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MathML at MIT

 

 

On this page:
Overview
System Requirements
Examples
Tools
Practical Considerations
Resources

Overview

Welcome to the MIT MathML home page.

MathML (Mathematical Markup Language) is an XML application from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Math Working Group for describing mathematical notation and capturing both its structure and content. It provides a much needed foundation for the inclusion of mathematical expressions in web pages.

On this page, you will find basic information to help you get started with using MathML. Although intended primarily for an MIT audience and focused on tools and software used and supported at MIT, the information should be useful to a broader public.

Note: links to third-party software point to MIT pages if the product is supported at MIT and to the vendor's otherwise.

System Requirements

To work with MathML, you need a MathML-compliant browser and, if you choose to use Mozilla or Netscape, mathematical fonts installed on your machine (essentially the Mathematica and Computer Modern TeX fonts).

Common Web Browsers Supporting MathML

Note: using the MathPlayer plug-in spares you the step of downloading and installing the fonts (because the plug-in already comes with mathematical fonts). However, MathPlayer is only available for Windows. Update Spring 2004: the last version (2.0) of MathPlayer has an accessibility feature able to speak equations through your computer's sound system.

Math Fonts to Install for Mozilla/Netscape
Information on, and links to, the fonts to install is listed on the Fonts for MathML-enabled Mozilla page. To make it easier for end-users to install the fonts, we are in the process of building fonts packages that will install the fonts on your machine in just a few clicks:

Important Note for Macintosh Users
A rendering bug with the Mathematica fonts showed up in Mozilla version 1.3 beta and is present in all the versions thereafter (hence in Netscape 7.1 -- which is based on the Mozilla 1.4 engine -- as well). Until this bug is fixed, we recommend Mac users to download earlier Mozilla versions (prior to 1.3 beta) for a satisfying MathML rendering experience. Below are direct links to versions 1.3 alpha and 1.2.1.

Status on Athena
MathML is supported on Athena as Mozilla is the default browser. Athena 9.3 uses an Xft-enabled build of Mozilla and has the TrueType TeX and Mathematica 4.1 fonts already installed.

Status on Stellar
The current version of Stellar (1.6) doesn't support MathML in the sense that MathML tags pasted into a Stellar text box window will be rejected. Support for MathML (and more generally XML) is expected over the summer when version 2.0 will be released. Of course, however, users can upload, or link to, a file with equations in MathML on their Stellar website.

Examples

Test Pages
These pages are useful to check whether your browser supports MathML and whether the necessary fonts are installed on your machine:

Examples Drawn From MIT Courses That Make Use of MathML

Examples Drawn From Courses Outside of MIT

This list is expected to grow over time. If you have a page that you would like to have listed here, contact us.

Tools

MathML is too verbose to be authored directly. Users should rely on tools and software to build web pages with MathML. The list below is not meant to be comprehensive and is an attempt to capture a few expected common tasks here at MIT given the type of work people do and the tools available. For a complete list of software and tools supporting MathML, visit the W3C Math software page.

Converting TeX/LaTeX into MathML

  • TtM: Developed and maintained by Ian Hutchinson of MIT (available for Windows and Linux platforms and installed on Athena).

Converting Microsoft Word and Scientific Word into MathML

  • MathType: Professional version of the Equation Editor in Microsoft Word (available for Windows platforms and Macintosh platforms running an emulator program such as Virtual PC).
  • Scientific Word: A mathematical WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) word processor for creating technical documents (available for Windows platforms and Macintosh platforms running an emulator program such as Virtual PC) -- supports MathML since version 4.

Others

  • Mathematica supports MathML since version 4.2. Users can now save Mathematica notebooks as web pages with equations represented in MathML (available for Windows, Macintosh, Linux platforms and installed on Athena).
  • Maple supports MathML since version 7. Users can now save Maple worksheets as web pages with equations represented in MathML (available for Windows, Macintosh, Linux platforms and installed on Athena).
  • WebEQ: A suite of Java-based software tools for authoring and displaying equations in a web page -- supports MathML (available for Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and Solaris; an old version is installed on Athena).

Practical Considerations

Suggested Steps to Get Started

  • Go to one of the test pages listed above to check whether your browser supports MathML and download a MathML-compliant version if necessary.
  • Download and install the math fonts if you are using Mozilla.

Including MathML in Web Pages

  • As MathML is XML-based, make sure your document has the .xml extension (and not .html) in its name.
  • To have your document viewable on a large number of browsers, make sure you follow the recommendations listed by the W3C. Ideally, you would want to check that your document is rendered correctly under Mozilla (or Netscape 7) on Windows, Linux, and Mac, and, in addition, under Internet Explorer on Windows . ( Update Spring 2004: the latest version of MathPlayer makes it much easier to create MathML web pages viewable on a large number of browsers. If you want to create a page from scratch, plese read the information provided by Design Science.
    Note:     many of the tools mentioned above statisfy these requirements automatically.
  • When posting your web page, add links to the supported browsers and to the fonts installers to make sure your audience can easily get the tools to be able to view your page.

Resources

Links

Textbook

Mailing Lists

  • www-math: A mailing list for MathML maintained by the W3C Math Working Group.
  • netscape.public.mozilla.mathml: A public newsgroup for discussing MathML issues in Mozilla (accessible from a newsgroup viewer or from a web site that archives newsgroups such as Google Groups).

At MIT

Support and documentation for MathML is available thanks to many participants. See our Acknowledgements.

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Related Links

W3C Math Home

Contact Information

Academic Computing
f_l@mit.edu
617.253.0115