Practical Unicode Logic for Online

Tech CoursesElizabeth J. Pyatt, Ph.D. Information Technology Services

Penn State University

ejp10@psu.edu

Outline•The Courses & The Characters

•With a little Flash and Video

•Putting it on the Web (fonts & equations)

•Help for the Students

•Glyph Challenges

•Math Support vs. Foreign Language Support

•Lessons Learned

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The Campus•Penn State

•Blended Learning Initiative

•Online or Hybrid (online + face 2 face)

•Lots of online study guides, multimedia, quizzes

•Two Courses

•Phil 12 (Logic) & ME 300 (Thermodynamics)

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Symbolic Logic•Phil 12 – Symbolic Logic

•Required for Criminal Justice Major

•Completely Online

•Glyph Repertoire: ∨ ∧ ⊃ ∀ ∃ ↔ ⊦ ℙ ℚ

•Proof Tables, Truth Trees

•Videos Demos of Logic Problems

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A Typical Proof

Notice the quantity of “exotic” glyphs embedded in text with English glyphs

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Video Title

Titles in LiveType. Video on PC Tablet6

Thermodynamics•ME 300

•Taught at multiple campuses

•Lecture notes online

•Glyph Repertoire: ∂,∫,∮,≡,Ẇ,℘,ṁ,qO,η,γ

•MIA: qO and 𝒱 (too new)

•Equations, sketches, flash animation

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Some Equations

Wnet = δW∮ rev + δW∮ sys

∑ṁH,in + ∑ṁC,in = ∑ṁH,out + ∑ṁC,out

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Some Multimedia

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Word Then HTML•Word for draft of contents

•Two Platforms

•Developers on Mac – OS X 10.5 with Office 2008 & Arial Unicode MS

•Instructors on PC – Arial Unicode MS

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Beware Insert Symbol

•Word includes logic symbols on Symbol palette, but pulls glyphs from Private Use Area

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Viable Alternatives•Character Map (Win)/Palette

(Mac)

•Click & Insert one at a time

•Numeric Alt Codes (Win Office)

•E.g. ∩ = ALT+8745

•Numeric Option Codes (Mac)

•E.g. ∩ = Option+2229

•Custom Logic Keyboard

•Minimal disruption once enabled 12

Custom Logic Keyboard•Built by Mac developer (me)

•Ukelele from SIL

•Manual adjustment of Keyboard XML

•Keystrokes easy to memorize

•∩ = Shift+Option+7 (Shift+7 = &)

•Available in most Mac applications

•Transitioned from Phil 12 to ME 300

•May be possible on Windows

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Beware Font Switches

•MS Office for Mac switches fonts

•If current font does not have the correct glyph

•Common: Times New Roman > Math 2

•Mac Times New Roman ≠ Win TNR

•ṁ, ẇ on Mac TNR, but not Win

•Keep to Arial Unicode MS

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Adobe: Know Thy Fonts•Good Unicode support, but must manually switch font.

Good Font Choices Not So Good

Need to ensure large glyph base in Math/Latin/Greek/Symbol blocks

• Arial Unicode MS (Win)• Lucida Grande (Mac)• Linux Libertine (free)• Arev Sans (free)• Unicode Symbols (free)

These fonts have critical gaps once content becomes too technical.

• Times New Roman• Verdana/Tahoma/Trebuchet• Palatino•…

Greek yes, but missing logic symbols and ṁ and ẇ.

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Fonts On to the Web

•CSS should specify alternate fonts

•Unicode Symbols, Lucida Grande, Arial Unicode MS

•Need font list for IE 6 and earlier

•Provide link to freeware fonts

•Use larger sizes for new or confusing glyphs, especially if

• subscripts/superscripts involved or italicized

•I prefer serif whenever possible 16

Equations on the Web

•How about Math ML?

•Firefox/Internet Explorer code incompatible

•No MathML support on Safari

•Resorted to

•Unicode text if one 1ine

•Images (with ALT tag) if multiline or

•Tables (need invisible images with ALT tag)

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Single vs.Multiline

Wnet = δW∮ rev + δW∮ sys

∑ṁH,in + ∑ṁC,in = ∑ṁH,out + ∑ṁC,out

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Glyph Challenges•Doublestruck P/Q (or ℙ/ℚ)

•Hard to read at 12 point (ℙ/ℚ)

•Preferred Unicode Symbols font over standard over sans serifℚℙ vs ℙ/ℚ

•Therfore: Doublestruck had its own CSS class

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Helping the Students

•Option 1: Training

•Students can learn to input Unicode

•But…requires instructor confidence

•Necessary for general education course?

•Option 2: Cut/Paste from Templates

•Ideal for more complicated diagrams

Pick A Proof

Dots over Q and V•Precomposed Q-Dot and V-Dot not

in Unicode standard

•ṁ in because of Old Irish ?? (seriously)

•What about combining diacritic?

•OK for qO and vO but not QO and VO

•Cursor placement VERY tricky in editing

•Resorted to Q @ and V @

•Still text and not an image

Q O scans

Use of dotted Q in 2 textbooks

V O scans

Use of dotted V in textbook & Web 24

V = ??

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Script V (𝒱)in 2 Sources

Textbook 1: V = volume

𝒱 = velocity

Textbook 2: V = velocity

𝒱 = volume

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Math vs Language Support

•Awareness

•Most foreign language professionals have heard of Unicode

•Math/Science?

•“Math” has Large Character Set

•Latin A-D, Greek, Arrows, Numeric Symbols, Alphabetic Symbols Math Blocks, Miscellaneous Symbols…

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Different Workflows•Language

•Setup input keyboard

•Plain text

•Many script-specific fonts available

•Math

•Equation Editor or Insert tools preferred

•MathML/LaTex assumed

•Complete fonts?28

Lessons Learned?•Technology doable, but tricky to

navigate

•Upgrades can be slow

•Custom keyboards saved my sanity

•Every course/glyph has its own story

•IT WAS TOTALLY WORTH IT

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