The notation of mathematics has constantly evolved with the appearance of new concepts and ideas. Modern mathematical notation is the result of centuries of refinement. As a result of this, the sophisticated symbols with which we write mathematics pose certain problems when bringing them onto printed paper. Publishing mathematics is a difficult task simply because mathematics do not lend themselves easily to publication.
Recently, the advances in Internet publishing, following the Internet expansion, have added a new dimension to mathematical publishing. New problems as well as new requirements must be dealt with. We want the Internet not only to be a medium for displaying mathematics around the world, but also a communications tool for transmitting them.
How can we ensure that mathematics published on a web page are reusable? Editable? The outputs of one application should be displayed on the Internet in a way humans can understand and other applications can reuse. But because there is a distinction between presenting mathematical objects, and transmitting their content, merging both into one notation to achieve this duality is a non-trivial task.
In order to fully understand the motivations of this project, as well as appreciating its outcome, it is important to carefully illustrate any related issues. We will look into the development of mathematical publishing and how it has evolved with the growth of the Internet. This will permit us to better understand the need for mathematical representation standards such as MathML and OpenMath which we shall introduce. Finally we will talk about the relation between these standards, the existing software supporting them, and their future.
With such an overview of the current situation, the necessity of a MathML to OpenMath interface for REDUCE will become clear.