RE: MathML 3.0 and MathML for CSS First Public Working Drafts

Hi.

Thanks for your proposals.  The idea of a presentation element for units
has come up before, and has a lot of appeal.  It was much discussed when
Stan Devitt and Doug Harder were putting together their Note on Units in
MathML[1]

http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/NOTE-mathml-units-20031110/

which you refer to indirectly. Clearly to get a single character unit
e.g. 'g' or 'm' to display in a upright font using an <mi>, one must use
a mathvariant attribute, or the class='MathML-Unit' attribute with an
appropriate rule in a CSS environment (or both, when you don't know what
user agent may render the results).  

The chief downside to introducing a new element is that the mi markup
really does produce the desired rendering -- the hypothetical <mu>
element doesn't have any unique rendering properties, and thus is not
really a distinct notational schema.  Presentation MathML already has a
lot of duplication and redundancy, and many people think we shouldn't
make it worse.

Anyone else feel strongly one way or the other about a dedicated element
for units in presentation MathML?

--Robert

Robert Miner
Director, New Product Development
W3C Math WG co-chair

Design Science, Inc.
140 Pine Avenue, 4th Floor
Long Beach, California  90802
USA
Tel:  (651) 223-2883
Fax:  (651) 292-0014
robertm@dessci.com
www.dessci.com
~ Makers of MathType, MathFlow, MathPlayer, WebEQ, Equation Editor,
TexAide ~


> -----Original Message-----
> From: www-math-request@w3.org [mailto:www-math-request@w3.org] On
Behalf
> Of Mov GP 0
> Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2007 5:07 PM
> To: www-math@w3.org
> Subject: Re: MathML 3.0 and MathML for CSS First Public Working Drafts
> 
> 
> Hi,
> I'm suggesting a <mu> Element for rendering Units. This is because
> Units are rendered in a roman-font, while Identifiers (<mi>) are
> rendered cursive. I think the <mu> Element will ease this issure more
> than using ie. the class-Attribute.
> 
> Also, I'm not sure how to markup user defined functions (and
> parameters), user defined number sets, number rings, vectors and
> matrices, and Structures like Quaternions, Biquaternions, Sedenions,
> and p-adic Numbers.
> As example, the current standard don't makes the difference inner or
> dot product, cross product, divergence, and curl of vectors. The
> standard should clarify how to represent such things.
> 
> Another issure is, that the successor of MathML should keep RDF in
> mind. Therefore, mathematical expressions should be expressed as
> RDF-graphs. Currently there are much efforts like OMDoc to creating a
> ontology over MathML, but I think, that MathML should be rather
> defined based on a ontology, so its semantic from the start.
> Because this will be incompatible with the current cMathML this might
> result in a separate standard like semantic MathML (sMathML) or
> RDF-MathML (rMathML). I've sketched this Idea at
> http://wiki.ontoworld.org/wiki/Semantic_MathML but never finished it
> (and never will). But I think that will help to get the picture.
> 
> 
> Regards,
> MovGP0
> 
> 
> 2007/5/2, Patrick Ion <ion@ams.org>:
> >
> >
> >
> > The W3C Math WG is pleased to be able to point to the publication
> > by the W3C of its initial First Public Working Drafts.  They are
> >
> > Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) Version 3.0
> > http://www.w3.org/TR/MathML3/
> >
> > A MathML for CSS  Profile
> > http://www.w3.org/TR/mathml-for-css/
> >
> > The Abstract and Status sections of the drafts are reproduced below.
> > These documents are very much at the FPWD stage.  The Math WG hopes
to
> > be able to publish refinements of them in line with the W3C
heart-beat
> > process
> > requirements.  There is a description of some considerations
> underlying
> > this work in the W3C Math WG's public Roadmap.
> >
> > Feedback should be sent to this W3C Public Math Mailing List.
> >
> >
> >
> >        Patrick and Robert  (W3C Math WG co-chairs)
> >
> >
> > ==========
> > MathML 3.0
> >
> >
> >
> > Abstract
> >
> > This specification defines the Mathematical Markup Language, or
MathML.
> > MathML is an XML application for describing mathematical notation
and
> > capturing both its structure and content. The goal of MathML is to
> enable
> > mathematics to be served, received, and processed on the World Wide
> Web,
> > just as HTML has enabled this functionality for text.
> >
> > This specification of the markup language MathML is intended
primarily
> for a
> > readership consisting of those who will be developing or
implementing
> > renderers or editors using it, or software that will communicate
using
> > MathML as a protocol for input or output. It is not a User's Guide
but
> > rather a reference document.
> >
> > MathML can be used to encode both mathematical notation and
> mathematical
> > content. About thirty-five of the MathML tags describe abstract
> notational
> > structures, while another about one hundred and seventy provide a
way
> of
> > unambiguously specifying the intended meaning of an expression.
> Additional
> > chapters discuss how the MathML content and presentation elements
> interact,
> > and how MathML renderers might be implemented and should interact
with
> > browsers. Finally, this document addresses the issue of special
> characters
> > used for mathematics, their handling in MathML, their presence in
> Unicode,
> > and their relation to fonts.
> >
> > While MathML is human-readable, in all but the simplest cases,
authors
> use
> > equation editors, conversion programs, and other specialized
software
> tools
> > to generate MathML. Several versions of such MathML tools exist, and
> more,
> > both freely available software and commercial products, are under
> > development.
> >
> > Status of this Document
> >
> > This section describes the status of this document at the time of
its
> > publication. Other documents may supersede this document. A list of
> current
> > W3C publications and the latest revision of this technical report
can
> be
> > found in the W3C technical reports index at http://www.w3.org/TR/.
> >
> > This document is a W3C First Public Working Draft produced by the
W3C
> Math
> > Working Group as part of the W3C Math Activity. The goals of the W3C
> Math
> > Working Group are discussed in the W3C Math WG Charter (revised July
> 2006).
> > A list of participants in the W3C Math Working Group is available.
> >
> > This First Public Working Draft must be viewed as a work in
progress,
> and
> > not yet suitable for reference. It specifies a new version of the
the
> > Mathematical Markup Language, MathML 3.0 [mathml] which is at
present
> under
> > active development. The Math WG hopes this outline draft will permit
> > informed feedback on this most important part of its work. There is
a
> > description of some considerations underlying this work in the W3C
> Math WG's
> > public Roadmap [roadmap]. Feedback should be sent to the Public W3C
> Math
> > mailing list .
> >
> > The MathML 2.0 (Second Edition) specification has been a W3C
> Recommendation
> > since 2001. During the period since its recommendation, a W3C Math
> Interest
> > Group collected the experience with the deployment of MathML and
> identified
> > issues with MathML that might be ameliorated. The rechartering af a
> Math
> > Working Group allows the revision to MathML 3.0 in the light of that
> > experience, of other comments on the markup language, and of recent
> changes
> > in specifications of the W3C and in the technological context.
MathML
> 3.0
> > does not signal any change in the overall design of MathML. However,
> the
> > specification document will be almost completely rewritten to
provide
> a
> > coherent whole containing corrections to all the known errata and
> > clarifications of issues that proved problematic and additions made.
> > Throughout pains are being taken to distinguish the normative and
> > non-normative aspects.
> >
> > Public discussion of MathML and issues of support through the W3C
for
> > mathematics on the Web takes place on the public mailing list of the
> Math
> > Working Group (list archives). To subscribe send an email to
> > www-math-request@w3.org with the word subscribe in the subject line.
> >
> > Please report errors in this document to www-math@w3.org.
> >
> > Patent disclosures relevant to this specification may be found on
the
> Math
> > Working Group's patent disclosure page.
> >
> > The basic structure of this document is the same as that of the
> earlier
> > MathML 2.0 Recommendation [MathML2]. MathML 2.0 itself was a
revision
> of the
> > earlier W3C Recommendation MathML 1.01 [MathML1]; MathML 3.0 itself
is
> a
> > revision of the W3C Recommendation MathML 2.0. It differs from it in
> that
> > all chapters will have been updated, some new elements and
attributes
> are
> > being added and some have been deprecated.
> > Chapters 1 and 2, which are introductory material, have yet to be
> revised to
> > reflect the changes elsewhere in the document, and in the rapidly
> evolving
> > Web environment.
> > Chapters 3, on presentation-oriented markup, is being extended to
> describe
> > new functionalities added as well as smaller improvements of
material
> > already proposed. As a result of concerns for support of
high-quality
> > typesetting and for the relationship with CSS the element mpadded
has
> been
> > revised, and the maction remains under discussion for possible
> deprecation.
> > As a result of earlier work, as recorded in the W3C Note Arabic
> mathematical
> > notation, the relationship with bidirectional text is being
clarified.
> In
> > addition, some adjustments that have proven necessary for easy
markup
> of
> > elementary school mathematics have been made.
> > Chapters 4, on content-oriented markup, has been completely
> regenerated. The
> > actual content is unchanged in essence, except for a number of
> elements the
> > addition of which seemed natural, such as some for use in
statistics.
> The
> > text of this chapter is now generated by filtered extraction from
XML
> > content dictionaries written in accordance with OpenMath. The
> advantages of
> > this method include a level of consistency in interpretation that
the
> > previous version perhaps did not achieve, automatic generation of
some
> > useful and informative tabulations, and a guarantee of alignment
with
> the
> > basic part of OpenMath that the community will appreciate.
> > Chapter 5 will be newly written to reflect changes in the technology
> > available. Chapter 6 has been rewritten and reorganized to reflect
the
> new
> > situation in regard to Unicode. It is expected that some new
ancillary
> > tables will be provided that reflect requests the WG has received.
> Chapter 7
> > needs revision yet again since Web technology has changed again.
> > Chapter 8 on the DOM and the associated appendices D and E for
> detailed
> > listings will be revised further as proves necessary. For instance,
> the DTD
> > is already implicated as a result of the profile MathML for CSS that
> the WG
> > is preparing; that is also a new FPWD.
> >
> > <<<
> >
> >
> > ======
> >
> > MathML for CSS
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Abstract
> >
> > This document describes a profile of MathML 3.0 designed for ease of
> > formatting with Cascading Style Sheets.
> >
> > Status of this Document
> >
> > This section describes the status of this document at the time of
its
> > publication. Other documents may supersede this document. A list of
> current
> > W3C publications and the latest revision of this technical report
can
> be
> > found in the W3C technical reports index at http://www.w3.org/TR/.
> >
> > This document is a W3C First Public Working Draft produced by the
W3C
> Math
> > Working Group as part of W3C Math Activity. The goals of the W3C
Math
> > Working Group are discussed in the W3C Math WG Charter. The authors
of
> this
> > document are the W3C Math Working Group members.
> >
> > This First Public Working Draft must be viewed as a work in
progress,
> and
> > not yet suitable for reference. It specifies a profile of a
> specification,
> > MathML 3.0, which is itself under development, and is intended to
> accord
> > with CSS 3, which is also under active development. The Math WG
hopes
> this
> > outline draft will permit informed feedback on this part of its
work,
> > although only a few of the elements show a full discussion of their
> special
> > properties in connection with CSS. There is also a short description
> of some
> > considerations underlying this work in the W3C Math WG's public
> Roadmap.
> > Feedback should be sent to the Public W3C Math mailing list .
> >
> > <<<
> >
> >
> >
> >
>

Received on Wednesday, 16 May 2007 14:57:52 UTC