The W3C Math Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) Version 2.0 (2nd Edition). MathML is "an XML application that allows mathematical notation and content to be served, received and processed on the Web." MathML Second Edition introduces an XML Schema which supports checking a MathML fragment in a stricter way than by performing DTD validation. The new release also includes an XHTML+MathML version with inline examples, suitable for viewing with a MathML enabled browser. MathML Version 2.0 Second Edition updates the Recommendation of February 21, 2001 by incorporating errata into the main document and providing additional documentation. The W3C Working Group invites comments during the Last Call period, which ends May 09, 2003.

Bibliographic Information

Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) Version 2.0 (2nd Edition). W3C [Last Call] Working Draft 11-April-2003. Version URL: http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/WD-MathML2-20030411/. Latest version URL: http://www.w3.org/TR/MathML2/. Previous version URL: http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/WD-MathML2-20021219/. Edited by David Carlisle (NAG), Patrick Ion, Mathematical Reviews (American Mathematical Society)l, Robert Miner (Design Science, Inc), Nico Poppelier (Penta Scope). Principal Authors: Ron Ausbrooks, Stephen Buswell, David Carlisle, Stéphane Dalmas, Stan Devitt, Angel Diaz, Roger Hunter, Patrick Ion, Robert Miner, Nico Poppelier, Bruce Smith, Neil Soiffer, Robert Sutor, and Stephen Watt. In addition to the HTML version, the WD document is also available in non-normative formats: diff marked HTML version, XHTML+MathML version, PDF paper formatted version, PDF screen formatted version, zip archive of XML sources and stylesheets, and zip archive of (X)HTML documents.

MathML Version 2.0 Second Edition Abstract

This specification defines the Mathematical Markup Language, or MathML. MathML is an XML application for describing mathematical notation and capturing both its structure and content. 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.

This specification of the markup language MathML is intended primarily for a readership consisting of those who will be developing or implementing renderers or editors using it, or software that will communicate using MathML as a protocol for input or output. It is not a User's Guide but rather a reference document.

This document begins with background information on mathematical notation, the problems it poses, and the philosophy underlying the solutions MathML 2.0 proposes. MathML can be used to encode both mathematical notation and mathematical content. About thirty of the MathML tags describe abstract notational structures, while another about one hundred and fifty provide a way of unambiguously specifying the intended meaning of an expression. Additional chapters discuss how the MathML content and presentation elements interact, and how MathML renderers might be implemented and should interact with browsers. Finally, this document addresses the issue of MathML characters and their relation to fonts.

While MathML is human-readable, it is anticipated that, in all but the simplest cases, authors will use equation editors, conversion programs, and other specialized software tools to generate MathML. Several early versions of such MathML tools already exist, and a number of others, both freely available software and commercial products, are under development.