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| ProductsMathPlayerMathML Technology |
MathPlayer and MathML Technology
What is MathML?MathML is an industry standard way of encoding mathematics using XML developed under the auspices of the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). A large number of software packages, including browsers, editors, computer algebra programs and publishing software, support MathML to display mathematical notation and to enable copying it between applications and websites. Unlike other ways of putting math in a web page, such as images and PDFs, MathML provides ways to directly encode various interactivity properties of an equation, which makes it an ideal choice for dynamic math on the web. Design Science has played a leading role in developing this important new technology. Consult About MathML for more information and related resources. How does MathPlayer work?Once installed, MathPlayer is invoked by Internet Explorer whenever there is MathML within the web page to display mathematical notation. In addition, assistive technology (AT) such as screen reader software can work with MathPlayer within Internet Explorer to help them speak mathematical notation to blind, low-vision, and learning disabled readers. MathPlayer enhances MSHTML, Microsoft's internal HTML engine on which Internet Explorer is based. This means that MathPlayer also displays MathML for any other application that makes use of MSHTML to display formatted content. This includes email clients, alternative web browsers, weblog (RSS) clients, instant messaging clients, help engines, and so on. We encourage anyone interested in this technology to contact us at support@dessci.com. We are also interested in talking with vendors whose products do not use MSHTML. See MathML in Other HTML Media for more details. MathPlayer and MathML-enabled applicationsEquations can be copied to the clipboard as MathML and then pasted into any application that understands MathML or into a web editor. Drag-and-drop works similarly. Among the applications that understand MathML are the popular computer algebra systems, Mathematica and Maple. It is our hope that eventually all mathematical and scientific software applications will eventually support MathML. If your favorite software application or website does not support MathML, you should request it from the vendor and encourage them to work together with Design Science to make it happen. Math-to-speech technologyOne of the advantages of embedding math in a web page using MathML is that it makes it possible for the math to be spoken. This was always a goal of the W3C in order to make math easier to understand by the visually impaired. MathPlayer provides the ability to speak the math in a web page. The user can do this by choosing Speak Expression on MathPlayer's right-click menu or, more importantly, via a screen reader application such as Window-Eyes or JAWS. This work was partially supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Although we see accessibilty as the main goal of math-to-speech technology, we have also received interest from educators in teaching normally sighted students how mathematics is spoken. See our MathPlayer Accessibility page for more details. Math searchingEmbedding math in a web page using MathML also makes it possible for web searches to include the mathematics on pages, not just text. Someday, a population biologist might be able to do a Google search for pages containing partial differential equations similar to ones he believes describe the predator-prey relationship between caribou and wolves in Alberta. One of the hits could be an astrophysicist's paper where she has actually solved the equations. Design Science received an NSF grant to hold a math searching workshop at which interested parties discussed the requirements for math searching technology. more> MathML in HTML5: Finally cross-browser HTML+MathML!MathML support in web browsers has been spotty until now. MathPlayer provides good support in Internet Explorer and Firefox has pretty good built-in support but it is absent from other popular browsers, such as Chrome, Safari, and Opera. One of the things that has slowed down implementation of MathML in web browsers is the lack of a proper standard for including MathML within HTML. Happily, the new HTML5 standard includes MathML and virtually all browser vendors have promised to support it. HTML5 with MathML will be supported by the latest versions of Internet Explorer (via MathPlayer) and Firefox. Chrome, Safari, and other browsers built using WebKit will add HTML5 and MathML support soon. And for browsers that do not directly support MathML, such as those on smartphones, tablets, ebook readers, etc., there is MathJax, a JavaScript engine that displays MathML in all modern browsers. Read the whole story here: MathML in HTML5. MathML 3MathML 3 is the latest version of the MathML recommendation. MathML 3 brings several new big highly requested features to MathML and many smaller ones also. Because MathML 3 is new, full support for it in browsers will take a few years to appear. To find out more about MathML 3 and to see some examples of what MathML 3's new features, see our page on MathML 3. MathPlayer MathML Test SuiteThe MathPlayer MathML Test Suite is a superset of the official W3C MathML 2.0 Test Suite containing some additional MathPlayer-specific tests and some other MathPlayer-friendly facilities. more> Join our Math on the Web mailing listIf you would like to receive email updates on what's going on in the Math on the Web world and tips on using our products to create math-oriented web pages, please join our mailing list. more> See also: |
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