Re: Indices in Content Markup

Hi.

> here in the Thep-Group in the physics department of the university of
> Mainz we intend to use MathML-Content Markup for formulation of
> model-files in high energy physics. Are there plans for the next version
> of MathML to include kovariant and kontravariant indices in the content
> markup? If yes, how would it look like?

No, there aren't any plans to release a new version of MathML soon,
apart from errata and bug fixes.  Instead, I would look at using the
existing extension mechanisms.

What many people are doing is <csymbol definitionURL="..."> to define
new operators, and then transforming them to presentation markup using
XSL for display.

For example, one might introduce a csymbol for a Chrisoffel symbol
which would be used like this:

<apply>
  <cymbol definitionURL="http://physik.uni-mainz.de/definitions/functors">&Gamma;</csymbol>
  <ci>i</ci>
  <ci>j</ci>
  <ci>k</ci>
</apply>

Then, one would create an XSL, say functor.xsl, that would transform
this to

<mmultiscripts>
  <mi>&Gamma</mi>
  <mi>j</mi>
  <mi>k</mi>
  <mi>i</mi>
  </none>
</mmultiscripts>

(provided I got the order of the covariant and contravariant indicies
correct, which is very doubtful. :-)


Many other groups are are working on content markup extensions in this
fashion.  One place to check to see if someone has already done the
work for you is www.openmath.org.

Also, if you do carry out this work, I would encourage you to publish
your definitions and your stylesheet to this list, so that others can
use your work instead of reinventing the wheel.

--Robert

------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert Miner                                    RobertM@dessci.com
MathML 2.0 Specification Co-editor                    651-223-2883
Design Science, Inc.   "How Science Communicates"   www.dessci.com
------------------------------------------------------------------

Received on Tuesday, 2 July 2002 16:07:52 UTC