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1.2.1 Computation

Mathematica contains a large collection of functions for computing in many areas, such as numerics, symbolics, and

graphics. webMathematica makes all of this functionality available over the web.

Many  web  technologies,  so powerful  in  many  areas, are  not  well  suited  to scientific  computation;  it is simply  not

their main focus. Mathematica, on the other hand, is very suitable for scientific computation, and can provide this on

the web.

1.2.2 Interactive Programming Language

Mathematica contains a high level, interactive, functional programming language. It lends itself to rapid prototyping

but can scale up to large intensive computations. These are also advantages for web content generation, since large

sites can be developed with less programmer effort.

1.2.3 Connectivity

Mathematica connects readily to external services, which may be provided by languages such as Java, C, Fortran, or

Perl.  These  services  can  provide  a  data  source  for computations  and  also  take  the  results  from  Mathematica.  It  is

particularly easy to connect to Java via J/Link, a toolkit for integrating Java into Mathematica. More information on

J/Link can be found at http://www.wolfram.com/solutions/mathlink/jlink.

1.2.4 The Mathematica Front End

The Mathematica notebook user  interface (front  end) has long provided the premium  mechanism for working with

the  Mathematica  kernel.  Now,  webMathematica  provides  an  alternative  interface  via  the  web.  Even  in  a  web

environment,  the front end is extremely useful. It is used to typeset mathematics  and render two  and three dimen 

sional  graphical  objects  into  images.  In  addition,  the  front  end  can  generate  notebook  documents  on  the  server  to

send to the client.

1.2.5 Mathematical Typesetting and MathML

Mathematica is a premium system for interactive mathematical typesetting. It is also a powerful system for working

with MathML, which is designed to allow the use and reuse of mathematical and scientific content on the web and

by  other  applications.  One  of  the  improvements  in Mathematica  4.2  is  its enhanced  MathML  functionality.  These

features are a valuable component of webMathematica, which works  well with the increasing number  of tools that

are available for MathML.

1.3 Why a Web Interface?

Some  of  the  benefits  that  a  web  interface  brings  to  Mathematica  include  ease  of  use  and  delivery,  as  well  as  the

large number of web development professionals and the many web technologies.

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