Android: library/sample code for writing equations?

Question

I want to give users the option to write down technical equations in my app. How can I do this?

I'm OK with having a simple edittext and forcing the user to write out actual LaTeX (or whatever) code, but if there's an easier way to let people input equations I'd love to know.

Check this out http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2226863 – kiruwka Nov 01 '13 at 19:19 — kiruwka, Nov 01 '13 at 19:19

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 01 '13 at 19:50

For the output of math formulas you could use MathJax or JqMath. For those you will have extra WebView since those libs work with javaScript.
For the input you could make user follow their input syntax, or create your own wrapper around it. As advanced input feature you could implement image recognition for some math elements, like these guys did.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 01 '13 at 19:52

Have a look at projects around MathML (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MathML)

WebKit supports MathML in recent versions, so if you can get that you can display your equations. However, since the question is about entering equations, maybe the best place to start looking is shorthand formats that can be converted to MathML. For example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCIIMathML

It may also be worth looking at WYSIWIG MathML editors. Most are pretty heavy, likely not suitable to be embedded into an app, but look around.

Android: library/sample code for writing equations?

2 Answers2