Reference
It is recommended to always use the iMath menus to create or modify iFormulas. Nevertheless, sometimes it will be necessary to fine-tune equations by editing them directly.
All iMath commands start with the string %%ii
at the beginning of a line, which will be interpreted as a comment by Openoffice. When the document is recalculated, iMath parses the string and generates the formula that is displayed. The generated lines are marked by %%gg
at the end of the line. Editing such a line makes no sense because it will be deleted at the next recalculation! Always modify the %%ii
lines if you want to tweak an iFormula. Formulas may also have lines without either %%ii
or %%gg
, these will not be touched by iMath.
Elements
The following elements can be part of an iFormula definition string
symbol
The name of a mathematical symbol or function, e.g. x
or a_n
expression
A mathematical expression in Openoffice math format
list = { element; element; ... }
A list of other elements, enclosed in parentheses and separated by semicolons
Commands
After the initial %%ii
, the following commands are possible:
READFILE { path/to/file }
Open the given file and parse the iMath commands in this file. This command can be used to put common formulas in a file to re-use them
CLEAREQUATIONS
iMath stores all equations and functions that it encounters. If you want to make a fresh start in your document, use this command
FUNCTION { hints, symbol, expression }
Declare a user-defined function. symbol
is the name of the function. The expression declares the arguments of the function and can be either a single symbol or a list of symbols. The way that iMath treats this function can be influenced by function hints:
- none: No function hints (must be used because iMath requires three arguments to the
FUNCTION
declaration
- lib: A library function: It will not be affected by
CLEAREQUATIONS
- trig: For trigonometric functions. Tells iMath that this function will get special treatment when printing (e.g. <math>sin^2 x</math> instead of <math>(sin x)^2</math>
- expand: The function is to be expanded immediately. Useful for functions that are really abbreviations, e.g.
square(x)
will be expanded to <math>x^2</math>
- nobracket: The function does not require brackets around the argument (e.g.
sqrt(x)
is printed as <math>sqrt x</math>)
- defdiff: Differentiate the definition of the function, not the function itself