Evolving Math Web Standards from a Usability Perspective

What is MathJax?

A rendering solution for mathematics on the web.
Turns TeX-like, Asciimath, and MathML into, e.g.,
$$x=\frac{-b\pm \sqrt{b^2-4ac}}{2a}\text{.}$$

For example, on
and a publisher's website near you.

Who is MathJax?

• Joint Venture of AMS and SIAM and our sponsors.
• Davide Cervone, Volker Sorge, Peter Krautzberger, and contributors
• Our users
  

The web as a new medium

20 years of web ≈ 100 years of printing press

The web as a new raw material

Aus dem Paradies, das Berners-Lee uns geschaffen, soll uns niemand vertreiben können.

• Early web: crudely immitates old media
• Around HTML5 the web became the universal medium
• Search for its grain
• For math & science: only MathML

The Semantic Enrichment Project I

Exploring the web's grain for math & science.
Improve fluidity and universality of math rendering on the web.

• Fluidity: Responsive Equations
• Universality: Accessible math rendering

The Semantic Enrichment Project II

Enriching MatHML using procedural heuristics

1. Produce a "Semantic Tree"
2. Tightly intertwined with the original MathML
3. But embeddedable in any MathML rendering.

Builds upon on work by Sorge et. al. at Google Research.

Time for Demos

Responsive rendering:
Document fragment
Live TeX input
Accessibility tool:
Summary
Demo

What we learned

1. MathJax's mission: eliminate yourself!
• Push supply of technologies by generating demand.
• We failed wrt MathML in browsers.
• More and more tools have been enabled.
2. We suggest a pragmatic bottom-up approach instead.
   • Improve well-supported standards incrementally.
   • Make life easier for existing rendering solutions.
   • Build on this experience.

Thank you.