JSXGraph–DynamicMathematicswithJavaScript.docVIP

JSXGraph – Dynamic Mathematics with JavaScript By Michael Gerh?user, Bianca Valentin, Alfred Wassermann Department of Mathematics, University of Bayreuth, D-95440 Bayreuth, Germany michael.gerhaeuser@uni-bayreuth.de, bianca.valentin@uni-bayreuth.de, alfred.wassermann@uni-bayreuth.de Received: date Revised: if applicable Since Java applets seem to be on the retreat in web application, other approaches for displaying interactive mathematics in the web browser are needed. One such alternative could be our open-source project JSXGraph. It is a cross-browser library for displaying interactive geometry, function plotting, graphs, and data visualization in a web browser. It is implemented completely in JavaScript and uses the vector graphics formats SVG and VML. No further plug-ins are required. 1 INTRODUCTION Since the early days of computer graphic displays dynamic geometry software has been used to teach and learn geometry. In the beginning, dynamic geometry software consisted of standalone binaries, like Geometers Sketchpad and Cabri. With the introduction of the celebrated Java programming language in 1996, the implementation of interactive geometry software in Java immediately started. Suddenly it was possible to display and enable experiments with geometry in every web browser. The hope was, that there was no need to install additional software, no problems with different operation systems. The teacher could give the material to the students easily. Everything which worked in the computer laboratory in school works at home, too. The first Java-based geometry systems were Cinderella and Geonet. Later, GEONExT and GeoGebra and many other systems followed. Also, the vendors of standalone binaries offered a Java-viewer of their software. It was possible to prepare a geometrical construction with one of these binaries and publish it on the world wide web using its Java-viewer. In theory at that time all the well known problems of software use in schools were s