An AsciiMath parser and MathML generator written in pure Ruby.

Status

Linux Build Status Gem Version

Installation

Add this line to your application’s Gemfile:

gem 'asciimath'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install asciimath

Usage

Library

First require the library.

require 'asciimath'

Then parse an AsciiMath string.

parsed_expression = AsciiMath.parse(asciimath)

The parsed expression is a set of nested Array and Hash objects.

This expression can then be converted to MathML or HTML (experimental.

math_ml = parsed_expression.to_mathml
html = parsed_expression.to_html

The MathML or HTML code is returned as a String.

Command line

The AsciiMath parser and converters can be invoked via the command line as follows:

MathML Generation
asciimath "an asciimath string"

or

asciimath mathml "an asciimath string"
HTML Generation
asciimath html "an asciimath string"

This command will print out the generated code on stdout.

Notes on the HTML Output

The HTML output is still regarded somewhat experimental - for basic usage it is fine, but it is not yet complete. Known issues are as follows:

  • sqrt function does not generate sane output

  • Use of font commands (e.g. bb) will result in broken output.

  • Accents do not extend to match what they cover.

  • Rendering of "integrals" uses a generic path that does not look amazing.

  • The size of braces does not account for complex content - so a matrix will render with the right sized braces if all of its elements are single-height text, but braces around e.g. fractions will render at the incorrect height.

Rendering the HTML output correctly requires the inclusion of style/math.css in the html document. There is currently no specific required font for this output, it simply selects a serif font family - change the @font-family attribute in the .math-inline class to select something specific.

Contributing

  1. Fork it (https://github.com/pepijnve/asciimath/fork)

  2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)

  3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')

  4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)

  5. Create a new Pull Request