ULMUL (Ultra Lightweight MarkUp Language)

“ULMUL” is an original Ultra Lightweight MarkUp Language. Using “ulmul2html5” or “ulmul2mathjax” commands, You can convert a ULMUL text with TeX style equations into HTML5 documents with MathML or MathJax, respectively. ULMUL is written in Ruby. You can also use ulmul.rb as a library.

Homepage of ULMUL: t-nissie.users.sourceforge.net/ULMUL/

Ruby Gem: rubygems.org/gems/ulmul

Repository of ULMUL: github.com/t-nissie/ULMUL

Features

* TeX style equations between two dollar marks ($) and between "\Eq:foo" and "/Eq:foo"
  will be converted into MathML. Any browsers such as Firefox, Chrome Edge, and Safari can render MathML nowadays.
* ULMUL uses MathML Library https://rubygems.org/gems/math_ml .
* ulmul2html5 output is good with the Slidy presentation environment
  https://www.w3.org/Talks/Tools/Slidy/ using Firefox+CSS+XHTML+JavaScript.
  Please use ulmul-slidy.js and ulmul-slidy.css in the package.
* Figures, tables and code can be inserted to the document.
  They can be easily referred in the text.
* Lines starting from "#" are comments.
* You can add your conversion rules to @subs_rules.
* "Table of Contents" will be automatically generated.
* "= ABC EFGH" will be the document title and the cover page of Slidy.
* Use utf-8 for ULMUL texts.
  Specify your natural language with a --language option, e.g. --language=en.

Installation of ULMUL

Please use its gem rubygems.org/gems/ulmul for installation.

$ sudo gem install ulmul

How to write ULMUL texts

The encode of input file must be utf-8.

lines

Inside ulmul.rb, input lines are processed as “events” with aasm library rubygems.org/gems/aasm .

empty

Empty lines divide paragraphs.

heading

Starting with “= ”, “== ”, “=== ”, “==== ”, “===== ”, and “====== ”. “= ” will be used for the title.

asterisk

Lines starting with asterisks become itemizing list. Indent lines by two characters. For example,

# Nesting is allowed up to 4th--5th level.
 * First
   * Second
     * Third
       * Fourth
       * more for Fourth
     second continue
     * More for third
 * More for first

become # Nesting is allowed up to 4th–5th level.

* First
  * Second
    * Third
      * Fourth
      * more for Fourth
    second continue
    * More for third
* More for first

offset

Lines starting with some spaces but not asterisks become verbatim lines.

end

EOF or “=end” end the process.

ignore

Lines starting with “#” and “=begin” are ignored.

normal

Other lines.

Other rules

* Lines after "=end" are ignored.
* Add your substitution rules to @subs_rules.

Equations

Input:

Mass $m$ can be converted into energy $E$ as
\Eq:Emc2
           E=mc^2.
/Eq:Emc2

Output:

Mass $m$ can be converted into energy $E$ as Eq:Emc2

E=mc^2.

/Eq:Emc2

You can refer the equation in a way like “Eq:Einstein”, as Eq:Emc2.

To view the equations in MathML correctly, please use

* Firefox 4  https://mozilla.jp/firefox/
* IE9        https://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/internet-explorer/products/ie/home
* etc.

Figures

Start a Figure environment with “Fig:foo FILENAME.jpg” and terminate it with “/Fig:foo”, where “foo” is a tag for the figure. You can write a figure caption between them. You can refer the figure with “Fig:foo” as Fig:ruby.

Input:

\Fig:ruby ruby.jpg
  The is a dummy figure for an example.
  Cute red  of Ruby, isn't it?
  You can write equations even in a caption as $ax^2+bx+c=0$.
/Fig:ruby

Output: Fig:ruby ruby.jpg

The is a dummy figure for an example.
Cute red  of Ruby, isn't it?
You can write equations even in a caption as $ax^2+bx+c=0$.

/Fig:ruby

Tables

Put a GFM-formed table file, benchmark.table for example, outside. Start a Table environment with “Table:bar” and terminate it with “/Table:bar”, where “bar” is a tag for the table. You can write a table caption between them. You can refer the table with “Table:bar”.

Input:

\Table:mercaribenchmark benchmark.table
  Benchmark results of a Ruby script mercari.rb and a Crystal code mercari.cr.
  For more details, see the gist page of https://gist.github.com/t-nissie/22a4a9525d423208c7f784ce507d0bc5
/Table:mercaribenchmark

Output: Table:mercaribenchmark benchmark.table

Benchmark results of a Ruby script mercari.rb and a Crystal code mercari.cr.
For more details, see the gist page of https://gist.github.com/t-nissie/22a4a9525d423208c7f784ce507d0bc5

/Table:mercaribenchmark

Code

Start a Code environment with “Code:baz FILENAME” and terminate it with “/Code:baz”, where “baz” is a tag for the code. You can write a caption between them. You can refer the code with “Code:baz” as Code:hello. Code will be highlighted with google-code-prettify when -j cdn.rawgit.com/google/code-prettify/master/loader/run_prettify.js is given.

Input:

\Code:hello hello.c
  Ordinary hello.c.
  Can you see stdio.h?
/Code:hello

Output: Code:hello hello.c

Ordinary hello.c.
Can you see stdio.h?

/Code:hello

Usage of ulmul2html5

Examples

$ ulmul2html5 foo.txt > foo.html
$ ulmul2html5 -n 'Takeshi Nishimatsu' -s ulmul-slidy.css -j ulmul-slidy.js presentation.txt > presentation.html

Command options

–help

Show a help message.

-s, –style

Specify stylesheet filename.

-n, –name

Specify your name for copyright notices.

-j, –javascript

Specify JavaScript filename.

-l, –language

Specify natural language. Its default is “en”.

-m, –max-table-of-contents

Maximum depth for the Table of Contents. Its default is 3. If you do not need the Table of Contents, specify 1.

ULMUL and Slidy examples

* https://loto.sourceforge.net/feram/
  * Its source is https://loto.sourceforge.net/feram/README
* https://loto.sourceforge.net/feram/doc/film.xhtml
  * It is a Slidy presentation made from https://loto.sourceforge.net/feram/doc/film.txt
* https://t-nissie.users.sourceforge.net/ULMUL/index.en.html
  * Its source is https://t-nissie.users.sourceforge.net/ULMUL/README-en (this document)

Usage of ulmul2mathjax

It uses MathJax www.mathjax.org/ to show equations.

$ ulmul2mathjax --help
$ ulmul2mathjax -s ulmul2html5.css -j https://cdn.rawgit.com/google/code-prettify/master/loader/run_prettify.js \
  -j 'https://cdn.mathjax.org/mathjax/latest/MathJax.js?config=default' README-en > README-en-mathjax.html

Usage of ulmul2latex

$ ulmul2latex --help
$ ulmul2latex test.ulmul | tee test.tex
$ latex test.tex
$ latex test.tex
$ dvipdfmx test.dvi

ulmul2latex is still under development. Sorry.

TODO

* More useful error messages for syntax errors.
* Unit test, tests/ulmul_test.rb
* @body should be XML object, not a String.
* Citation.

For more, see TODO file.

Repository in GitHub

You can clone the source tree of ULMUL from GitHub with git(1) command:

$ git clone https://github.com/t-nissie/ULMUL.git ulmul

Copying

Copyright © 2008,2009,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014,2015,2017,2022,2024,2025,2026 by Takeshi Nishimatsu

ulmul.rb is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY. You can copy, modify and redistribute ulmul.rb, but only under the conditions described in the GNU General Public License (the “GPL”).

W3C has copyrights for ulmul-slidy.js and ulmul-slidy.css. Their original names were slidy.js and slidy.css, respectively. Takeshi Nishimatsu slightly modified them. You can download the original package, slidy.zip, from www.w3.org/Talks/Tools/Slidy/ . You can find their licenses at www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/copyright-documents and www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/copyright-software .

Author of ULMUL

Takeshi Nishimatsu (t_nissieatyahoo.co.jp) t-nissie.users.sourceforge.net/

# Local variables: # mode: rd # compile-command: “rake index.en.html” # End: