Richard,
I've never said that I want to use MathML (or any other XML
languages for mathematics) as an alternative input syntax (anyway MathML
is too verbose for humans). I want to use it nor as a format to save
Maxima sessions neither as an internal representation of objects. I
simply want to allow people, even casual users of Maxima, to re-use
mathematical objects. Basically, the purpose is to build a bridge
between the internal world of Maxima (where the user applies algorithms
and functions to several kinds of objects, changes configuration, sets
variables values etc) and the external world (XHTML pages & ODT
documents, results from Mathematica or Maple, etc).
For instance, suppose you read a Web article where a matrix of size
5x5 appears and the author directly gives the characteristic polynomial
without detail. Then there is several possibilities if you want to check
the result:
- Using Maxima. Enter the matrix and execute the function to get the
characteristic polynomial. But if you do not know the Maxima syntax, you
have to search the function in the help etc
- Using Maxima+GUI (for instance WXmaxima). Use the menu to enter
the matrix and get the characteristic polynomial. Here, the more
difficult is to enter the 25 coefficients...
- Using Maxima+GUI+(MathML package) Copy the matrix from your
browser and paste it in Maxima. Then use the menu to apply function that
returns the characteristic polynomial.
(Similarly, you can imagine that the author has copy and paste the
characteristic polynomial from Maxima to its Web page editor)
Fr?d?ric