Overview
Funding for the project started in December 2006 and will end at the end of July 2007. The project proposal (PDF, 117Kb), submitted to JISC as part of the funding bid, gives a description of the work to be done.
Releases
So far we have made three releases, the latest on 8 June 2007. We intend to make two more releases before the end of funding, one in early July and one in late July.
Early July release This will publish MathML to TeX and TeX to parse-tree. It will also publish a test suite.
Late July release This will publish parse tree to MathML.
This page gives a description of we really want to do, what we may be able to do, and what we doubt we can do before the end of July. After that, MathTran will have to depend solely on volunteer labour (unless further funds arrive). So, what would you like to see, and would you like to help? And do you know of any funding opportunities?
Things we really want to do
Of the remaining tasks in the project plan, MathML is by the most important. In fact, we've devoted a whole page to our MathML plans. However, there are some others.
More TeX tips We think TeX tips are a really good way of introducing people to TeX, and for learning the TeX constructions required for a particular area, whether it is quadratic equations, linear algebra, analytic number theory, quantum field theory or college algebra. We'd be delighted if you submitted some tips for your favourite area.
Blogs and wikis We'd like to publish hooks that allow MathTran to be used with blogs and wikis. We'd like to provide MathTran plugins similar to those provide for mimeTeX.
Report errors At present, the tex=alt:formula interface does not tell you if there is an error in your TeX code. We'd really like to change this. At the very least, we'd like to put a red warning border around images whose TeX code contains an error. Even better would be also making the log file available.
Saving MathTran images We want to finish this translation service.
Installation We want to make it easier to install MathTran on your own server. This includes providing security information for system adminstrators.
Things that may get done
Fixing user problems We want people to use MathTran to put mathematics up on their web sites. If there are things you need to have done so that you can use MathTran, we'd like to help you. Whether we can help will depend on how hard the problem is.
A MathTran and TeX tips wiki We'd like to set up a community wiki for MathTran and TeX tips. Send in your own TeX tips and we'll put them up on this site. If we get enough tips, we can migrate them to a wiki.
Things that may not get done
More image options The dvipng program we use to generate bit-map images has many options, such as for colours and image size. We would like to supply and interface via MathTran to these options, but we may not have time. Coding this would not be so hard, so if you'd like to volunteer ...
Better Javascript, better pages Here are two things that would greatly improve web pages. The first is improving the vertical postioning of the images. The second is to generate images at different sizes, so that they fit in better with ordinary text. In other words, make the images larger in headers, and if the user asks for it.
A secure LaTeX processor At present, MathTran uses a secure variant of the plain TeX macro package. This took a few days to write, and covers perhaps 90% of mathematical content. To get the remaining 10% will require coding many LaTeX mathematics features. We don't have time to do this, but we hope to add some LaTeX, particularly when asked to.
Other graphics formats Some people want to have, say PDF or SVG versions of rendered mathematics. Although this is part of the original project plan, it seems that we won't have time for it. However, it this is important to you, then code up a module to do it, and we'll put it in the next release.
Feedback is encouraged
Please send us an email if there are things you would like to see, or if you are willing to help.