New Semester

I would like to start off by apologizing for not having posted here since October. Last semester started off promising but did not result in nearly as much progress in Touch of Math as hoped and was not acceptable by any means. This is the part where I would normally cite lack of time, too much schoolwork, etc. but instead I will move on and just get straight to what did get accomplished and what the plans for this semester are.

In its current state, Touch of Math is able to distinguish between constants, and editable variables. Also, the project is now capable of displaying special characters (right now it's just a few greek letters, like sigma and pi, but the framework is there so it's easy to add more). Another current feature is the ability to have variables with subscripts, by using an underscore, as well as the ability to have multi-character variables by putting them in quotes.

There is one other "feature" although it was more of a proof of concept: the ability to replace variables (only editable ones, not constants) with other variables or numbers. The reason I say it was a proof of concept is the fact that it is only implemented in the front end. That is to say, replacing a variable literally just replaces the displayed html with a different character, and in no way is tied back to the underlying equation.

With that said, let me mention the goals we have for this semester. The first one is obviously to hook up the partially implemented variable replacement feature mentioned above so that it actually works (there's also this small bug where it treats numbers as editable variables...).

The major goal of this semester is to overhaul the way the user interacts with the expression. This involves implementing a way to change which scope the user is manipulating within (moving a variable within a parenthetical statement vs. moving the whole parenthetical statement and interacting with another part of the expression). This is critical to Touch of Math being a fully functional equation editor/manipulator/solver.

Also on the list of things to accomplish this semester is an interactive history. Interactive in the sense that the user will be able to see the equation's history and—thanks to suggestions from fellow RCOS members—they will see the operations performed between that state and the next one (like a little "-2" on both sides of the equation, etc.)

All of these plus additional smaller features not worth spelling out here are on the plate for this semester and with this new year's clean slate so to speak (yes I know it's February), I believe most, if not all, can and will be realized by the time school lets out for the summer.

I leave you with all of that and with the promise of more posts (and soon too, not in four months like this one). In case you don't know already, the whole project is on github at https://github.com/jlabarbera11/TouchOfMath.

Zach