MathML in Arabic

Hello,
Nice to see this initiative.
First I would like to give some general remarks about Mathematics in an
Arabic handbook.
In some contexts, mathematical expressions in Arabic handbooks are written
exactly as if they were in a Latin based script language. In other
contexts, these expressions are composed with specific symbols and flow
from right to left according to the Arabic writing.
Symbols, like natural language characters, show a dynamic curvilinear
cursivity. Such writing can be observed in other Arabic alphabet based
languages such as Persian. We can find also the Latin presentation in some
Arabic countries especially in some high level handbooks.
Arabic mathematical expressions present several differences compared to
their Latin equivalents. Semantically speaking, a mathematical expression
written in Arabic is exactly the same that a Latin based script equivalent
expression. Good automatic translators can be built (e.g, RyDArab). Thus,
only display problems are to be taken into account.

We tried to extend MathML for the general purposes of Arabic mathematical
documents typesetting (Cf.
http://www.ucam.ac.ma/fssm/rydarab/doc/communic/tugmathm.pdf
). In order to point out the difficulties and limitations that can
obstruct the use of MathML in Arabic we used Mozilla. The experimental
extended Mozilla is called Dadzilla (see
http://www.ucam.ac.ma/fssm/rydarab/system/zip/dadzilla.zip).

Chronologically, for the same purposes, before, we had had developed the
following tools:
- RamzArab, a font of Arabic mathematical symbols respecting Naskh style
in OpenType;
ex. http://www.ucam.ac.ma/fssm/rydarab/doc/unicode/ramzarab.ttf
- Dadzilla, an adaptation of Mozilla for Arabic mathematical expressions;
ex. http://www.ucam.ac.ma/fssm/rydarab/system/dadzilla/examples.png
- DadTeX, an interface for typesetting Arabic mathematical document (in
Arabic directly);
ex. http://www.ucam.ac.ma/fssm/rydarab/doc/present/dadtex.pdf
- CurExt, a system for variable-sized curvilinear symbols such as
parentheses and Kashida;
ex. http://www.ucam.ac.ma/fssm/rydarab/system/curext/curext1_3/examla.pdf
- RyDArab, a typesetting system for Arabic mathematical expressions (via
transliteration);
ex. http://www.ucam.ac.ma/fssm/rydarab/system/rydarab/rydarab1_5/amexamla..pdf
- ACM, an adaptation of Knuth’s Computer Modern font family for Arabic
mathematical symbols;
- NasX, a font of Arabic alphabetical symbols in METAFONT;
ex. http://www.ucam.ac.ma/fssm/rydarab/system/nasx/nasx1_3/readmenx.pdf
- AntiSym, a font of antique symbols in METAFONT.
ex. http://www.ucam.ac.ma/fssm/rydarab/system/antisym/antisym1_2/readmeas..pdf

Best regards,
Pr. Azzeddine LAZREK
The project is undertaken in the "E-document scientific multilingual
processing" Team
E-mail: lazrek@ucam.ac.ma
URL: http://www.ucam.ac.ma/fssm/rydarab

Received on Friday, 5 November 2004 10:54:09 UTC