Introduction to the course in mathml

$$x=\frac{a}{b}$$

Further, repeated use of $\raisebox{1ex}{$P$}\!\left/ \!\raisebox{-1ex}{$Q$}\right.\hspace{1em}$ form in the vertical direction involves alignment along multiple horizontal lines :

$$x=\genfrac{}{}{0.2ex}{}{\frac{\mathrm{(a\; +\; b)}}{\mathrm{(c\; +\; d)}}+\frac{\mathrm{(e\; +\; f)}}{\mathrm{(g\; +\; h)}}}{\frac{\mathrm{(i\; +\; j)}}{\mathrm{(k\; +\; l)}}}$$

The MathML provides a simple logical construct to encapsulate these complex presentation requirements of mathematical content. Fortunately, this logical construct is linear in that we may proceed to write codes starting from left of the expression to the end of it. This is one important characteristic of mark up paradigm in MathML. Even when handling two dimensional structures, we put the element designed for two dimensional layout mark up at the center of coding theme for that particular term and proceed to write code linearly for vertical components of display like numerator and denominator. For example, expression $\frac{dx}{dt}$ , is coded with “mfrac” element which provides the frame work to write two dimensional expression.

Apparently, going by the bulk of the code writing; writing MathML appears a difficult proposition, but thanks to the mark up design team at W3C, we would actually not require more than two dozens such mark up elements for most of the situations - out of which only 10 elements would be in regular use. This is the simplicity of the paradigm provided in MathML that must always be kept in mind.

Mathml and xml

MathML is a XML specification targeted to present mathematical content. In that sense, MathML may be considered as a subset of XML document. Mathematical content is is usually placed with normal text, figures and other elements of a document. For this reason, the MathML encoding leaves normal text/ picture rendering to the parent XML environment (DTD). As such, there is a document specifications in the corresponding Document Type Definition (DTD) file for XML and a document specifications in the corresponding DTD file for MathML.

As XML encompasses MathML, it is logical that the syntax and grammar of coding or marking up in MathML is similar as that of XML document. The syntax and grammar for the use of elements of both XML and MathML in a document are largely governed by the definition contained within XML DTD, except for few additional rules defined by MathML DTD. On the other hand, MathML provides the specific details of the functioning of MathML elements and few additional rules related to syntax and grammar for MathML markings.

For reasons as detailed above, the document that includes MathML should contain DTD declaration for both XML and MathML. The top most structure level of the document is defined by XML’s “document” and “content” elements. The MathML codes are then inserted between the opening and closing tags of “content” element.

A typical structure of a “xml” document containing MathML elements would look like :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?> <!DOCTYPE math PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD MathML 2.0//EN" "http://www.w3.org/Math/DTD/mathml2/mathml2.dtd" > <document xmlns:m="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <content> MathML code lines can be placed here. …………… …………… </content> </document>