[l2h] Format of array of formulae

Wed Nov 22 22:36:41 CET 2006

Hello Alan,

On 23/11/2006, at 1:49 AM, Alan Fry wrote:

> It was extremely helpful to see the examples of so many different  
> ways of writing equations.

Sure.  The possibilities are endless.  :-)

> On 20 Nov 2006, at 21:05, Ross Moore wrote:
>
> <snip>
>
>> Alternatively, \usepackage{amsmath}  and then use:
>>
>> \begin{align}
>> \label{eq:2}
>> &\bar P_{1} = - \bar P_{4} \\
>> &\bar P_{2} = - \bar P_{5}
>> \end{align}
>>
>> or
>>
>> \begin{align}
>> \label{eq:2}
>> \bar P_{1} &= - \bar P_{4} \\
>> \bar P_{2} &= - \bar P_{5}
>> \end{align}
>
> The latter results in the following HTML (slightly edited for  
> clarity):
>
> <DIV ALIGN="CENTER">
> <TABLE CELLPADDING="0" WIDTH="100%" ALIGN="CENTER" >
> <TR VALIGN="MIDDLE">
> 	<TD NOWRAP ALIGN="RIGHT">
> 	<IMG WIDTH="21" HEIGHT="34" ALIGN="MIDDLE" SRC="img5.gif" ALT…>
> 	</TD>
> 	<TD NOWRAP ALIGN="left">
> 	<IMG WIDTH="51" HEIGHT="34" ALIGN="MIDDLE" SRC="img16.gif" ALT…>
> 	</TD>
> <\TR>
> …
> </TABLE>
> </DIV>
>
> Consequently the two cells take their widths in the ratio of the  
> widths of the two images i.e. in this example 21:51, which is some  
> way from the centre of the page.
>
> Would it not be better if the first cell (or maybe both) were given  
> 'width="50%"'. Then, irrespective of the widths of the expressions  
> either side of the equation, the equals sign would be bang in the  
> middle every time.

In this case, maybe, because the amount of material
on either side of the "="s is roughly the same.
That is not typical, and would not give the best layout with
longer expressions.

You get nicely balanced layouts with (La)TeX producing .dvi or PDF,
since that system allows the actual size of the displayed material
to be measured exactly. Then the excess white-space can be placed
equally without affecting the location of equation-numbers.

With HTML, this is not possible, as the font-size is determined by
a setting in the surfer's browser, according to his/her preference.
Indeed, this can be changed at the click of the mouse, or key-press.

>
> I see 'latex2html' declares <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML  
> 3.2 Final//EN"> under which widths in the TD tag must be a number.  
> But percentages are allowed under <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C// 
> DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/ 
> loose.dtd"> and I wonder if that could not be used instead?

Have you tried:

  latex2html  -html_version 4.1  .....

or maybe just

  latex2html  -html_version 4.0  .....

>
>> Personally, many of my mathematician friends who need to
>> do a lot of LaTeX coding feel that it is generally better
>> to use the {amsmath} environments.
>> LaTeX2HTML handles these quite well too.
>
> My apologies if this newcomer to 'latex2html' is tramping over well  
> worn ground here.

The "real" way forward is to use CSS style-sheets.
These can be prepared independent of the LaTeX2HTML processing,
and then applied to the job.

See Chapter 4 of "The LaTeX Web Companion" for a discussion of how
this can be achieved, with some simplistic examples.

> Regards,
>
> Alan Fry

Hope this helps,

	Ross Moore

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ross Moore                                         ross at maths.mq.edu.au
Mathematics Department                             office: E7A-419
Macquarie University                               tel: +61 +2 9850 8955
Sydney, Australia  2109                            fax: +61 +2 9850 8114
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