<ol>
$tit Write html pages with a programmability extension: substitution of
variables, conditional branching, etc.$titend
This wims programmability extension to html does not require any
addon or plugin at the browser side, as all the wims commands are treated
by the wims server before sending the result to the browser, which will
be a standard html page. <br>
For example
, this allows you to
define style macros which can be
dynamically changed. <br>
And this extension can cohabit with all the
current (and hopefully
future) html standards, including java applets, javascripts, embedded
objects,
dhtml... This is because the wims extension follows a strict line
discipline (i.e. a wims command must start at the first word of a line),
while html standard is not line-oriented. <br>
This means that you can even embed wims extensions into javascripts,
applets, dhtml...
</li>
$tit Dynamic insertions of paints, plots and TeX formatted mathematical
formulas into html pages. $titend
For example, you may insert the following line into your wims-extended html
page. At the browser side, the visitor will see a TeX formatted matrix
whose content varies with the value of the variable $emph $$matrix$emphend:
<pre>
$ !instex $$$$ \left( $$matrix \right) $$$$</pre>
Moreover, this implementation of dynamic insertions makes future updates
possible without modification at module's level. (For example when a
better way to render mathematical formula is available, a simple
modification at server's level will immediately let all $emph!instex
$emphend lines take benefit of the new standard.)
</li>
$tit Insplot is now animated!$titend
Exemple: the tool
!href module=tool/geometry/animtrace.$lang&cmd=intro Tracés Animés
.
</li>
$tit Direct interfaces to powerful external software packages.$titend
For example
, you may
define a variable `factor
' by the following line: <pre>
factor=!exec pari print(factor($$number))</pre>
Upon execution of this line, the variable $number will be replaced by
its current value, then the software package `PARI' will be called
with the string `print(factor(<value of $$number>))' as command to
execute. The output of the program, with the overheads stripped, will
be placed as the value of the variable `factor'. <br>
Interfaces provided in version $wims_version of wims: PARI, Maxima, MuPAD,
Coq, Povray, gnuplot, PostgreSQL, Fly (gif drawing), CALC (by Keith Matthew).
</li>
$tit Simple and versatile language.$titend
The language used for wims modules is an extension of the existing and
popular html language. This extension is designed to be simple,
easy to use and close to natural language. Synonymes are accepted
whenever necessary. For example, to include the content of another
file, you don
't have to remember whether the command is $emph include$emphend as in C, or $emph input$emphend as in TeX,
because both are valid.
</li>
$tit Convenient directives for string manipulations:$titend
replace with regular
expression capability, extraction of a subset from a list of items,
shuffle, evaluation of mathematical expressions, etc.
</li>
$tit Easy inline mathematical symbols:$titend
simply type <span class="tt">$$m_pi</span> for $m_pi, <span class="tt">$$m_RR</span> for
$m_RR, <span class="tt">$$m_le</span> for
$m_le, <span class="tt">$$m_Rightarrow</span> for $m_Rightarrow, etc.
</li>
$tit Intelligent treatment of mathematical expressions:$titend
built-in translation routines to allow error-tolerant expressions
like <span class="tt">2y</span> (instead of <span class="tt">2*y</span>) or <span class="tt">(x+1)(x-1)</span>
(instead of <span class="tt">(x+1)*(x-1)</span>), and translations of raw mathematical
expressions into beautified html sources (<span class="tt">x^3-3*x^2+1*x-5</span>
will become $emph
!htmlmath x^3-3*x^2+1*x-5
$emphend,
etc.), or TeX sources, etc.
</li>
$tit Powerful random capabilities:$titend
random permutation (shuffle), random
record from a datafile, random filename, etc.
</li>
</ol>