Re: [orca-list] math

[Michael Whapples <mwhapples aim com>]

On Wed, 2008-04-23 at 09:17 -0400, aerospace1028 hotmail com wrote:
> Thank you, Michael, for your informative reply.
>
> > First of all you mentioned about using openoffice writer to edit/read
> > math, I don't think this is good/possible. 
>
> I'm sorry, I don't think I was clear on what i was doing.  I was just testing out the formual editor.  I 
> know I've had problems accessing the equation editor in MSWord.  The ability to use the editor to incert 
> simple equations (like I used to do at school for lab reports) is a little improved over my MSWord 
> experience, but in either case I can't validate the result.  My suspicion was that this was do to the 
> manner in which the "equation editors" in bedded the resulting equation editor data (I'm not sure how they 
> do it, i just guessed it wasn't a manner easily compatible with AT).
My meaning was that the formula editor is not particularly accessible,
especially when you want to read back an equation in a document. I
generally feel these types of editors for math aren't so good for
accessibility.

> > Something you may wish to
> > consider, and you may prefer it also for doing any document is the LaTeX
> > type setting language. 
>
> Sorry, I forgot to mention that i did look at latex.  It is helpful in generating reports and such with 
> math, but I still don't have the capacity to validate that the math that is being written is the same math 
> I intended to write.  After I get more familiar with it, it'll get better, but whenI'm still learning 
> something, I like the safety-net of double-checking my output.
You can check your output by using one of the LaTeX to mathml convertors
(tex4ht is free on both windows and Linux, and ttm is free on Linux, I
find both work quite well). As I said firevox isn't as good as
mathplayer for its completeness, so you may decide to resort to windows
when reading mathml, although if the time was spent on firevox it may be
better. Hopefully this will provide you with a sufficiently accessible
document to verify the output.
> > So while access is not great to math on Linux, I would say access to
> > math in general isn't great ...
>
> Which in general is what i've been experimenting with.  Just seeing if what i'd been able to find was the 
> general capability available.  I realize the concept of providing access to mathematical information can be 
> tricky.  My general impression is that mathml would be the easiest to plug into--with some sort of 
> mathml-to-Nemith Braille conversion.  But it'd be a matter of if enough material used mathml for it to be 
> the most viable tool.
You've now mentioned nemeth, I didn't go too far along the braille line
incase you weren't a braille user, but as you are then liblouisxml
(www.jjb-software.com) may be of interest to you. I don't know how
accurate liblouisxml is as I am in the UK and so read BAUK. Also as
Alastair Irving suggested his scripts at the latex-access sourceforge
project may be of interest if you want a more interactive LaTeX output
experience.

Hope this extra information helps.

Michael Whapples
> > You may also wish to discuss some of this stuff on the NFB blindmath
> > mailing list as there are certainly Linux users there as well (in fact
> > some of them, me included, are here as well).
>
> Thank you.  I'll check that out.
>
> :-)
> _________________________________________________________________
> Spell a grand slam in this game where word skill meets World Series. Get in the game.
> http://club.live.com/word_slugger.aspx?icid=word_slugger_wlhm_admod_april08=