Naming the substitution
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AsTeR chooses identifier names that convey some information about
the object being replaced. This has two advantages:
- An identifier like ``summand'' when referring to the expression
appearing as the summand in a summation conveys more information than
the identifier [tex2html_wrap5866].
- When substitutions are spoken after rendering the top-level
expression, the listener finds it easier to relate them
to the top-level expression.
Names for the substituted expressions are chosen using the
following information:
- Type information. The objects returned by the recognizer are
all typed. So at the very least, we have type information for all
objects, e.g., mathematical function, parenthesized expression, etc.
- Contextual information. The first
child of a fraction is called its ``numerator''.
The left-hand side of an implication is
called the ``premise'' and its right-hand side the ``conclusion''. We
have built in this information for standard mathematical objects and
provided a flexible mechanism for the user to add or modify such
information.
- Special patterns: The special patterns presented
in s:special_patterns are also used in synthesizing meaningful
names for the substitutions.
Thus, when substituting for the subscript to a summation operator,
AsTeR uses the name ``lower constraint''.
Since more than one such ``lower constraint'' may be substituted in a general
expression, such names are appended with an integer to make them
unique. This is how the rendering shown earlier for Faa De
Bruno's formula is produced.
TV Raman
Thu Mar 9 20:10:41 EST 1995