Mathematics tools

The TeX and Algebra filters provide the infrastructure to display mathematical expressions within any part of Moodle.

The Algebra filter employs a simpler syntax, similar to the display format of Texas Instruments graphing calculators and should be adequate for the range of mathematical expressions encountered in secondary school and early college level mathematics and science courses. To trigger the filter, enclose the expression within double @'s: @@@expression@@@ To escape the filter enclose the expression within triple @'s: @@@@expression@@@@. Some basic examples of algebra syntax are shown here: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=5402

The TeX filter employs the TeX notation for typesetting mathematics introduced by Don Knuth in 1982, which has become the standard for mathematics publishing at the university level. Its syntax is more complex than that used by the algebra filter, but it can accomodate the full range of mathematical expressions. To trigger the filter, enclose the expression within double $'s: $$$expression$$$ To escape the filter enclose the expression within triple $'s: $$$$expression$$$$.  Here are some web pages explaining some basics of TeX notation: http://www.math.uiuc.edu/~hildebr/tex/course/intro2.html http://www.math.tamu.edu/~harold.boas/courses/math696/LaTeX-in-line-equations.html http://abel.math.harvard.edu/computing/latex/manual/node21.html http://www.matheboard.de/formeleditor.php

Installation of the Algebra and TeX filters is a bit more complicated than the basic Moodle installation, as they rely on an external program called mimeTeX to convert mathematics notation into inline graphics. Mimetex binaries for Windows, (most versions of) Linux, and MacOS X are included in the distribution.  Binaries for other systems are provided at http://moodle.org/download/mimetex/. An additional complication is that certain unzip/cvs programs on Windows handle binaries inappropriately, resulting in a corrupt installation of the mimetex binary.  Should that happen, a clean binary should be obtained from http://moodle.org/download/mimetex/ Finally the Algebra filter requires Perl to be installed on the server. This is a standard part of Linux, but most Windows servers will need to install that as well. A suitable distribution of Perl can be downloaded from: http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/

To diagnose problems in the Algebra and TeX filter installations, debugging scripts are provided. They may be accessed via the urls:   http://yourSiteName/moodle/filter/algebra/algebradebug.php   http://yourSiteName/moodle/filter/tex/texdebug.php