World Wide Web Consortium Issues MathML 2.0 as a W3C Recommendation; Scientists from Industry and Academia Produce Definitive Solution for Math on the Web.Business/Technology Editors http://www.w3.org/--(BUSINESS WIRE)--February 21, 2001 The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C (World Wide Web Consortium, www.w3.org) An international industry consortium founded in 1994 by Tim Berners-Lee to develop standards for the Web. It is hosted in the U.S. by the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT (www.csail.mit.edu/index.php). ) today announced the release of the Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) 2.0 as a W3C Recommendation. MathML 2.0 , an XML XML in full Extensible Markup Language. Markup language developed to be a simplified and more structural version of SGML. It incorporates features of HTML (e.g., hypertext linking), but is designed to overcome some of HTML's limitations. application, provides encoding mathematical notation and content for use on the Web. A W3C Recommendation indicates that a specification is stable, contributes to Web interoperability, and has been reviewed by the W3C Membership, who are in favor of supporting its adoption by academic, industry, and research communities. MathML 2.0 Extends the Foundation for Math on the Web MathML 2.0 consists of a number of XML tags which can be used to mark up an equation in terms of its presentation and also its semantics. As a result, MathML 2.0 attempts to capture something of the meaning behind equations rather than concentrating entirely on how they are going to be formatted out on the screen. This is because mathematical equations are meaningful to many applications, independent of how they are rendered aurally or visually. "What HTML HTML in full HyperText Markup Language Markup language derived from SGML that is used to prepare hypertext documents. Relatively easy for nonprogrammers to master, HTML is the language used for documents on the World Wide Web. did for text on the Web, MathML 2.0 does for the language of mathematics," explained Vincent Quint, W3C User Interface Domain Leader. "And because it is written in XML, it makes it possible for Math content to be not only displayed, but able to be reused and transformed by other applications on the Web." MathML 2.0 is intended to facilitate the use and re-use of mathematical and scientific content on the Web, and for other applications such as computer algebra systems, print typesetting typesetting: see printing. typesetting Setting of type for use in any of various printing processes. Type for printing, using woodblocks, was invented in China in the 11th century, and movable type using metal molds had appeared in Korea by the 13th , and voice synthesizers. MathML can be used to encode both the presentation of mathematical notation for high-quality visual display, and mathematical content, for applications where the semantics plays more of a key role such as scientific software or voice synthesis. MathML 2.0 Integrates W3C Technologies MathML 2.0 builds on MathML 1 by extending the set of symbols and expressions, and through improved integration of other W3C technologies. Users of MathML 2.0 are now able to combine it with other W3C technologies to make more dynamic and varied content. Equations can be styled with Cascading Style Sheets A style sheet format for HTML documents endorsed by the World Wide Web Consortium. CSS1 (Version 1.0) provides hundreds of layout settings that can be applied to all the subsequent HTML pages that are downloaded. CSS2 (Version 2. (CSS (1) See Cascading Style Sheets. (2) (Content Scrambling System) The copy protection system applied to DVDs, which uses a 40-bit key to encrypt the movie. ), links can be associated to any math expression through XML Linking Language (XLink), and MathML elements can be seamlessly included in XHTML (EXtensible HTML) A markup language for Web pages from the W3C. XHTML combines HTML and XML into a single format (HTML 4.0 and XML 1.0). Like XML, XHTML can be extended with proprietary tags. Also like XML, XHTML must be coded more rigorously than HTML. documents with namespaces. MathML2 also includes the MathML Document Object Model (MathML DOM), which provides a more convenient, and MathML-specific way to identify MathML components and enable any scripting language to manipulate it. The Math Working Group has produced test suites, and is already at work developing an XML Schema for MathML2, as well as a hybrid schema to combine XHTML and MathML 2.0 MathML 2.0 Embraced by Industry, Research and Academic Leaders MathML 2.0 was produced by the W3C Math Working Group, an assembly of industry leaders and experts including the American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, which it does with various publications and conferences as well as annual monetary awards to mathematicians. , Boeing Corporation, Universita di Bologna, Design Science, IBM, MacKichan Technologies, MATH.EDU INC., Microsoft Corporation, NAG, Penta Scope, Stilo Technologies, Stratum Technical Services Ltd. Waterloo Maple Inc., University of Western Ontario Western is one of Canada's leading universities, ranked #1 in the Globe and Mail University Report Card 2005 for overall quality of education.[2] It ranked #3 among medical-doctoral level universities according to Maclean's Magazine 2005 University Rankings. , and Wolfram Research. MathML 2.0 is recognized as a mature and essential technology by both the mathematical community and software developers and manufacturers. Today, MathML 2.0 already has 17 known implementations and a variety of implementors and endorsers, as indicated in the testimonials page. About the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) The W3C was created to lead the Web to its full potential by developing common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its interoperability. It is an international industry consortium jointly run by the MIT MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology Laboratory for Computer Science (MIT LCS) in the USA, the National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control (INRIA INRIA - Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et Automatique ) in France and Keio University in Japan. Services provided by the Consortium include: a repository of information about the World Wide Web for developers and users, and various prototype and sample applications to demonstrate use of new technology. To date, over 500 organizations are Members of the Consortium. For more information see http://www.w3.org/ |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion