Bianca.php : a LaTeX generator for the web.
About this project
Bianca seems like an odd name for a program until you do an image search on a search for "LaTeX" and get pictures of sexy women instead of math equations, even if you use it in the alternating upper-case/lower-case lettering. So yeah, the name of this program derives from the model Bianca Beauchamp known for wearing latex outfits.
However, this Bianca doesn't pose in latex garb. Instead Bianca--this PHP script--generates math equations using the TeX or LaTeX typesetting language. This language is as easy to use as writing a web page using HTML.
Why LaTeX instead of MathML?
As much as I like programming, writing code in a language inspired by XML is a big pain in the butt. TeX, and subsequently LaTeX, is easy to write, the tools are freely available for download, the output renders beautifully, and ot works on all browsers. These are qualities MathML does not have.
Why Bianca over a JavaScript Library like MathJax
Don't get me wrong, MathJax is a great program and completely blows jsMath out of the water, espcially if you don't host your own website like I do. It seems more proper to use MathJax if you are using a website that provides hosting for you or if you use a prepackaged content management system (CMS) like WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal. Bianca isn't designed to be some widget or plugin for a CMS. It is designed for generating whole images rather than hundreds of small images a program like MathJax creates to be used as individual parts. I'm a strong believer that one big file is better than a bunch of small files hosted elsewhere because the amount of storage the smaller files would use, factoring in fonts and font sizes, would be much larger if I had just processed my LaTeX code in a single instance.
Add to this, I'm also considering using the PSTricks library to render vector images in PostScript. This will probably be integrated into the next version (version 2.0) of Bianca.
What is the ultimate goal for Bianca?
I want Bianca to be an affordable and very simple alternative to Mathematica, MATLAB, Maple, Octave, and Sage. Generating the mathematical output through typesetting and macro programming is easy. But having the computer process the mathematics is what will make Bianca really stand out.
At first, I think I will try using Bianca to work on polynomial, which takes an array of coefficients to process. Eventually, this will become more advanced, especially when rational equations are involved or the coefficients are represented by transcendental functions.
When will Bianca be available for download?
Soon. I still have some tweaks to work on it.
Example
\\iiint\\limits_A \\, f\\left( x,y,z \\right) \\mathrm{d} x\\,\\mathrm{d} y\\,\\mathrm{d} z =
\\iiint\\limits_B \\, f\\left(p\\left(u,v,w\\right),q\\left(u,v,w\\right),r\\left(u,v,w\\right)\\right) \\,
\\left
\\begin{vmatrix}
\\dfrac{\\partial x}{\\partial u} &\\dfrac{\\partial x}{\\partial v} & \\dfrac{\\partial x}{\\partial w} \\\\
\\dfrac{\\partial y}{\\partial u} & \\dfrac{\\partial y}{\\partial v} & \\dfrac{\\partial y}{\\partial w} \\\\
\\dfrac{\\partial z}{\\partial u} & \\dfrac{\\partial z}{\\partial v} & \\dfrac{\\partial z}{\\partial w} \\\\
\\end{vmatrix}
\\right \\, \\mathrm{d} u\\,\\mathrm{d} v\\,\\mathrm{d} w
Software Requirements
There are only a couple so far:
