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Illinois D-Lib Testbed: Technologies for Converting Legacy Mathematics for Display on the Web

Learn about the project background, objectives, accomplishments, and challenges in converting legacy math to MathML for web display. Explore the algorithms, transformations, and remaining issues faced in the process. Discover techniques and standards used to ensure quality and consistency in converting mathematical markup.

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Illinois D-Lib Testbed: Technologies for Converting Legacy Mathematics for Display on the Web

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  1. Illinois D-Lib Testbed:Technologies for Converting Legacy Mathematics for Display on the Web Timothy W. Cole Thomas G. Habing William H. Mischo Grainger Engineering Library Information Center University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign http://dli.grainger.uiuc.edu/Publications/MathMLConf/ • thabing@uiuc.edu MathML & Math on the Web

  2. Project Background & Objectives • Funded 1994-98 under DLI-I (NSF, DARPA, & NASA) Continued 1998-2001 under CNRI’s D-Lib Test Suite • Objectives: • Construct Large-Scale, Multipublisher, Markup-Based Full-Text Journal Testbed. • Investigate Processing, Indexing, Normalization, Retrieval, Rendering and Linking. • Study End-User Searching Behavior and Needs. • Testbed contains 60,000 Articles from 50 Journal Titles • Received as SGML (various DTDs); converted to XML • Content & support from AIP, APS, ASCE, IEE, ASM, ACM, Elsevier • Additional support from IEEE, NRL, NTT Learning Systems MathML & Math on the Web

  3. Project Background (cont.) • Accomplishments: • Process & Retrieve from Multiple Publishers & Heterogeneous DTDs. • SGML to XML Conversion. • Metadata Extraction, Representation, Merging. • Dynamic Linking: Forward/Backward, from/to A & I DBs. • Current Investigations: • Mathematics Markup & Rendering Issues • Metadata Harvesting: Replicative & Distributed • E-Journal Archiving • Local Resource Resolution • Asynchronous Searching of Multiple Resources MathML & Math on the Web

  4. Converting Legacy Markup to MathML • Goal: Convert publisher-specific XML math markup to standard presentation MathML • Desired result: can then focus on single rendering solution • Groundrules: • Minimize need for human intervention • Utilize standards-based techniques (e.g., XSLT, JavaScript, DOM) • Embed MathML in full XML document • Validate success of conversion based on quality of presentation • Strive for consistency across MathML viewers • Scope: • E.g. in 17,000 APS articles, > 2.3 M instances of math (100 K block) • http://dli.grainger.uiuc.edu/MathMLStyle/math_sample.htm MathML & Math on the Web

  5. Mathematics Markup Transformations • Identify & translate mathematical character references • Identify & tokenize mathematical content • Recognize & transform mathematical markup (e.g., embellishments, script & limit schemtas, etc.) Presentational MathML <math xmlns=“http://www.w3.org/…”> <msubsup> <mrow><mi>&alpha;</mi></mrow> <mrow><mi>i</mi></mrow> <mrow><mn>2</mn></mrow> </msubsup> </math> ISO 12083 Math <dformula> <g>a</g> <sup>2</sup> <inf>i</inf> </dformula> MathML & Math on the Web

  6. Approach & Algorithim • For each XML document: Identify mathematical nodes (e.g., <dformula>, <formula>) • Recursively apply templates to every child node within mathematical nodes: • Look up entities & special characters and Convert to appropriate MathML characters & tokenize (JavaScript) • Tokenize remaining #PCDATA (JavaScript) • Convert Postfix markup to MathML (e.g., <sup>, <inf>) • Re-tag one-to-one transformations (e.g., <sum>, <ul>, <ll>) • Transformed mathematical nodes (<math>) replace original mathematical nodes in document • Include default namespace attribute MathML & Math on the Web

  7. Approach & Algorithim (cont.) • Illustrative XSLT: <xsl:when test="sup or inf"> <xsl:for-each select="child::node()"> <xsl:choose> <xsl:when test="name(self::node())='sup' and name(following-sibling::node()[1])='inf'"> <xsl:element name="msubsup” namespace=“http://www.w3.org/…”> <xsl:element name="mrow” namespace=“http://www.w3.org/…”> <xsl:apply-templates select="preceding-sibling::node()[1]"/> </xsl:element> <xsl:element name="mrow” namespace=“http://www.w3.org/…”> <xsl:apply-templates select="following-sibling::node()[1]"/> </xsl:element> <xsl:element name="mrow" namespace=“http://www.w3.org/…”> <xsl:apply-templates select="self::node()"/> </xsl:element> </xsl:element> </xsl:when> . . . THERE ARE FOUR MORE CASES TO HANDLE ! MathML & Math on the Web

  8. Remaining Issues • JavaScript from within XSLT • Rely on MS-specific mechanisms to invoke extension functions • Inconsistent Rendering by MathML Viewers • Validating against TechExplorer, Amaya, Mozilla, MS IE (w/ CSS) • Incomplete MathML implementations • Ambiguity & Overuse of <mrow> • Limited impact on appearance • Verbosity -- 60% increase for inline, 15% increase for block • Character / glyph issues • STIX project / Unicode update will provide some relief • Automated Checking for Errors / Problems • Rendering System Performance MathML & Math on the Web

  9. Status • Developing publisher-specific XSLT stylesheets • See sample transformed issue of Physical Review Letters  • XSLT allows us to generate standard MathML from publisher-dependent SGML math markup • Moves customization to pre-processing stage • Allows for single, common rendering solution • MathML can be rendered in some browsers / tools without the need to style (Mozilla, techexplorer, Mathematica) MathML & Math on the Web

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