Patent ID: 7698638

Claim:
A computing system for automatically building up a mathematical equation, comprising: a processor; and a memory that stores computer readable instructions including: an input module that accepts input of the mathematical equation in a linear string format, the mathematical equation input including a sequence of characters including a most recently entered character and at least two non-alphanumeric operators; an interpret module that interprets the mathematical equation input and automatically determines when a buildup point is reached by: if the most recently entered character is one of the at least two non-alphanumeric operators, comparing precedence values of the two most recently entered non-alphanumeric operators, wherein buildup occurs if the precedence value of the most recently entered character is less than or equal to the precedence value of the non-alphanumeric operator immediately preceding the most recently entered character according to an order of increasing precedence as follows: a carriage return; one of a left parenthesis, a left bracket, and a less than operator; one of a right parenthesis, a right bracket, and a greater than operator; a vertical tab; a root operator; a nary operator; one of a subscript and a superscript; and one of a diacritic and a factorial; and a formatting module that, upon reaching the buildup point, automatically formats at least a portion of the mathematical equation into a two-dimensional format.