# RE: [MathML4] Multiple Formats for Presentation and Semantics

Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2019 21:16:27 +0000
To: Neil Soiffer <soiffer@alum.mit.edu>
CC: Stephen Watt <smwatt@gmail.com>, "www-math@w3.org" <www-math@w3.org>, "public-mathml4@w3.org" <public-mathml4@w3.org>
Message-ID: <SN6PR01MB4638E065512CDF1A84238517C57A0@SN6PR01MB4638.prod.exchangelabs.com>
Math Working Group,
MathML Refresh Community Group,
Neil Soiffer,

Scenarios where a format could be utilized for two purposes emerges from the Semantic Web category of formats. Lange [1] and Marchiori [2], for example, discuss uses of Semantic Web technologies for mathematical semantics. It is possible that one could desire to use a Semantic Web format for both “semantics” and “metadata”.

<math id="...">
<presentation>
<annotation-xml id="..." encoding="application/xhtml+xml">...</annotation-xml>
<annotation-xml id="..." encoding="application/svg+xml">...</annotation-xml>
<annotation id="..." encoding="image/png" src="data:..." />
<annotation-xml id="..." encoding="MathML-Presentation">...</annotation-xml>
</presentation>
<semantics>
<annotation-xml id="..." encoding="application/rdf+xml">...</annotation-xml>
<annotation-xml id="..." encoding="application/openmath+xml">...</annotation-xml>
<annotation-xml id="..." encoding="MathML-Content">...</annotation-xml>
</semantics>
<annotation-xml encoding="application/rdf+xml">...</annotation-xml>
<annotation encoding="application/json+ld">...</annotation>
[/itex]

A “presentation”, “semantics”, “metadata” distinction can also be of use for specifying clipboarding behavior.

Best regards,

[1] Lange, Christoph. "Ontologies and languages for representing mathematical knowledge on the semantic web." Semantic Web 4, no. 2 (2013): 119-158.
[2] Marchiori, Massimo. "The mathematical semantic web." In International Conference on Mathematical Knowledge Management, pp. 216-223. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2003.

From: Neil Soiffer<mailto:soiffer@alum.mit.edu>
Sent: Monday, February 25, 2019 12:15 PM
Cc: Stephen Watt<mailto:smwatt@gmail.com>; www-math@w3.org<mailto:www-math@w3.org>; public-mathml4@w3.org<mailto:public-mathml4@w3.org>
Subject: Re: [MathML4] Multiple Formats for Presentation and Semantics

I agree with David -- why do you need a "presentation" or "metadata" tag separate from "semanatics"? That would only be needed if you have the case where the same encoding could be used for two of those reasons and it wasn't obvious which to use for which reason. Is there such a real-life case?

Neil

Math Working Group,
MathML Refresh Community Group,
Stephen Watt,

Thank you.

I recently had an idea that we could also include metadata with respect to mathematics expressions. Here is a fuller sketch:

<math id="...">
<presentation>
<annotation-xml id="..." encoding="application/xhtml+xml">...</annotation-xml>
<annotation-xml id="..." encoding="application/svg+xml">...</annotation-xml>
<annotation id="..." encoding="image/png" src="data:..." />
<annotation-xml id="..." encoding="MathML-Presentation">...</annotation-xml>
</presentation>
<semantics>
<annotation-xml id="..." encoding="application/openmath+xml">...</annotation-xml>
<annotation-xml id="..." encoding="MathML-Content">...</annotation-xml>
</semantics>
<annotation-xml encoding="application/rdf+xml">...</annotation-xml>
<annotation encoding="application/json+ld">...</annotation>
[/itex]

Presentation – This variety of data pertains to the presentation or display of a mathematics expression.

Semantics – This variety of data pertains to the semantics or meaning of a mathematics expression.

Metadata – This variety of data describes or is about a mathematics expression. Metadata could describe authorship, provenance or include any other data which may be desirable to accompany a mathematics expression across clipboarding scenarios. Metadata could also describe or be about a mathematics expression’s presentational or semantic annotations; for example, metadata could indicate which annotations were derived or generated from which others and could indicate the generator software component (e.g. MathJax).

Best regards,

From: Stephen Watt <smwatt@gmail.com<mailto:smwatt@gmail.com>>
Sent: Monday, February 25, 2019 6:49:17 AM
Cc: www-math@w3.org<mailto:www-math@w3.org>; public-mathml4@w3.org<mailto:public-mathml4@w3.org>
Subject: Re: [MathML4] Multiple Formats for Presentation and Semantics

This is an interesting idea.   Previously, I had been thinking of multiple presentation alternatives for notational choices (rather than supported protocols).   This would be important, for example, in pulling together modules for a course or a book, where the notational styles of the collections differed.   At the time, XSL seemed to offer a sufficient solution, but there is no reason that mathml with pre-generated notational choices couldn't be served.

Stephen

Math Working Group,
MathML Refresh Community Group,

I would like to present an idea for discussion for MathML4. The idea is based upon the approaches to mathematical semantics from MathML3. The idea is to include in MathML4 a means of providing multiple presentational formats.

$<presentation> <annotation-xml encoding="application/xhtml+xml">...</annotation-xml> <annotation-xml encoding="application/svg+xml">...</annotation-xml> <annotation encoding="image/png" src="data:..." /> <annotation-xml encoding="MathML-Presentation">...</annotation-xml> </presentation> <semantics> <annotation-xml encoding="application/openmath+xml">...</annotation-xml> <annotation-xml encoding="MathML-Content">...</annotation-xml> </semantics>$

With such mathematical markup, browsers could, in a manner similar to MathJax, provide users with configuration to indicate which formats to display when multiple presentational formats are available.

Topics to consider would include the clipboarding of mathematical elements and of hypertext containing mathematics.

Topics to consider would also include interoperation with MathJax. MathJax could populate the presentational options available in <presentation> elements. Interestingly, the document object model resulting from MathJax processing could resemble the document object model had multiple presentational formats been provided.

I look forward to discussing these and other ideas for MathML4.

Best regards,