Hopefully as MathML approaches the time for implementors to do
implementations, Firefox will have a flurry of activity and missing features
such as the one you found will get done.

Neil Soiffer
Senior Scientist
Design Science, Inc.
www.dessci.com
~ Makers of Equation Editor, MathType, MathPlayer and MathFlow ~