Take a look at MathML a new W3C Recommendation and explains why we might want to use it on our web pages.

An Introduction to MathML.

MathML can be used in the Netscape and Mozilla web browsers, but it does require some work to get it going. This is an attempt to outline the steps to view and create MathML.

In this edition of the Status Report, we will focus on the Second International MathML Conference, while also examining the proposition that the HTML+MathML Platform allows STM (Science, Technical, and Medical) publishers, both organizations and individuals, to add value to their publications over media like Adobe's PDF.

When developing formal mathematical proofs on the computer, dissemination of the proofs is an important part of their life cycle. And nowadays, the Internet is a necessary medium for this.

Currently, there is no effective way of expressing standard mathematical notation in Web pages. Equations can be displayed as GIF images but printing is poor, pages can download slowly, and they don't adapt to the browser user's font choices. MathML is a potential solution to the problem.

MathML is an XML application for representing mathematical expressions: their presentation, their semantics, or both. The implementation of the functionality it offers will rely on whatever mechanisms are available for interfacing XML applications to HTML and the browsers that accept it. The requirements that MathML makes of these mechanisms, and of browsers generally, are not unique but would be useful in many high-quality publishing contexts.

One of the chief characteristics of STM (Scientific, Technical, Medical) content is the presence of mathematical equations. Traditionally, equations have been represented in workflows using a variety of formats: TeX, MathType, PowerMath, the math parts of various DTDs, to name a few. Now that many publishers are moving to a production system built around a central XML-based repository, describing mathematics using MathML, the XML-based language for mathematics, is a better choice.

STM (Scientific, Technical, Medical) publishers, like all for-profit businesses, are looking to increase profits by either cutting costs, increasing sales, or both. To cut costs, they look to the application of improved computer and software technology (eg, introducing XML-based workflows). Increasing sales is a tougher problem requiring a creative solution. Product differentiation is harder in STM publishing than in most other business areas because competitors have access to the same authors and subject knowledge, while the print medium does not allow much scope for adding value.

MathML is a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standard that has been created so that mathematical expressions can be displayed, manipulated, and shared over the Web. According to the W3C, "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."

Although mathematical notation has made its way into computer-generated documents with quality publishing software now correctly handling mathematics, putting mathematics on the Web has been a problem since the beginning of HTML since support for displaying mathematics was minimal. Shortly after the birth of XML, the W3C started designing MathML: an XML language for expressing mathematics, in order to make it possible to display formulas in Web browsers as well as provide a interchange format for mathematical software.