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An Approach to Mathematical Notation Selection

Article · January 2004

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Elena S. Smirnova Stephen Watt

Texas Instruments Inc. University of Waterloo
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 An Approach to Mathematical Notation Selection
Elena Smirnova, Stephen M. Watt
Ontario Research Centre for Computer Algebra,
The University of Western Ontario
E-mail: {alena, watt}@orcca.on.ca

(Demo presentation proposal)

1. Introduction
We present a software tool to select notations to be used in mathematical applications. These applications include
MathML–based tools such as browsers as well as computer algebra systems supporting conversion to different math
formats. Our Notation Selection Tool addresses two problems: first, it allows a user to choose which of several
different mathematical notations to use for the same concept. Second, it allows disambiguation where the same
notation could be used for different concepts.

There may be several notations for one concept for a number of different reasons: The mathematical context can
lead to the same expressions being written in different ways, e.g. an ordinary derivative can be denoted as f′, fx, Df ,
df/dx or in some other fashion. The area of application may imply default notations, e.g. i for −1 in complex analysis
∫
vs. j for the same quantity in electrical engineering. Likewise one commonly writes integrals as f ( x)dx , but in
physics the notation ∫ dx f ( x) is often preferred. National and cultural conventions are sometimes different, e.g. the
tangent function is presented by tan in England but tg in Russia and China. The open interval denoted (a, b) in the
United States, would be denoted as ]a, b[ in France. The historical period also leads to different notations, e.g. 3 a + b
versus the modern 3(a + b). The level of mathematical sophistication may influence the preferred representation of
a
expressions, e.g. a ÷ b vs. b a vs. vs. a . Usually first two notations would mean exact division and would be
b b
used, e.g., in primary school.

Equally well, there are often situations where the same notation is used to represent completely different
mathematical ideas. For example, the expression lg can mean log10 or log2. The notation u′ may mean “derivative”,
“minute”, “logical not”, “group inverse”, “transformation performed on an original u” etc. Often the meaning is clear
from context, but if several domains of mathematics are used together, then alternative notation must be used.

Our Notation Selection Tool is designed to perform conversion of mathematical expressions in XML format. The
simplest use presents a graphical user interface to generate an XSLT stylesheet. This stylesheet is then used to
transform conceptually–oriented Content MathML to the notationally–oriented Presentation MathML.

The interface allows the user to select notational conventions from concepts, organized by mathematical area. (See
figure 1). It also allows the user to specify various file names for associated stylesheets, input and output files, browser
to view conversion results, etc.

2. Implementation
Our Notation Selection Tool is written primarily in Java and uses the Swing library. The program is initialized by an
XML-format specification file containing a database of concepts and alternative notations as well as template
transformation rules to be applied for the selected notations. (See figure 2). The configuration bundle also includes
basic XSLT stylesheet and library of images.
The notations are organized in categories, called catalogs, related to various areas of mathematics, e.g. arithmetic,
calculus, linear algebra, combinatorics, etc. Catalogs consist of items, representing different math operations. For
example catalog ARITHMETIC can contains items division, multiplication and continual
fractions, catalog CALCULUS is subdivided into differentiation, partial differentiation,
definite and indefinite integration. Each item has assigned to it list of notations choices. For
∂f
example partial differentiation can have following notation choices: f x , f x′ , ∂ x f , ∇ x f , , Dx f .
∂x
Each choice defines the appearance of the notation (given as a reference to an image file), a key value to serve as a
reference ID to this particular choice of notation, and an XSLT template to define the transformation of mathematical
content to its presentation, according to the notation choice.
 We would like to emphasize, that the actual content of catalogs, items and notations can be extended or redefined
by the user of the Notation Selection Tool; the user may wish to re-use an existing notation configuration file, extend it
or write another.

3. Conclusion
Advantages of this approach include flexibility and extensibility. The idea of using an initialization file for the
Notation Selection Tool allows the user to introduce new notations for existing math concepts simply by updating this
initialization file. In the same way new mathematical concepts can be introduced in existing settings. This entails
introducing notational choices, backed by stylesheet tools to act as targets of those choices, e.g. binomial or continued
fractions are defined neither in Content MathML, nor in Presentation MathML, but they can be introduced as
additional stylesheet templates. The same approach allows to set preferred rendering for OpenMath CDs

This tool can be used to drive the conversion between a number of mathematical data formats, as shown in
figure 3. The common characteristics of these conversions is that they typically take objects from hight–level semantic
views to lower-level renderings.

A second area of possible application is that of mathematical education where students require a high degree of
notational consistency within a syllabus. Our tool allows an instructor to re-use material with different notational
conventions from one course to another. In distance learning students might prefer to see mathematical expressions in
the format of their locality, so our tool could be used to select these preferences.

Figure 1.
<catalog>
<name>Arithmetic</name>
<itemlist>
<item>
<keyword> DIVISION </keyword>
<choicelist>
<choice>
<image src = "div1.gif"/>
<keyvalue> 1 </keyvalue>
<presentation>
... <!-- XSLT template for this notation-->
</presentation>
</choice>
... <!-- other choices for DIVISION -->
</choicelist>
</item>
... <!-- other items for Arithmetic -->
</itemlist>
</catalog>
Figure 2.
 Content MathML
Presentation MathML
OpenMath
TEX
Maple

content math formats presentation math formats

Figure 3.
References
[1] B. Naylor and S. Watt, Meta-stylesheets for the conversion of mathematical documents into multiple forms,
in: Annals of Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence 38, (2003).
[2] D. Lui, A notation Selection Tools for MathML stylesheets, MSc Project University of Western Ontario
(2001).
[3] S. Huerter, I. Rodionov, and S. Watt, Content-Faithful Transformations for MathML, in: MathML
International Conference 2002, http://www.mathmlconference.org/2002/presentations/huerter
[4] MathML spec: http://www.w3.org/TR/MathML2/
[5] XSLT spec: http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt.
[6] XML spec: http://www.w3.org/XML.
[7] OpenMath: www.openmath.org.

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