X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["1454" "Mon" "14" "December" "1998" "12:50:09" "+0100" "Hans Aberg" "haberg@MATEMATIK.SU.SE" nil "29" "Re: portable LaTeX" "^Date:" nil nil "12" nil "portable LaTeX" nil nil nil] nil) Received: from listserv.gmd.de (listserv.gmd.de [192.88.97.1]) by mail.Uni-Mainz.DE (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id NAA21088; Mon, 14 Dec 1998 13:05:33 +0100 (MET) Received: from lsv1.listserv.gmd.de (192.88.97.2) by listserv.gmd.de (LSMTP for OpenVMS v1.1a) with SMTP id <6.E347DE3B@listserv.gmd.de>; Mon, 14 Dec 1998 13:05:29 +0100 Received: from RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE by RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release 1.8b) with spool id 412830 for LATEX-L@RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE; Mon, 14 Dec 1998 12:49:47 +0100 Received: from mail0.nada.kth.se (mail0.nada.kth.se [130.237.222.70]) by relay.urz.uni-heidelberg.de (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id MAA17544 for ; Mon, 14 Dec 1998 12:49:45 +0100 (MET) Received: from [130.237.37.82] (sl62.modempool.kth.se [130.237.37.82]) by mail0.nada.kth.se (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id MAA21039 for ; Mon, 14 Dec 1998 12:49:43 +0100 (MET) X-Sender: su95-hab@mail.nada.kth.se References: <199812130000.TAA29345@hilbert.math.albany.edu>; from William F. Hammond on Sat, Dec 12, 1998 at 07:00:48PM -0500 <199812130000.TAA29345@hilbert.math.albany.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Message-ID: Reply-To: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project In-Reply-To: <19981213230435.A11347@maths.tcd.ie> Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 12:50:09 +0100 From: Hans Aberg Sender: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project To: Multiple recipients of list LATEX-L Subject: Re: portable LaTeX Status: R X-Status: X-Keywords: X-UID: 3093 At 23:04 +0000 1998/12/13, Timothy Murphy wrote: >However, the point is that the formal system used >depends on the document, and on the subject matter. >There is no "mathematical language" and never will be in my opinion. There is a mathematical language in the same sense as there are human languages, of course. Then the question is in what sense this translates into a computer language: When I analyzed the syntax of elementary functions, it turns out that indeed, it is possible to defined a syntax which properly handles such things such as that one is allowed to with sin x, mixed with functions f(x), implicit multiplications a v, and so on: The syntax simply becomes more complicated and sophisticated than the various available computer languages. One could not expect though that a single fixed syntax would encompass all of mathematics and its different possible uses. So I think the opposite is true: Eventually, there will certainly be a mathematical computer language, which can be used to provide the mathematical semantic information. It will come eventually, because it can be built over time, but it is not otherwise very straightforward to do it, as math is rather complicated, so it will not come very easily. Hans Aberg * Email: Hans Aberg * Home Page: * AMS member listing: