Mathematics and equations on the WWW

One of the ironies of the World Wide Web (WWW or simply the Web) is that even though it was initially conceived and implemented for use by physicists, it provided no special capabilities for mathematics and equations. With the release and widespread support of XML (extensible markup language) and the development of MathML, Web pages not only can display mathematics and equations in TeX-like fashion, but, beyond that, retain the meaning of the equations so that they can be opened and processed by a variety of mathematical software applications. The Web thus can expand the scope of its inherent intense interactivity to include equations and mathematics, as well as text and multimedia.