However, browser support for MathML is still important, particularly for accessibility. Most screen readers work by communicating with the browser via natively-implemented accessibility APIs. This is why MathJax passes MathML through to MathML-capable browsers as described in Accessible Pages with MathJax. We are particularly excited about reports of people using MathJax, Internet Explorer, MathPlayer and the screen reader JAWS to read equations in context in a web page. Unfortunately, Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview introduces a bug that prevents this from working!

Internet Explorer 9 is putting a lot of emphasis on HTML5 support, and the good news is that MathML is part of HTML5. All the browser manufacturers, including Microsoft, have pledged to support HTML5, and while this doesn’t automatically lead to universal MathML support, it is still important since whenever MathML is support implemented, it will be done in a standard way. Nonetheless, at the moment, the MathML in HTML5 support MathJax will need to rely on using MathPlayer + IE9 is broken, which is serious step backward.

We have written up details of the bug and are hoping you will help us let Microsoft know how important this is for accessible scientific communication on the web. We have reported the bug, but now we need your help finding ways to tell them it is something people care about.

GitHub’s adoption of MathJax is a strong vote of confidence. GitHub has a vibrant developer community, and we expect the exposure MathJax receives as part of gollum will lead to its use in other significant web applications.

MathJax has previous been integrated with a variety of wiki platforms, but only as a modification to an individual installation. By contrast, gollum incorporates MathJax support directly, so anyone setting up a gollum instance will automatically have math support. To do this efficiently, the GitHub team has made use of a MathJax feature that allows all gollum installations to share a single copy of the MathJax fonts, in this case, hosted on Amazon’s S3 cloud storage service.

MathJax 1.0 contains a number of improvements over earlier beta versions of the software:

• Accessibility features enable magnifying all equations in a page or by zooming in on individual equations. MathJax 1.0 also works together with Design Science’s MathPlayer to interface with other assistive technology such as screen readers, braille displays, and learning disability software.
• A new context menu enables readers to cut and paste math formulas in standard formats into Word and LaTeX documents, computational software such as SAGE, Maple and Mathematica, and many science-related blogs and wikis, including Wikipedia.
• The documentation has been rewritten and much expanded, including information on using MathJax with popular web platforms such as WordPress, Moodle, MediaWiki, and Drupal.
• The MathJax code has been compressed and optimized for faster download and start up times.

There will be two significant changes taking place.  First, we will be introducing three top-level directories to separate the main development line from the released code base, and future side development lines.  Thus, the current repository structure of

/mathjax/...

will become

/trunk/mathjax/...
/tags
/branches

after the change.  Similarly, when 1.0 is available, the released code will be placed in a /tags/mathjax-1.0 directory in the repository.

The second significant change will accommodate both compressed (or ‘minified’) and uncompressed versions of the JavaScript files. The compressed versions will be located in their present locations, while “unpacked” versions of the files in a given directory will be located in an “unpacked” subdirectory.  Thus

/trunk/mathjax/MathJax.js

will be a compressed file with whitespace removed and so on, while the uncompressed version will be located at

/trunk/mathjax/unpacked/MathJax.js

For convenience during development, the code will also be modified so compressed versions of files refer to compressed versions, while the unpacked versions refer to other unpacked files.

Note: Because the font.zip archive also contains some JavaScript files, the changes to accommodate packed and unpacked JavaScript mean that developers will also have to refetch and unzip font.zip to install MathJax 1.0.

Questions should be directed to the MathJax Forums.

We are looking for a highly skilled JavaScript programmer to lead this effort. Requirements include experience with JavaScript API design, JavaScript frameworks, general web technology, and a strong interest in mathematical notation. Knowledge of MathML and accessibility technology are definite plusses.

This is a paid contract position, part-time or full-time. We are also flexible on the length of the commitment. If you are interested, email jobs@mathjax.org.

MathJax uses the same HTML+CSS+fonts display technology for both TeX and MathML , which guarantees the widest possible cross-browser compatibility and uniformity of display.  However, MathJax can also be configured to take advantage of native MathML rendering in browsers with that capability.  Thus MathJax can be used for applications where demanding readers require the performance or additional functionality of native MathML support, without sacrificing the ability to reach a wide audience or imposing browser requirements.  For detailed information about enabling and configuring MathML support, consult the release documentation.

Most MathML 2 presentation markup constructions are implemented in Beta 2.  Some additional support for MathML 2 and MathML 3 is planned over the few months.

In addition to the new MathML functionality, beta 2 introduces a number of additional TeX commands and environments in extension packages such as AMS symbols.  Many bugs have also been fixed since beta 1.

Another significant change in Beta 2 is a major update of the MathJax fonts, largely to facilitate better interoperability with the much anticipated STIX fonts that are expected to be released this year.  Early adopters that have installed MathJax Beta 1 should take note that it is therefore necessary to update both the MathJax fonts and code when upgrading to Beta 2.

If you haven’t seen it yet, we would also like to announce that MathJax now has an official twitter account. You can follow our twitter @MathJax. We will be tweeting more and more as we approach the big 1.0 release, so be sure to follow us there if you want the most up-to-date news on MathJax.

You can also see all of our social media links at the top right of any page, just above the search bar.

“We are very excited to have Project Euclid’s active support. We believe that MathJax will be an excellent technology for low-cost journal publishers, so having Project Euclid’s support will be most welcome, both in terms of dissemination and ensuring MathJax meets the needs of this important constituency” said Robert Miner, MathJax project coordinator.

During the last month or so, the primary development focus has been on bug fixing, and filling in a few gaps in the MathJax TeX support. Going forward, the focus will be on completing support for MathML. The initial phase will add a new display method to pass MathML code through to browsers with native MathML rendering capabilities. This is expected to take a few weeks. The second, longer phase will involve revisiting the HTML+CSS display engine, and extending it to accommodate the additional features in MathML not currently implemented. At present, the HTML+CSS display engine only implements layout features common to both TeX and MathML. This phase is expected to take about 2 months.

In MathJax: a JavaScript-based engine for including TeX and MathML in HTML, lead MathJax programmer Davide Cervone presented an overview of the current development status, and gave a preview of MathML support. The online slides include an “interactive lab” where one can enter TeX or MathML code into a text area, and see the typeset results. The lab also illustrates MathJax’s ability to convert from TeX to MathML, and allows one to interactively experiment with various configuration options. Note that the incomplete MathML support demonstrated in Cervone’s talk is not included in the beta 1 release of MathJax, though it is now available in the development source available from SourceForge.

In MathType, Math Markup, and the Goal of Cut and Paste, project coordinator Robert Miner prognosticated about larger trends on the use of the Web for scientific communication. The argument runs that as technologies such as MathJax enable more people to easily use the Web for math and science communication, the need for easy reusability through copy and paste will grow. By using “smart agents” such as Design Science’s MathType editor that understand many equation formats, copy and paste is already possible in many cases today. Achieving natural copy and paste for equations displayed by MathJax presents some technical challenges, but solving them will also have benefits for accessibility, and other programmatic processing of online content.

Both talks were presented in the MAA Session on Publishing Mathematics on the Web organized by Thomas Leathrum, Bill Hammond, and Kyle Siegrist.