RE: MathML Presentation to content transformation

Like Robert has stated, it is not possible to convert presentation markup to content markup in general.
In simple cases a heuristic approach can lead to the right result, but this
is far away from a general solution that can be used without human interaction.


A presentation markup like this:

<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML">
  <msup>
     <msub>
        <mi>&sigma;</mi>
        <mi>x</mi>
     </msub>
     <mn>2</mn>
  </msup>
</math>

can only be converted to the following content markup:

<math display="block" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML">
<moapply>
  <variance/>
  <ci> X </ci>
</apply>
</math>

by phoning the author and asking him whether this is what he has mentioned.


Bernhard Keil
mailto:Bernhard.Keil@soft4science.com

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-----Original Message-----
From: www-math-request@w3.org [mailto:www-math-request@w3.org]On Behalf
Of Robert Miner
Sent: Monday, May 05, 2003 7:26 PM
To: www-math@w3.org
Subject: Re: MathML Presentation to content transformation





Hi.

Max Froumentin wrote:

> benoît encelle <encelle@irit.fr> wrote:
>
> > i am looking for transformation tools that convert MathML
> > Presentation markup expressions to MathML Content markup expressions
>
> As part of the Universal MathML stylesheet, David Carlisle has
> an XSLT transform to do just that. The stylesheet is at
>
> http://www.w3.org/Math/XSL/ctop.xsl
>
> and more information is at
>
> http://www.w3.org/Math/XSL/Overview-tech.html
>
> Feel free to ask further questions on this list.

I think you've got the direction backwards Max.  The stylesheet only
does content -> presentation, and not presentation -> content, which
is much harder, and not possible in full generality, of course.

The only systems I know that attempt the hard direction are Maple,
Mathematica and the WebEQ Developer Suite tools.  None of these is
easily scriptable, for a batch process, say, though the next version
of the WebEQ tools will have more facilities in this direction.

--Robert

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MathML 2.0 Specification Co-editor                    651-223-2883
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Received on Monday, 5 May 2003 15:34:38 UTC