In Chapter 2, we investigated two ways of including mathematical notation in our Moodle courses. The first was to use third-party applications (Microsoft Office or OpenOffice.org) to generate the notation that we then copy into our courses. The second was to have the notation generated from within Moodle using a special filter—the Algebra Filter. In this chapter, we will investigate three more filters that you can use to generate mathematical notation:
TeX
jsMath
ASCIIMathML
All three generate more advanced mathematical notation than can be achieved using the Algebra Filter. Both the TeX and jsMath filters use a special typesetting language called LaTeX (pronounced lah-tek), which we will be learning about in this chapter. However, ASCIIMathML doesn't use LaTeX. Also, it has the advantage that the notation it creates is far more accessible when displayed to the students even if they are blind or visually impaired.
At this stage you may be concerned that you...