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Use Nemeth Indicators to Delimit Math Content in Text

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#103 4 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Assessment

Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Newbie friendliness
35/100
Issue type
Feature
Clarity
Mostly clear
Activity status
Stale
Tech stack
python
Domain
accessibility

Research direction

Start by tracing how the NVDA Add-On handles inline math when MathCAT renders Nemeth, then compare its current spacing with the proposed indicator sequences in this issue. Done should mean mixed text and math use the specified Nemeth delimiters, with the behavior and any optional toggle clearly resolved.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

enhancement

MathCAT Version

MathCAT-0.6.6 (NVDA Add-On)

Current Behavior

When MathCAT encounters in-line math content and is set to render math as Nemeth, it inserts one space before the math and two spaces afterward to distinguish it from the surrounding text.

Proposed Change

Nemeth indicators would likely serve as better delimiters. Benefits include

  • a more natural rendering of mixed content (text interspersed with math), since that is how such content would be brailled physically.
  • more conspicuous indication of code switching (especially useful in STEM documents).
  • easier identification of symbols (e.g., punctuation) directly following math content, as the Nemeth indicators occupy the full height of the cells they use.
  • the ability (at least in theory) to use NVDA's braille output as (nearly) embosser-ready Unicode braille (since the standard is to use Nemeth indicators in UEB documents with Nemeth math content).

Perhaps an option could be given to toggle this behavior if desired.

Comparison

Mixed-Content Statement

In this case, $y$ is proportional to $x^2$.

Current Nemeth Output (Unicode)

⠠⠔⠀⠹⠀⠉⠁⠎⠑⠂⠀⠀⠰⠽⠀⠀⠀⠊⠎⠀⠏⠗⠕⠏⠕⠗⠰⠝⠁⠇⠀⠞⠕⠀⠀⠭⠘⠆⠀⠀⠲

Proposed Nemeth Output (Unicode)

⠠⠔⠀⠹⠀⠉⠁⠎⠑⠂⠀⠸⠩⠀⠽⠀⠸⠱⠀⠊⠎⠀⠏⠗⠕⠏⠕⠗⠰⠝⠁⠇⠀⠞⠕⠀⠸⠩⠀⠭⠘⠆⠀⠸⠱⠲

If Nemeth indicators were adopted, then the grade 1 symbol indicator would not be necessary before the $y$.

Dominant language
Python
Stars
10
Forks
10
Avg merge
10h 40m
Merged PRs (30d)
4

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
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  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

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