Searching Math Symbols as Text: Mission Impossible? - symbols

How could the math types being represented in a format that are searchable like text?
I mean that there is a toolbar that you can have input math symbols and search for them as text, so the format can represent math symbols as text.
Is it such a task impossible to implement because math types can be represented only as icons?
What do you think is the proper implementation of a new format that loads symbols in memory like text-format?
Are there any existing solutions of searchable Math symbols in pdf or in any other format?
(I do not take under consideration Latex since you should use words for searching but not using math symbols directly and using words for searching a long Math formula could be very complex for writing down and the user could prefer to scroll the document than writing the whole latex-format of the math type)
Designing new fonts that represent Math symbols can help of solving the problem or not at all?
Thanks in advance!

We had the same problem for musical notation. It was almost impossible to search for more obscure markings found in baroque music.
Our solution was to create a mapping table using SQL (SQL Server 2012) and then create xref tables as needed for the implementing products. This became necessary for some of the tablets that the music schools (mainly in the Northwest oddly) that had significantly different requirements.
Good luck

Related

Are there any libraries in iOS for identifying phonetically same sound

I am trying to build an iOS application. In one of the screens the user can type something in a search bar and I have to take same action for different spellings of the same word.
For eg: User can type "elephant" or "alephant" or "elefant". I have to take same action for all these three words.
Is there any library that identifies these words as similar ones ? I cannot use spellchecker as I need this in languages other than english also ..
I did some research and I found that there are some phonetic algorithms like Text::soundex for achieving this on server side. Wondering if any libraries there for iOS ?
Thanks in advance !!
A better alternative to Soundex would be Double Metaphone or, even better, Metaphone 3. You don't say what language you are using, but both of these algorithms are available in C++, C#, and Java
There's no soundex available in for example NSString, but if that's what you want, it's fairly easy to implement. Here's a—albeit horribly formatted—soundex NSString category from CocoaDev.
You could also use the Levenstein Distance algorithm to catch simple spelling errors. Also easy to implement (read the Wikipedia article for the details), but here's a NSString category for that.
Before you use these algorithms, normalize the input. There's the amazing CFStringTransform class in Core Foundation (see this great article about it on NSHipster—especially the last part about normalization) that automatically can transform different language inputs into normalized forms.

What are the ways to create draw data structures for latex?

I tried tikz/pgf a bit but have not had much luck creating a nice diagram to visualize bitfields or byte fields of packed data structures (i.e. in memory). Essentially I want a set of rectangles representing ranges of bits with labels inside, and offsets along the top. There should be multiple rows for each word of the data structure. This is similar to most of the diagrams in most processor manuals labeling opcode encoding etc.
Has anyone else tried to do this using latex or is there a package for this?
I have successfully used the bytefield package for something like this. If it doesn't do exactly what you want, please extend your question with an example...
You will find several examples with both tikz code source and a visual rendering of this code at http://www.texample.net/tikz/examples/

Tools for converting LaTeX equations to Content MathML or OpenMath?

Do you know any open source tools or libraries (preferably Java, but that's not a strict requirement) in the GNU/Linux world that convert mathematical equations in LaTeX syntax to Content MathML or OpenMath?
I need to convert tons of equations in batch mode, so I'm not looking for interactive apps.
EDIT My focus is on the equations' semantics, so I cannot use Presentation MathML (unless there's a converter from Presentation MathML to Content MathML).
Thanks in advance!
This might be what you are looking for: SnuggleTeX
From the site:
SnuggleTeX is a 100% Java library for converting (a reasonable subset of) LaTeX into XHTML + MathML.
SnuggleTeX can attempt to convert input LaTeX to Content MathML by first creating Enhanced Presentation MathML and then processing that. In many ways, this part of the process is relatively simple since most of the semantic structure has already been inferred (though might not necessarily make any sense).
You can also use an online equation editor WIRIS editor which is able to import MathML/Latex and export to MathML/Latex
Have a look over here, where you can find a perl version.
You may want to have a look at LaTeXML. It converts LaTeX to various XML formats, including OpenMath and content MathML.
But be warned, like all other tools, the conversion from (presentation-oriented) LaTeX to content markup (as in OpenMath and MathML) is heuristic. In particular, in ambiguous situations (e.g. $f(a+b)$, which can mean $f$ applied to $(a+b)$ or $f$ times $(a+b)$) LaTeXML chooses one (usually times).
There are two ways out:
1) use content markup already in the LaTeX source (see http://trac.kwarc.info/sTeX)
2) use a better post-processor for LaTeXML is working on this

Is there a way to prevent LaTeX from splitting long footnotes across multiple column/pages?

I am using LaTeX and in some cases have multiline footnotes.
When I use a two-column format and especially when the reference to a footnote is low in the column, LaTeX will often split the footnote in half: it starts in the original column, but then continues under another column (sometimes in another page), which is very distracting.
Is there a way to force LaTeX to never split footnotes and allocate enough space for them?
Use \interfootnotelinepenalty=10000 to totally disallow this. But be prepared for other layout artifacts... Setting the penalty lower than 10000 will give TeX some flexibility in deciding when the side effects are too bad to bear.
For a detailed discussion see the TeX FAQ item Why does LaTeX split footnotes across pages?
I've found that it's best to get the style sheet from where you're trying to publish, and just use their format (I'm assuming you're trying to publish somewhere, if you're using a double-column format). The editors can then handle wacky footnoting. If it's for a thesis, I don't know about your committee, but mine has told me that a single column, double-spaced is the way to go, which should avoid your problem in the first place.

What things should be localized in an application

When thinking about what areas should be taken into account for a localized version of an application a number of things pop up right away:
Text display
Date and time
Units
Numbers and decimals
User input formats
LeftToRight support
Dialog and control sizes
Are there other things/areas to remember or keep in mind when building a localizable application? Are there any resources out there which provide a listing of best practices not just for text localization but for all things around localization?
After Kudzu's talk about l10N I left the room with way more questions then I had before and none of my old questions answered. But it gave me something to think about and brought the message "depends on how far you can/want to go" accross.
Translate text bodies with aforementioned things
Test all your controls for length/alignment in LTR/RTL, TTB(TopToBottom) BTT and all it's combinations.
Look out for special characters and encodings
Look out for combinations of different alignments (LTR, RTL, TTB, BTT) and how they effect punctuation and quotation signs.
Align controls according to text alignment (Hebrew Win has its start menu at the right
Take string lengths into account. They can overflow in other languages.
Put labels at the correct side of icons (LTR, TTB etc)
Translate language selection controls
No texts in images (can't be translated)
Translate EVERYTHING (headers, logos, some languages use different brand names, product names etc)
Does the region have a 24:00 or a 00:00 (changes the AM/PM that goes with it too)
Does the region use AM/PM or the 24:00 system
What calendar system are they using
What digit is for what part of the date (day, month, year in all its combinations)
Try to avoid "copying [number] files" equivalents. Some regions have different rules about changing words according to quantities. (This is an extremely complicated topic that I will elaborate on if desired)
Translate sentences, not words. Syntax rules are too complicated to put in your business logic.
Don't use flags for regions. Languages != countries
Consider what languages / dialects you can support (e.g. India has a gazillion of languages)
Encoding
Cultural rules (some western images displaying business woman can be near offensive in some other cultures)
Look out for language generalizations (e.g. boot(UK) != boot(US))
Those are the ones from the top of my head. The list just went on and on...
Don't forget the overhead of converting all documentation and help files.
a couple hints from my J2ME apps days:
don't translate separate words, translate whole phrases, even if there are matching repetitions. You'll later have to translate to a language where words have to be modified differently in different contexts and you may end up with an analog of "color: greenish"
Right2Lelf includes numbering of lists, alignment, and alternative scroll bars
Arabic languages write the same letter differently based on surrounding letters. You can't just print a string from a character buffer, you'll need a special control to output those or support from you platform
alphabetical sorting is HARD. No native Chinese could ever explain me the rules, but they will always spot wrongly sorted words. There appear to be a number of options to sort Chinese. I guess other languages may have the same problem

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