[Om-announce] New MathML working drafts
David Carlisle
davidc at nag.co.uk
Wed May 2 12:37:09 CEST 2007
Announcement as posted to the www-math at w3.org list
David
================
The W3C Math WG is pleased to be able to point to the publication
by the W3C of its initial First Public Working Drafts. They are
Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) Version 3.0
http://www.w3.org/TR/MathML3/
A MathML for CSS Profile
http://www.w3.org/TR/mathml-for-css/
The Abstract and Status sections of the drafts are reproduced below.
These documents are very much at the FPWD stage. The Math WG hopes to
be able to publish refinements of them in line with the W3C heart-
beat process
requirements. There is a description of some considerations underlying
this work in the W3C Math WG's public Roadmap.
Feedback should be sent to this W3C Public Math Mailing List.
Patrick and Robert (W3C Math WG co-chairs)
==========
MathML 3.0
Abstract
This specification defines the Mathematical Markup Language, or
MathML. MathML is an XML application for describing mathematical
notation and capturing both its structure and content. The goal of
MathML is to enable mathematics to be served, received, and processed
on the World Wide Web, just as HTML has enabled this functionality
for text.
This specification of the markup language MathML is intended
primarily for a readership consisting of those who will be developing
or implementing renderers or editors using it, or software that will
communicate using MathML as a protocol for input or output. It is not
a User's Guide but rather a reference document.
MathML can be used to encode both mathematical notation and
mathematical content. About thirty-five of the MathML tags describe
abstract notational structures, while another about one hundred and
seventy provide a way of unambiguously specifying the intended
meaning of an expression. Additional chapters discuss how the MathML
content and presentation elements interact, and how MathML renderers
might be implemented and should interact with browsers. Finally, this
document addresses the issue of special characters used for
mathematics, their handling in MathML, their presence in Unicode, and
their relation to fonts.
While MathML is human-readable, in all but the simplest cases,
authors use equation editors, conversion programs, and other
specialized software tools to generate MathML. Several versions of
such MathML tools exist, and more, both freely available software and
commercial products, are under development.
Status of this Document
This section describes the status of this document at the time of its
publication. Other documents may supersede this document. A list of
current W3C publications and the latest revision of this technical
report can be found in the W3C technical reports index at http://
www.w3.org/TR/.
This document is a W3C First Public Working Draft produced by the W3C
Math Working Group as part of the W3C Math Activity. The goals of the
W3C Math Working Group are discussed in the W3C Math WG Charter
(revised July 2006). A list of participants in the W3C Math Working
Group is available.
This First Public Working Draft must be viewed as a work in progress,
and not yet suitable for reference. It specifies a new version of the
the Mathematical Markup Language, MathML 3.0 [mathml] which is at
present under active development. The Math WG hopes this outline
draft will permit informed feedback on this most important part of
its work. There is a description of some considerations underlying
this work in the W3C Math WG's public Roadmap [roadmap]. Feedback
should be sent to the Public W3C Math mailing list .
The MathML 2.0 (Second Edition) specification has been a W3C
Recommendation since 2001. During the period since its
recommendation, a W3C Math Interest Group collected the experience
with the deployment of MathML and identified issues with MathML that
might be ameliorated. The rechartering af a Math Working Group allows
the revision to MathML 3.0 in the light of that experience, of other
comments on the markup language, and of recent changes in
specifications of the W3C and in the technological context. MathML
3.0 does not signal any change in the overall design of MathML.
However, the specification document will be almost completely
rewritten to provide a coherent whole containing corrections to all
the known errata and clarifications of issues that proved problematic
and additions made. Throughout pains are being taken to distinguish
the normative and non-normative aspects.
Public discussion of MathML and issues of support through the W3C for
mathematics on the Web takes place on the public mailing list of the
Math Working Group (list archives). To subscribe send an email to www-
math-request at w3.org with the word subscribe in the subject line.
Please report errors in this document to www-math at w3.org.
Patent disclosures relevant to this specification may be found on the
Math Working Group's patent disclosure page.
The basic structure of this document is the same as that of the
earlier MathML 2.0 Recommendation [MathML2]. MathML 2.0 itself was a
revision of the earlier W3C Recommendation MathML 1.01 [MathML1];
MathML 3.0 itself is a revision of the W3C Recommendation MathML 2.0.
It differs from it in that all chapters will have been updated, some
new elements and attributes are being added and some have been
deprecated.
Chapters 1 and 2, which are introductory material, have yet to be
revised to reflect the changes elsewhere in the document, and in the
rapidly evolving Web environment.
Chapters 3, on presentation-oriented markup, is being extended to
describe new functionalities added as well as smaller improvements of
material already proposed. As a result of concerns for support of
high-quality typesetting and for the relationship with CSS the
element mpadded has been revised, and the maction remains under
discussion for possible deprecation. As a result of earlier work, as
recorded in the W3C Note Arabic mathematical notation, the
relationship with bidirectional text is being clarified. In addition,
some adjustments that have proven necessary for easy markup of
elementary school mathematics have been made.
Chapters 4, on content-oriented markup, has been completely
regenerated. The actual content is unchanged in essence, except for a
number of elements the addition of which seemed natural, such as some
for use in statistics. The text of this chapter is now generated by
filtered extraction from XML content dictionaries written in
accordance with OpenMath. The advantages of this method include a
level of consistency in interpretation that the previous version
perhaps did not achieve, automatic generation of some useful and
informative tabulations, and a guarantee of alignment with the basic
part of OpenMath that the community will appreciate.
Chapter 5 will be newly written to reflect changes in the technology
available. Chapter 6 has been rewritten and reorganized to reflect
the new situation in regard to Unicode. It is expected that some new
ancillary tables will be provided that reflect requests the WG has
received. Chapter 7 needs revision yet again since Web technology has
changed again.
Chapter 8 on the DOM and the associated appendices D and E for
detailed listings will be revised further as proves necessary. For
instance, the DTD is already implicated as a result of the profile
MathML for CSS that the WG is preparing; that is also a new FPWD.
<<<
======
MathML for CSS
Abstract
This document describes a profile of MathML 3.0 designed for ease of
formatting with Cascading Style Sheets.
Status of this Document
This section describes the status of this document at the time of its
publication. Other documents may supersede this document. A list of
current W3C publications and the latest revision of this technical
report can be found in the W3C technical reports index at http://
www.w3.org/TR/.
This document is a W3C First Public Working Draft produced by the W3C
Math Working Group as part of W3C Math Activity. The goals of the W3C
Math Working Group are discussed in the W3C Math WG Charter. The
authors of this document are the W3C Math Working Group members.
This First Public Working Draft must be viewed as a work in progress,
and not yet suitable for reference. It specifies a profile of a
specification, MathML 3.0, which is itself under development, and is
intended to accord with CSS 3, which is also under active
development. The Math WG hopes this outline draft will permit
informed feedback on this part of its work, although only a few of
the elements show a full discussion of their special properties in
connection with CSS. There is also a short description of some
considerations underlying this work in the W3C Math WG's public
Roadmap. Feedback should be sent to the Public W3C Math mailing list .
<<<
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