MathPlayer and MathML Technology

What is MathML
How does MathPlayer work
MathPlayer and MathML-enabled applications
Math-to-speech technology
Math searching
Enabling MathML display in other applications
MathPlayer and Internet Explorer for the Macintosh
MathPlayer in other browsers and on other platforms
MathPlayer MathML Test Suite
Join our Math on the Web mailing list

What is MathML?

MathML is a new way of encoding mathematics using XML developed under the auspices of the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), the group that sets the basic standards that define the Web. A growing number of software packages including browsers, editors, computer algebra programs and publishing software use MathML to communicate. 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?

When someone visits a Web page that contains math, Internet Explorer "sees" a document written in HTML containing MathML "islands" for each equation. Some information in the header of the document tells Internet Explorer that MathPlayer software is to be used to display and print the MathML islands. Internet Explorer loads and executes the MathPlayer software on an as-needed basis. Whenever Internet Explorer sees MathML, it gives it to MathPlayer to display on the screen (or print it). The technology by which this all occurs is Microsoft's Behaviors which is available only in the Windows version of Internet Explorer.

MathPlayer and MathML-enabled applications

Equations 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 support MathML. Users of such software should request this feature from the vendors and encourage them to work together with Design Science to make this happen.

Math-to-speech technology

One 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 2 begins to realize that goal by providing 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.

In the current release of MathPlayer, the math-to-speech capability is fairly rudimentary. In December of 2003 Design Science was awarded a NSF grant to do research on making math more accessible. Using this grant, we intend to further this technology in several directions. 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 searching

Embedding 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. In December of 2003 Design Science received a NSF grant to hold a math searching workshop at which interested parties discussed the requirements for math searching technology. more>

Enabling MathML display in other applications

Many Windows applications use Microsoft's HTML engine, MSHTML, to display formatted content. This includes email clients, alternative web browsers, weblog (RSS) clients, instant messaging clients, help engines, and so on. Because MathPlayer works by MathML-enabling MSHTML, MathML support is available in such applications literally for free. The only thing missing is a way to get MathML content into the HTML. Design Science has been working with vendors of software applications that use MSHTML to get them to work properly with MathML. We encourage other vendors that are 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 in other browsers

The core MathPlayer code is written in platform-independent C++ with a relatively small chunk of code interfacing it to Internet Explorer. While MathML is also supported in the Mozilla/Netscape browser, we would like to see support in other browsers. Design Science would like to work with other browser vendors to make this a reality.

MathPlayer MathML Test Suite

The 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 list

If 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>

MathPlayer and MathML Technology

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