Re: [Texmacs-dev] Re: [Axiom-developer] RE: [xml-litprog-l] Re:noweb, pamphlets, and TeXmacs

[William Sit]

Martin RUBEY wrote:
> 
> > Quite how useful graphical manipulation of mathematics is is
> > questionable, but the ability to select/cut/paste sub-expressions in a
> > graphical environment does seem important to me.
> 
> kdvi just started to make "select" possible. Well, started...

Even so, this is probably display (or word-processor type) cut and
paste. My guess is it would be meaningless to pass a (sub)expression
from a dvi display to say Mathematica or Axiom. To cut and paste an
output expression to an input window and have the expression make
mathematical sense so further computation can be done on it requires
MathML (both presentation and (at least) content are passed). This is
easy for a single computer algebra system (Derive had this years ago),
but to do so across different systems needs a common protocol, and
MathML or OpenML are partial solutions. A TeX expression does not have
an unambiguous mathematical meaning. MathML tags define a unique
mathematical meaning to a subclass of mathematical expression. In some
sense, all the operations involved in a mathematical expression must be
identified by their signatures and operands by their domains. Since
Axiom is strongly typed, it is probably a good candidate to include the
signatures and domain information along with the display information.
But of course, this is again "within-one-CAS-system" approach because
other systems would not understand Axiom signatures. So what would be
needed is a common naming conventions (signatures and domains) for a
large class of mathematical operations and objects. The design of MathML
and OpenML are influenced a lot by Mathematica. Perhaps the next
generation could be influenced by Axiom?

William
-- 
William Sit
Department of Mathematics..............Email: address@hidden
City College of New York..........................Tel: 212-650-5179
Convent Ave at West 138th Street..................Fax: 212-862-0004
New York, NY 10031.....Asian Symposium on Computer Mathematics 2003
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