bringing mathematical formatting to the web

Bebo White, SLAC- CHEP2000

Bringing Mathematical Formatting to the Web

An Overview of the Technology and SLAC’s

Experience

Session F19

Bebo White, SLAC- CHEP2000

Background• The need for “math on the web” was

obvious from the start• <math> was included in the HTML+

specification (November 1993)• HTML 4.0 includes Greek/math symbol

sets• But no one knew how to do it right…

– LATEX?– Mathematica?

Bebo White, SLAC- CHEP2000

The Challenges• Rendering

– bringing the granularity of LATEX to the level of HTML

– graphical and textual representations– display issues - baselines, etc.

• Generation– formatting tools– application output

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The Challenges (2)• Interoperability

– use of semantic information in other applications

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Bitmapped Mathematics

• Easily generated and embedded in HTML pages

• Lack of support in non-graphical systems

• Issues– scaling, anti-aliasing, contrast– inability to edit or extend– concentration only on appearance

• Support - MINSE, WebEQ, etc.

Bebo White, SLAC- CHEP2000

LATEX Approaches to Web Math

LATEX2HTML Equations bitmapped –placed as images

pdfTEX TEX direct to PDF (Omega) TEX in 16bit unicodeTEX4ht TEX to XML with specialsTHT TEX to HTML translatorTechExplorer LATEX to MathML to

browser display

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MathML • MathML 1.0 - W3C

Recommendation - April 1998• W3C Math Working Group

composed of major players• MathML is an instance of XML

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MathML Goals• To provide a method for defining a

mathematical expression in terms of its presentation and semantics (meaning)

• To provide a low-level format for describing mathematics as a basis for machine to machine communication

• To facilitate the use and re-use of mathematical and scientific content on the Web

Bebo White, SLAC- CHEP2000

Taxonomy of MathML Elements

• Presentation elements - describe mathematical notation structure; e.g., <mrow>

• Content elements - describe mathematical objects directly; e.g., <vector>

• Interface elements - describe external interfaces; e.g., <math> passes parameters to a MathML processor

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MathML Example

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MathML Example (2)

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Authoring MathML• Not intended to be authored

“by hand”• Programs such as

Mathematica, Maple, MathType will support MathML

• Authoring environments (e.g., Amaya)

Bebo White, SLAC- CHEP2000

Bebo White, SLAC- CHEP2000

Bebo White, SLAC- CHEP2000

SLAC and Web Math• SPIRES-HEP Database Catalog• Over 415,000 papers - most with

math• Once accessed via QSPIRES• The first “killer app” on the Web• Control over display via pre-

processing response

Bebo White, SLAC- CHEP2000

Initial Efforts• LATEX2HTML• MINSE

– developed at University of Waterloo– supported by the AMS– “polymediator” - media-independent– uses own math markup but plans for

MathML– server-based

Bebo White, SLAC- CHEP2000

Initial Efforts (2)• WebEQ

– graphic generated by Java application

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MINSE Example

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IBM TechExplorer• “IBM TechExplorer Hypermedia

Browser”• A Web browser plug-in• Dynamically formats and

displays documents coded with TEX/LATEX and MathML

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TechExplorer Example

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TechExplorer Example (2)

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Bebo White, SLAC- CHEP2000

TechExplorer/SPIRES-HEP Issues

• Titles and Header Information• Abstract Viewing• Linking to Full Documents

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Bebo White, SLAC- CHEP2000

Bebo White, SLAC- CHEP2000

Bebo White, SLAC- CHEP2000

Bebo White, SLAC- CHEP2000

References• M. Goosens, S. Rahtz, et. al., “The

LaTeX Web Companion,” Addison-Wesley, 1999

• http://www.w3.org/Math/• MINSE -

http://www.lfw.org/math/top.html• http://www.webeq.com/• http://www.mathtype.com/• http://www.gutenberg.eu.org/omega/

Bebo White, SLAC- CHEP2000

References (2)• http://www.software.ibm.com/

techexplorer• “Communicating Math with Hypertext”,

http://www.geom.umn.edu/events/courses/1996/cmwh/

• “Including Math Notation in Web Pages”, http://forum.swarthmore.edu/typesetting/index.html

Bebo White, SLAC- CHEP2000

References (3)• HTML 4.0 character sets -

http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/

Bebo White, SLAC- CHEP2000

Special Thanks• Mimi Jett, IBM Research, who

co-authored the paper• SLAC Library• SLAC Technical Publications