On modular symbols and the cohomology of Hecke triangle surfaces

The aim of this article is to give a concise algebraic treatment of the modular symbols formalism, generalised from modular curves to Hecke triangle surfaces. A sketch is included of how the modular symbols formalism gives rise to the standard algorithms for the computation of holomorphic modular forms. Precise and explicit connections are established to the cohomology of Hecke triangle surfaces and group cohomology. In all the note a general commutative ring is used as coefficient ring in view of applications to the computation of modular forms over rings different from the complex numbers. MSC Classification: 11F67 (primary), 11F75, 11Y40, 20H10 (secondary).