Silva Math Released

2 March 2008 – Silva Math is an extension product for the Silva CMS to enhance Silva Documents with mathematical formulas. Mathematical expressions are edited and stored in TeX format and rendered as PNG images. The formulas are embedded into documents as Code Sources.

Silva Math uses LaTeX and dvipng to render mathematics. Silva Math benefits from the long tradition of math handling in TeX and LaTeX with its extensive math language and mature rendering capabilities.

An advantage of Silva Math compared to Silva JSMath is mathematical expressions are rendered on the server side as images. Thus, there is no need for JavaScript or mathematical fonts on the client side. This gives the server operator full control over the appearance of the mathematical expressions. On the downside, the printing quality of the images is not yet optimal.

Silva Math was developed by Samuel Schluep for the dynamic Learning Content Management System (dLCMS) and has been tested with the Silva 1.6 and 2.x series on Linux (Ubuntu 7.10 with TeX Live) and Windows (XP with MikTeX 2.7).

For feedback please use the dLCMS General mailing list (dlcms-general at infrae com).