PreTeXt

• An authoring and publishing system:

  • Extensive support for mathematics (and STEM)
  • Designed to create openly licensed materials

• An abstract specification of a scholarly document
• Implementations of conversions to various formats
• A modern replacement for LaTeX
• A commitment to creating accessible materials
• A community of instructors, authors, and publishers
• Guided by 11 principles, e.g. …
• Principle #10: PreTeXt recognizes that scholarly documents involve the interaction of authors, publishers, scholars, instructors, students, and readers, with each group having its own needs and goals.

The PreTeXt authoring language captures an author's intent and document structure, AS THE AUTHOR WRITES.

An author concentrates on CONTENT and is not able to influence PRESENTATION.

Principle #1: PreTeXt captures the structure of textbooks and research papers

• PDF: print and electronic versions
• HTML: highly interactive, amazingly accessible
• EPUB/Kindle: an improvement on PDF
• Jupyter notebooks: popular for data science, Python programming
• Runestone: open-source hosting of open textbooks, with LMS, more interactivity
• Braille: embossable and electronic, 100% automated, no transcriber
• Slideshows: you are viewing one now
• Principle #3: PreTeXt documents serve as a single source which can be easily converted to multiple other formats, current and future.

Judson's Abstract Algebra: Theory and Applications

http://abstract.ups.edu/aata/aata.html

AATA's theorem on a presentation of a dihedral group:

7777777777777777777777777777777777777777
,!orem  #e4ba 4
  ,! gr|p _% ,d;n _:1 _% n .1: #3 _:1
3si/s ( all products ( ! two ele;ts .2;r
& .2;s1 satisfy+ ! rela;ns
_%
r~n" .k #1
s~2" .k #1
srs  .k r~-1
_:
4
7777777777777777777777777777777777777777

Judson's Abstract Algebra: Theory and Applications, as 24 BRF files

https://raised-mathematics.github.io/dissemination/aata/

Principle #11: PreTeXt recognizes the inherent value in producing material that is accessible to everyone.

Key tools:

• Speech Rule Engine (MathJax) makes Nemeth braille
• liblouis makes braille for literary text
• liblouis formats an embossed page
• This talk could be converted to braille! (It was!)

• Rip out all mathematical text (easy with PreTeXt)
• Use Speech Rule Engine to convert to Nemeth (and speech strings)
• Use PreTeXt to convert to HTML, substitute Unicode braille
• Use liblouis to convert HTML to formatted braille (thanks, ViewPlus)

Very similar to how we make EPUB, with math as speech-enhanced SVG images.

Same process could make a “talking book”, ala DAISY.

Issues!

• Line-breaks for inline math, now simply at 40 cells
• Tactile diagrams ("line art", not images)

\begin{tikzpicture}[scale=1.65]
\coordinate (negative-y-axis) at (0,-1.5);
\coordinate (positive-y-axis) at (0,1.5);
\coordinate (negative-x-axis) at (-1.75,0);
\coordinate (positive-x-axis) at (1.75,0);
\coordinate (origin) at (0,0);

<!-- locations in polar coordinates -->
\coordinate (zero)  at (0:1);
\coordinate (one)   at (45:1);
\coordinate (two)   at (90:1);
\coordinate (three) at (135:1);
[MORE]

\draw [->]  (negative-x-axis) -- (positive-x-axis);
\draw [->]  (negative-y-axis) -- (positive-y-axis);
<label xml:id="origin" location="origin" direction="southeast"><m>0</m></label>
<label xml:id="posx" location="positive-x-axis" direction="north"><m>x</m>-axis</label>
<label xml:id="posy" location="positive-y-axis" direction="east"><m>y</m>-axis</label>

\draw (origin) circle (1);

\filldraw[fill=black, draw=black] (zero)   circle (\pointsize);
<label xml:id="power-zero" location="zero" direction="southeast"><m>1</m></label>

\filldraw[fill=black, draw=black] (one)    circle (\pointsize);
<label xml:id="power-one" location="one" direction="northeast"><m>\omega</m></label>

\filldraw[fill=black, draw=black] (two)    circle (\pointsize);
<label xml:id="power-two" location="two" direction="northeast"><m>i</m></label>

\filldraw[fill=black, draw=black] (three)  circle (\pointsize);
<label xml:id="power-three" location="three" direction="northwest"><m>\omega^3</m></label>


[MORE]

\end{tikzpicture}

• Include math in labels in overall conversion to Nemeth via SRE

• Analyze and record each label with an XSL stylesheet

  • Nemeth braille as Unicode
  • Clean-up text, whitespace
  • all-math, or no?

• Build a "standalone" LaTeX/TikZ file (modification of usual XSL)

  • Size the sighted version of the image
  • Scale to full embossed page (~ 10-inch square)
  • TikZ node for each label; scaled location, box with border, sized for cells
  • Use dvisvgm specials to insert SVG/XML (“PTX-rectangle”)
  • Record height, width, number of cells, direction of label, no cells

• dvilatex (yes, that one)
• dvisvgm to produce SVG

• Post-process SVG with an XSL stylesheet

  • Set text font to be Braille29
  • Build a svg:text element at correct location
  • Set the actual text to be the Unicode cells

Pro: many (most?) mathematicians know and use TikZ for diagrams

Pro: authors need to add semantic information about labels

Con: its complicated

• Three XSL stylesheets
• Two dubious executables: dvilatex, dvisvgm
• Six-step process (can be automated)

Principle #8: PreTeXt is free: the software is available at no cost, with an open license. The use of PreTeXt does not impose any constraints on documents prepared with the system.

Links

• pretextbook.org
• buzzard.ups.edu/talks.html
• Twitter: #PreTeXtGang

Acknowledgements

• PreTeXt developers, contributors, and authors
• American Action Fund (National Federation of the Blind)
• American Institute of Mathematics
• Partial support for this work was provided by the National Science Foundation's Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) program under Award Nos. 1022574, 1626455, 1821706. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.