Mathematical formula editor for CAI

Abstract

Many students in lower grades who study mathematics with computers have difficulty in inputting formulas by using existing methods. It would be much easier for them if they could input formulas naturally, as they appear in textbooks. This paper describes such an interface program module for use in CAI. This module makes it easy for students to input and edit complex formulas solely by key operations, without using a mouse. The difference between the module and existing mathematical expression editors is that it converts formulas into character strings syntactically. In this way, CAI programs can understand the meanings of the formulas.

A Survey of User Interfaces for Computer Algebra Systems

“…Nakayama (1989). MFE is designed as a set of procedures to be incorporated into other programs (in particular, those aimed at computer aided instruction), and called by them for two-dimensional input and output.…”

“…An experiment by Nakayama with 17 and 18 year-old high school girls showed that even complex formulas could be entered with only 30 minutes of training . (Nakayama, 1989).…”

Recognition of Mathematical Notation

“…Typing an ASCII form of the mathematical expression, or Issuing a sequence of commands to a structure-based math editor. Currently, most people who need to enter mathematical expressions use manual conversion (typing an ASCII form of the expression, or issuing editor commands to enter the structure of the expression [1]). In contrast, the technology for output of mathematical notation is mature and widely available (bottom part of the figure).…”

An On-line MathML Editing Tool for Web Applications

“…The ability for users to interactively create and manipulate mathematical expressions is very important for systems such as Science Communication Environment, Computer Algebra Systems, and Webbased Mathematics Education [8,14,15,25,26]. MathEdit is a browser-based mathematical expression editor developed jointly by Lanzhou university/China and Kent University/USA [2,23,27].…”