[Axiom-mail] Re: Axiom and OpenMath/MathMl

[Bill Page]

On Thu, 5 Dec 2002 21:23:18 -0800 (PST) C Y
<address@hidden> wrote:

> ... 
> I have some slight confusion here - my understanding was
> that OpenMath wasn't interface related so much as it is
> a tool for communication between different systems.  If
> your question is GUI work vs. communication work, I'd
> most definitely say GUI first.  Presentation MathML as
> an output format makes a lot of sense to support, since
> it is/will be a standard for math display in modern
> browsers, but otherwise I'd say wait on inter-system
> communication issues until Axiom itself is a reasonably
> stable, functioning package with a decent GUI.

My take is that OpenMath is the semantic layer between
a program (e.g. Axiom) and the presentation layer *or*
another program. Of course one need not separately define
such a semantic layer if the goal is only presentation.
But the OpenMath content dictionaries already exist which
map between OpenMath and LaTex or OpenMath and MathML. In
this direction it is mostly a matter of "forgetting" some
of the semantics. And there are maps to several other
programs. If one implements this intermediate semantic
layer, than their are a lot of (potential) options
available.
 
> This is more or less the approach the Maxima project
> is taking, so I admit I'm biased.  I guess it depends
> on what the potential user base desires.
> 

Since Maxima is also an open source project, it seems
appropriate to discuss it a little here. What more can
you say about the current Maxima approach?

Regards,
Bill Page.