Dominique Archambault: "Universal Math Conversion Library (UMCL)"

Dominique Archambault, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France

E-mail: dominique.archambault [at] upmc.fr

Dominique's blogUMCL is a programming library encapsulating various converters for different Braille codes and which enables developers of applications designed for visually impaired people to easily support multiple Braille Mathematical notations.
To make this possible without increasing the complexity an architecture based on a MathML (Presentation MathML) as the central representation of the formula was developed. This architecture is quite simple. It includes a main module and as many input and output modules as there are Maths codes available. Input and output modules are independent and can be installed later on. The main module detects the available input and output modules and calls the modules needed to perform the conversions according to requests. In other words it is possible to add input or output modules to any application using UMCL, at any time a module becomes available. Designers of client applications can use it easily through a simple and unique API. UMCL was developed in standard portable ”C” with wrappers to various other programming languages. Currently output modules have been developed for the French notations (revisions 1971 and 2001), for the Italian notation, for the Marburg notation (German) and for Nemeth code (American English). A beta version for the British code is also already available. Input modules for LATEXand Marburg Braille are also under development. The library can be used just as well with transcription tools (from mainstream notations to Braille and vice versa) as with software that needs real-time conversions (like formula browsers or editors). It also makes converting a document from one national Braille notation to another possible, increasing de facto the number of documents available for students and allowing blind mathematicians from different countries to exchange documents. UMCL is an open-source project.