MathBran

is a specification for serializing typeset mathematical constructs.

For the most part MathBran uses standard unicode, but three symbols are overloaded to allow for typeset constructs. These are:

• ⁜ - Construct symbol
• ⏴- Open argument symbol
• ⏵- Close argument symbol

It is permissible to escape the special symbols, for example the string x = 3 ⁜ 2 has a MathBran representation x = 3 ⁜⁜ 2. Hopefully the obscurity of the symbols will prevent escaped characters from occurring often.

The construct symbol indicates the start of specially formatted text. The next character after the construct symbol is the construct code. For example, the LaTeX-style equation i = \sqrt{-1} has a MathBran representation: i = ⁜√⏴-1⏵. Constructs can nest arbitrarily deep, e.g. MathBran uses cos(π/4) = ⁜f⏴⁜√⏴2⏵⏵⏴2⏵ to represent the LaTeX equation \cos(\pi/4) = \frac{\sqrt{2}}{2}.

Not every argument will be parsed as text. For example, to specify a matrix unambiguously, MathBran requires the first two arguments to specify the row and column counts. The MATLAB-style matrix [A B C; D E F] has a MathBran representation ⁜⊞⏴2⏵⏴3⏵⏴A⏵⏴B⏵⏴C⏵⏴D⏵⏴E⏵⏴F⏵.

The construct codes and their usage are specified in the table below:

For an example of what the MathBran specification can enable, check out the YAWYSIWYGEE editor demo.