Installing and using MathML

Hal Abelson

MathML is an extensive system for displaying mathematics on the Web. This page is a quick guide to installing and using it. I've written this guide for members of the MIT Intelligent Book Project, but it should be generally useful as well.

This page includes instructions for installing MathML with Mozilla on GNU/Linux or Windows, and with Internet Explorer on Windows.

Contents

• Browser tests
• Installing MathML on GNU/Linux for use with Mozilla
• Installing MathML on Windows for use with Mozilla
• Installing MathML on Windows for use with Internet Explorer
• How to create the fonts package for GNU/Linux
• Acknowledgements

To check if your browser can render MathML, try viewing this simple test page. The page includes both flavors of MathML:

• Presentation MathML, which is a markup language in which the author specifies the detailed position of every element (as in Tex)
• Content MathML, in which the author writes in a form similar to mathematical expressions, and the system generates the detailed markup.

In order to view MathML you need:

1. A browser that supports MathML. Mozilla has MathML support built in. Internet Explorer requires you to download and install and plug-in.
2. Math fonts installed on your system.

1. If you are in the Intelligent Book project, copy the directory /project/intelligent-book/mathml/math-fonts into the X fonts directory on your machine, which is I'll assume is named /usr/lib/X11/fonts:

   cp -r /project/intelligent-book/mathml/math-fonts /usr/lib/X11/fonts
   

   You'll probably need root privileges on your machine to do this. This creates a math-fonts directory with two subdirectories called cmtex-pfb and mathematica-pcf.

   If you are not in the Intelligent Book project, you can't access the fonts package I put together. Read the instructions below on how to create the fonts package for GNU/Linux. Then create the package, move it to your X fonts directory, and continue with the instructions here.

2. Test that the fonts work by temporarily adding the new fonts to your X fonts. Execute:

   xset fp+ /usr/lib/X11/fonts/math-fonts/cmtex-pfb
   xset fp+ /usr/lib/X11/fonts/math-fonts/mathematica-pcf
   xset fp rehash
   

   Now close Mozilla if it was open, relaunch it, and try the test pages above. If this doesn't work, check that the fonts are really in the directories, and that the directories really were added to your path, which you can do with:

   xset -q
   

   Good luck.

3. Now add the fonts permanently, so you won't need to do this every time you log in. You need to edit the file /etc/X11/XF86Config-4. (At least, this is where it is on Debian.) Find the lines in the fonts section that look like

   	FontPath	some directory
   

   and add the lines

   	FontPath	"/usr/lib/X11/fonts/math-fonts/cmtex-pfb"
   	FontPath	"/usr/lib/X11/fonts/math-fonts/mathematica-pcf"
   

   Now reboot your machine (or restart the X server some other way). When everything comes back, you should open Mozilla and be able to view the test pages. Congratulations.

   Note: Be very careful editing the XF86Config-4 file. If you blow it, you may not be able to start X. If you do mess up like this, say a penance and find a wizard.

1. Go to the Fonts for MathML-enabled Mozilla page, and download and install the Bako Ma TeX CM fonts (top of the right-hand column on the page): Download the folder, unzip it, and copy the contents to the Windows/fonts folder.
2. From the same Fonts for MathML-enabled Mozilla page, follow the link to the Mathematica 4.1 fonts for windows. When you get to the Mathematica page, download the TrueType 4.1 fonts. Make sure to get the 4.1 fonts and not the 4.2 fonts. Uzip the folder and copy the contents to the Windows/fonts folder.

Download and install the MathPlayer Plug-in. When I download this, I get a file whose name ends in ".exe.asp". I had to change the name to remove the ".asp", before I click on the installer and run it.

Now try the browser tests. Hopefully, these will work.

Serving MathML pages from the web server

• MathML pages must be XML files, not HTML files. (E.g., the file should be foo.xml, not foo.html.) This implies that any HTML on your pages must be well-formed XML (i.e., it must be XHML, rather than just XML). For example, all tags must be balanced -- none of those hanging, unbalanced <p> tags and the like.

• The file should have the overall form

  <?xml version="1.0"?>
  <?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="/styles/mathml.xsl"?>
  <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
   
  ... Your stuff here ...
  
  </html>
  

  The style sheet referred to in the first line -- /styles/mathml.xsl is already on Swissnet. If you wish to serve MathML from a different server (or test it offline) you need to install appropriate style sheets. You'll need four of them, which you can snarf from W3C: mathml.xsl, pmathml.xsl, ctop.xsl and pmathmlcss.xsl. Place these in a directory on your server and make the xsl-stylesheet for MathML pages you serve point to the mathml.xsl file. For more information, see the W3C note:Putting mathematics on the Web with MathML

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="/styles/mathml.xsl"?>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<head>
<title>Simple MathML Example</title>
</head>

<body>
Here is some presentation MathML --

<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML">
<mi>x</mi><mo>+</mo><mn>3</mn><mo>+</mo><mi>y</mi>
</math>

<p/>

Here is some content MathML --
<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML">
<apply>
<fn><ci>f</ci></fn>
  <ci>x</ci>
</apply>
</math>

1. Starting at the Fonts for MathML-enabled Mozilla page, download the Tex CM type1 fonts from AMS, and also the Linux Mathematica 4.1 Type 1 PCF fonts. Each up these should produce a gzipped tar file. Uncompress and untar the files. You should end up with two directories, PCF and cmpsfont.

2. The cmpsfont directory has a subdirectory called pfb. Change (cd) into that directory and run the command

   type1inst
   

   What this is doing is creating a fonts.dir file that indexes the fonts in that directory.

3. Create a new directory named math-fonts somewhere (e.g., in an appropriate temporary place) and move cmpsfont/pfb into that directory, renaming it to cmtex-pfb:

   mv cmpsfont/pfb directory-where-math-fonts-is/math-fonts/cmtex-pfb
   

4. Now go into the PCF directory and run type1inst. Then move the PCF directory into math-fonts, renaming it to mathematica-pcf.

   mv PCF directory-where-math-fonts-is/math-fonts/mathematica-pcf
   

5. math-fonts is the fonts package. Scan it to make sure it looks OK and that the permissions are set correctly. Use the package as described above to complete the installation of fonts for GNU/Linux.