Matrix operations
(Excerpt from "The MathML Handbook" by Pavi Sandhu)
The following example shows a slightly more complicated Web page that allows a user to do several different types of computations on a matrix. The page features a pull-down menu with a list of functions. The user enters a matrix in the text box using standard Mathematica syntax, and then chooses a particular function from the pull-down menu. Clicking the "Evaluate" button causes the result of the computation to be displayed in the Web page, as shown in the following figure.
Example: An HTML document for doing matrix calculations using webMathematica.
<html>
<head><title>Matrix Operations</title></head>
<body>
<h1>Matrix Operations</h1>
<form method="post">
<p>Enter a matrix: <input type="text" name="matrix" align="left" size="24" value="<%Mathlet MSPValue[$$matrix, "{{1, 2}, {3, 4}}"] %>" /></p>
<p>Choose an operation from the menu:
<%Mathlet MSPSetDefault[$$fn, "Transpose"]; %>
<select name="fn" size="1">
<option value="Transpose" <%Mathlet If[$$fn=="Transpose", "selected"]%>> Transpose </option>
<option value="Inverse" <%Mathlet If[$$fn=="Transpose", "selected"]%>> Transpose </option>
<option value="Determinant" <%Mathlet If[$$fn=="Transpose", "selected"]%>> Transpose </option>
<option value="Eigenvectors" <%Mathlet If[$$fn=="Transpose", "selected"]%>> Transpose </option>
<option value="Eigenvectors" <%Mathlet If[$$fn=="Eigenvectors", selected"]%>> Eigenvectors </option>
</select>
</p>
<p><input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Evaluate"> </p>
<p><%Mathlet MSPBlock[$$ matrix, MSPFormat[Which[$$fn=="Inverse", Inverse[$$matrix],$$fn=="Transpose", Transpose[$$matrix],$$fn=="Determinant", Det[$$matrix],$$fn =="Eigenvalues", Eigenvalues[$$matrix],$$fn =="Eigenvectors", Eigenvectors[$$matrix],True, $$matrix], TraditionalForm]]%></p>
</form>
</body>
</html>
Figure: A Web page for doing matrix calculations.
The Web page shown in the figure above works as follows. It contains three different controls: a text box for entering input, a menu for choosing the type of computation to perform, and a button for submitting the information to the server. The pull-down menu is implemented using the standard HTML select element, with each item in the menu represented by an option element.
The page defines two variables, $$matrix and $$fn, which represent the matrix entered by the user in the text box and the function to be applied to the matrix, respectively. The MSPSetDefault function is used to assign a default value to the $$fn variable. Depending on the menu item selected, the corresponding function name is assigned to the variable $$fn. When the user clicks the "Evaluate" button, the value of $$fn and $$matrix are passed to the Which command, used in Mathematica for conditional processing. Depending on the value of $$fn, the corresponding computation is performed on $$matrix, and the result is displayed in the Web page using MSPFormat.
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