[Om] OpenMath 2010

[Michael Kohlhase]

On 16.07.10 11:30, David Carlisle wrote:
>   >  In OpenMath, cdbase can be inherited from any parent, which is the
>   >  same as MathML. OpenMath defaults to http://www.openmath.org/CD, but
>   >  MathML says that it is inherited from the mathematics embedding
>   >  mechanism.
>
> There is no difference between MathML and OpenMath here. In the  XML
> encoding of OM the OM standard says
>
> http://www.openmath.org/standard/om20-2004-06-30/omstd20html-3.xml#sec_xml-desc
>
>
> If a symbol does not have an explicit cdbase
> attribute, then it inherits its cdbase from the
> first ancestor in the XML tree with one, should such an element
> exist.
>
>
> the "XML Tree" wording was not accidental, and it allows for this
> attribute to be inherited from outside the openmath elements from a
> containing document element, just as in MathML.
I think that the key word is "inherit" here. This can be read as

   1. "literal inheritance" (i.e. copy the cdbase down from the nearest
      ancestor that has one as in XML namespaces), or
   2. determine the cdbase from information up in the XML tree as
      specified in some embedding specification

I had always read it as the first. But I guess the second reading is 
also possible, but maybe not immediately clear from the specification. 
If we intend this reading to be the used, we should probably make this 
very clear.
>
>   >  MK felt that we should work towards a new normative standard.
>
> I think we should be _extremely_ cautious about doing that. After more
> than a decade we finally have OpenMath and Content MathML formally
> aligned and to do anything at this point to break that alignment before
> MathML3 is even standardised, but when it's too late in the process to
> change it if OpenMath changes would be extremely damaging. At most we
> could consider an editorial "second edition" which acknowledges the
> MathML3 work, and fixes a few typos etc, but we should not introduce an
> "OpenMath 3" that changes the OpenMath Object model or CD format.
I can understand your call to caution here. But I think that you should 
give the process some credit here. The mandate was to "bring OpenMath to 
the post-MathML3 world". And what do do exactly should be decided by 
this process. And of course we have to be careful not to jeopardize the 
alignment.

Michael

-- 
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  Prof. Dr. Michael Kohlhase,        Office: Research 1, Room 62
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