Containers and Operators

Prefix Notation

Computer languages typically employ either prefix, infix, or postfix notation to capture the idea of applying an operator to arguments. For example, Postscript and Hewlett-Packard calculators use postfix notation. Most programing languages and computer algebra systems use the infix notation we are accustomed to seeing in print. However, the computer language LISP uses prefix notation, which also corresponds more closely to many natural language constructions like "f of x" and "subtract 5 from 8". For this and other reasons, MathML content mark-up also uses prefix notation.

A pleasant consequence of using prefix notation is that parentheses are no longer necessary. Using infix notation, we must use parentheses to distinguish (x - y) / 2 from x - (y / 2). However, in MathML, the order of operations is clear from the prefix notation, so parentheses aren't necessary.

<apply>                          <apply>
  <divide/>                        <minus/>
  <apply>                          <ci>x</ci>
    <minus/>                       <apply>
    <ci>x</ci>         vs.           <divide/>
    <ci>y</ci>                       <ci>y</ci>
  </apply>                           <cn>2</cn>
  <cn>2</cn>                       </apply>
</apply>                         </apply>

This example also introduces the fundamental apply element. The huge majority of content elements represent either operators or mathematical data types, and it is the apply element's job to group operators with arguments. The apply element expects an operator schema as it first child, and interprets the remaining children as the arguments of that operator.

Most MathML operators and functions are represented by empty elements like <cos/> and <intersect/>. However, expressions such as <apply><compose/><ci>f</ci><ci>g</ci></apply> can also be used as operators.

The examples also illustrate the use of content mark-up's only token elements, ci and cn. These elements represent identifiers and numbers, respectively. Since functions and operators are represented by elements, no "co" element is needed. However there is a csymbol token for less-common symbols and operators with a well-defined mathematical usage, but for which there are no pre-defined content MathML elements.

In MathML, an identifier is any kind of name or label. In content mark-up, this usually means things such as variables and function names. A type attribute on the ci element can be used to specify the type of object which an identifier represents.

The cn element is primarily designed to mark-up integers, rational, real or complex numbers. However, any kind of character data is permitted in the cn tag, so it is possible to mark-up expressions like <cn>xii</cn>. The type attribute specifies what kind of number the element encodes. Similarly, the base attribute can be used to specify that the encoding is to a base other than 10, such as octal or hexadecimal.

Containers

Token elements represent identifiers and numbers. Of course, an identifier can refer to any kind of mathematical object, but in the case of common objects like vectors and sets, it would be nice to directly encode the structure of the object as well as its name. For this, new elements are needed to represent other kinds of mathematical objects and data types.

MathML uses container elements to represent basic mathematical objects and data types. In general, container elements represent things like sets which are constructed out of other data. The main examples are sets, intervals, vectors, and matrices.

<set> [<elt1> <elt2> ... | <condition>] </set>

 

The set element constructs a mathematical set whose elements are specified by the set element's children. This can be done in two ways. The children can either be a list of tokens and containers which represent the individual elements of the set, or the set elements can be specified by a single condition child element. The condition element is discussed below, and encodes expressions like "all x such that x < 2".

 

<interval> <pt1> <pt2> </interval>

 

Intervals in the real line can be specified with the interval element. It expects exactly two children elements, which encode the end points. The closure attribute determines which of the end points lie in the interval, and can have the values "open", "closed", "open-closed" and "closed-open". The default is closed.

 

<vector> <elt1> <elt2> ... </vector>

 

A vector element constructs a vector whose components are given in order by its children. By convention, in MathML vectors are column vectors for matrix multiplication.

 

<matrix> <row1> <row2> ... </matrix>

 

Matrices actually require two elements, matrix and matrixrow. Although matrix rows are a little odd to single out from a mathematical viewpoint, they are necessary crutch for encoding matrices. A matrix element expects any number of children, but they have to all be matrixrow elements. The children of the matrixrow elements represent the individual entries in the matrix. All matrix rows should have the same number of elements.

Examples

Expression:

Markup:

<reln> <eq/>
  <set>
    <bvar>  <ci>x</ci>  </bvar>
    <condition>
      <reln> <geq/><ci>x</ci><cn>0</cn>   </reln>
    </condition>
  </set>

  <interval closure='closed-open'>
    <cn>0</cn>
    <ci>&infty;</ci>
  </interval>
</reln>

Expression:

Markup:

<reln> <eq/>
  <apply><times/>
    <vector> <cn>1 </cn> <cn>2 </cn>
    </vector>

    <matrix>
    <matrixrow> <cn>0 </cn> <cn>1 </cn> </matrixrow>
    <matrixrow> <cn>1 </cn> <cn>0 </cn> </matrixrow>
    </matrix>
  </apply>

  <apply> <transpose/>
    <vector> <cn>2 </cn> <cn>1 </cn>
    </vector>
  </apply>
</reln>

Operators, Functions and Relations

There are about 90 empty operator elements in content markup, which represent commonly-used functions and operators. They are grouped into broad categories: arthimetic, algebra, logic, calculus, set theory, and so on. To see the full list, take a look at the summary of Content Elements.

Recall that because of MathML's prefix notation, there is basically no difference between functions and operators; in common usage, we tend to call operators which are traditionally written with prefix notation "functions," like sin x. But from the point of view of MathML, they are both operators which may be applied to arguments.

Expression:

Markup:

<apply><plus/>
  <apply><sin/><ci>x</ci></apply>
  <cn>9</cn>
</apply>

Note that the parentheses around the x do not explicitly appear in the MathML mark-up; a renderer like WebEQ would typically use some kind of heuristic for deciding when parentheses are visually appropriate, but they are superfluous from the point of view of capturing the meaning of the expression.

Operators and functions are both applied to arguments using the apply element. MathML does single out relations from other functions and operators, even though they could be viewed a functions which return truth values. Examples of relations are eq, leq, and subset. They are applied to arguments using the reln element much as operators are applied to arguments using the apply element.

Expression:

Markup:

<reln> <eq/>
  <ci>x</ci>
  <cn>1</cn>
</reln>

Qualifiers

A handful of operators are meant to be used in conjunction with qualifier elements. For example, qualifier elements are used to specify the limits for the integral operator.

The most obvious group of qualifier elements are those used with the int, sum, and prod elements. All three of these operators have a notion of a lower limit, an upper limit, and a bound variable. In MathML, qualifiers are used to specify these additional parameters, as is illustrated in this example:

Expression:

Markup:

<apply><sum/>
  <bvar>     <ci>n</ci>       </bvar>
  <lowlimit> <cn>0</cn>       </lowlimit>
  <uplimit>  <ci>&infty;</ci> </uplimit>
  <apply><power/>
    <ci>x</ci>
    <ci>n</ci>
  </apply>
</apply>

Another important idiom involving qualifiers comes up with the differential operators diff and partialdiff. The order of a derivate can be specified using the degree element together with a bvar:

Expression:

Markup:

<apply><diff/>
   <bvar>   
     <ci>x</ci> 
     <degree> <cn>3</cn> </degree>
   </bvar>
   <apply><fn> f </fn>
     <ci> x </ci>
   </apply>
</apply>

Qualifier elements are examples of MathML idioms. Math is full of examples of specialized and exceptional notation. Here and there, MathML has had to adopt a few specialized constructions, like qualifiers, to deal with them.

One such idiom is the use of the condition element to specify the elements of a set:

Expression:

Markup:

<set>
  <bvar>  <ci>x</ci>  </bvar>
  <bvar>  <ci>y</ci>  </bvar>
  <condition>
    <apply>  <and/>
      <reln>  <lt/> <ci>0</ci> <ci>x</ci> <ci>1</ci>   </reln>
      <reln>  <leq/><ci>3</ci> <ci>y</ci> <ci>10</ci>  </e>
    </apply>
  </condition>
</set>

Some other less common idioms involve using lambda expressions in function declarations, and using quantifiers with log and limit.

The semantics element

The last important thing we need to look at is the semantics element. Content mark-up has two drawbacks: it doesn't include everything you might need, and it doesn't always display the way you would like. The semantics element addresses both of these problems.

When you use content markup, you have to trust a renderer like WebEQ to put your expression on the screen in a reasonable way. Inevitably, this causes problems -- you want to use prime notation for derivatives, like f'(x), while WebEQ renders this as df/dx, and so on.

To remedy this, you can use the semantics element to specify both the presentation mark-up and content mark-up for an expression separately.

Expression:

Markup:

<semantics>

<mrow>
  <msup> <mi>f</mi> <mi>′</mi> </msup>
  <mi>(</mi> <mi>x</mi> <mi>)</mi>
</mrow>

<apply>  <diff/>
  <ci>f</ci>
  <bvar><ci>x</ci></bvar>
</apply>

</semantics>

It is also possible to use the semantics tag to extend MathML. The special annotation element can serve as a wrapper for any kind of semantic information, such as computer algebra input or links to other references. By binding an annotation together with a MathML expression, one can send additional information along for the ride, and specialized renderers that understand it can take advantage of it.

Expression:

Markup:

<semantics>
<set>
  <bvar>  <ci>x</ci>  </bvar>  
  <bvar>  <ci>y</ci>  </bvar>  
  <bvar>  <ci>z</ci>  </bvar>  
  <condition>
   <reln> <eq/>
    <apply> <plus/>
      <apply> <power/> <ci>x</ci> <ci>2</ci> </apply>
      <apply> <power/> <ci>y</ci> <ci>2</ci> </apply>
      <apply> <power/> <ci>z</ci> <ci>2</ci> </apply>
    </apply>
    <cn>1</cn>
   </reln>
</condition>
</set>

<annotation encoding='oogl'>
SPHERE
1
0 0 0
</annotation>

</semantics>

The "oogl" annotation in the example above allows an application that uses the Object Oriented Graphics Library to draw a three-dimensional representation of the surface described by the equation, a sphere with radius one centered at the origin.

Next Steps

Here are the main points from this section:

• MathML content markup uses a prefix notation style. Operators are applied to arguments using the apply element. There are many predefined operator elements like sin, and you can create user-defined operators and functions with the fn element.
• Mathematical objects and data types are represented by token elements ci and cn, or by container elements like set.
• There are a number of MathML idioms to handle special cases, like the use of qualifier schema such as lowlimit with the int operator,
• You can use the semantics element to specify both presentation mark-up for display, and content mark-up for evaluation.

Congratulations! You have now covered the MathML fundamentals, and it is time to put your knowledge to work. A good way to get started is to is to download a copy of WebEQ and start putting math on the Web. You can download a free, 30-day evaluation or purchase a copy using our Online Ordering System.