Spreadsheet interaction with frames: Exploring a mathematical practice

Abstract

Since Mathematics really is about what mathematicians do, in this paper, we will look at the mathematical practice of framing, in which an object of interest is viewed in terms of well-understood mathematical structures. The new perspective not only allows to deepen the understanding of a resp. object, it also facilitates new insights. We propose a model for framing in the context of theory graphs, and show how framing can be exploited to enhance the interaction with MKM systems. We use the framing extension of our SACHS system - a semantic help system for MS Excel - as a concrete example. © 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.