[Om3] OM/MathML alignment and extension proposal

[Michael Kohlhase]

Dear OM3 core team, dear OM3 mailing list,

this list has been dormant for quite a while, since much of the action 
seems to have shifted to preparing  MathML drafts and writing MKM papers 
:-).

But we have to get going again, since the W3C Math WG needs to finish 
the next MathML3 draft, and we need to get things right. Let me give you 
some background first.

As you know, the Math WG has decided to specify a subset of content 
MathML (called strict content MathML) that is isomorphic to OpenMath 
objects and to define the meaning of non-strict content MathML 
(sometimes called pragmatic content MathML) into strict MathML (in the 
pragmatic-to-strict (p2s) translation). This is where the problems lie 
that we need to talk about.

The main problems in the translation is the case of qualifiers, what 
they mean, and how to represent them in strict content MathML (or 
OpenMath). Now, the situation is the following:

In trying to make the p2s translation work (and looking at the way 
pragmatic MathML allows to say things), James and I became more and more 
dissatisfied with the translation proposed in 2001: 
http://www.openmath.org/documents/om-mml.pdf. We have become convinced 
that OpenMath binding objects should be extended.

There are two parts of the proposal, which we will summarize in a 
separate e-mail (this one I write as the chair of the OM3 group, and I 
should not become party in this discussion).

   1. to extend OpenMath binding objects (and also the XML OM encoding,
      the binary OM encoding, and of course  strict MathML)
   2. to use the extended formalism in the p2s translation in MathML3.

These two proposals are essentially independent, except that 2. depends 
on 1. as we want to make OM3 and strict content MathML isomorphic. 
Therefore, the Math WG decided that we should discuss proposal 1. 
(keeping 2. in mind) on the OM3 mailing list, before 2. can be discussed 
in the Math WG afterwards.

Since the Math WG is under time pressure, we should try not to delay the 
discussion. I know that this eats into your time budgets, but I think 
the alignment goal is worth the effort.

Michael





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  Prof. Dr. Michael Kohlhase,       Office: Research 1, Room 62
  Professor of Computer Science     Campus Ring 12,
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