UnicodeMath Version 3.1

A new version of Unicode Technical Note #28, UnicodeMath, a Nearly Plain-Text Encoding of Mathematics is now available. It updates several topics and references and uses the name UnicodeMath instead of Unicode linear format. Since there are several math linear formats, such as Nemeth braille, [La]TeX, and AsciiMath, having the name UnicodeMath clarifies the discussion nicely. The text has been polished in other ways too and some errors have been corrected. No notational constructs have been added, so the version number is only incremented to 3.1.

Here’s a UnicodeMath example in case you don’t want to read the whole spec ☺ The formula

sin θ=(e^iθ-e^-iθ)/2i

displays as

Operators and operator precedence are used to delimit arguments. A binary minus has lower precedence than the superscript operator ^ and the fraction operator /, but a unary minus has higher precedence than ^. This approach contrasts with LaTeX and AsciiMath which require that arguments consisting of more than one element be enclosed in {} or (), respectively. In LaTeX, the formula above is given by

\sin\theta=\frac{e^{i\theta}-e^{-i\theta}}{2i}

In AsciiMath, the formula is given by

sin theta=(e^(i theta)-e^(-i theta))/(2i)

In Microsoft Office apps, you can enter Unicode symbols in UnicodeMath using the corresponding [La]TeX controls words such as \theta, using names that you choose, or using symbol galleries.