- </div>
- <br>
- The MathQL proposal rises in the context of the <a
- href="http://helm.cs.unibo.it/">HELM project</a>, which aims at the
-development of a suitable technology for the creation and maintenance
-of a virtual, distributed, hypertextual library of structured mathematical
- knowledge based on <a href="http://www.w3.org/XML/">XML</a> technology,
-through the integration of the current proof assistants and logical frameworks
-with the most recent technologies for the development of Web applications
-and electronic publishing.<br>
+ </div>
+ <br>
+ The MathQL proposal rises in the context of the <a
+ href="http://helm.cs.unibo.it/">HELM project</a>, which aims at the development
+of a suitable technology for the creation and maintenance of a virtual,
+distributed, hypertextual library of structured mathematical knowledge
+based on <a href="http://www.w3.org/XML/">XML</a> technology, through the
+ integration of the current proof assistants and logical frameworks with
+the most recent technologies for the development of Web applications and
+electronic publishing.<br>
+ <br>
+ The objective of the MathQL proposal is the development
+of a set of query languages enabling the retrieval of formalized mathematical
+ Web resources on the basis of content-aware requests. The first of these
+ languages, <b>MathQL-1</b>, is focused on querying an arbitrary
+ <a href="http://www.w3.org/RDF/">RDF</a> database because RDF is
+the <a href="http://www.w3.org/">W3C</a> standard for describing
+ Web resources at the general-purpose content level.<br>
+ <br>
+ As an RDF query language, MathQL-1 provides the main features
+ required by the RDF community while complying with the needs of HELM.
+ The peculiar aspects of this language concern the query results,
+which are highly structured and possess their own syntax, formally
+explained by a rigorous semantics.<br>
+ <br>
+ MathQL-1 is particularly helpful in distributed systems
+where query engines are implemented as stand-alone units, because
+in this situation the query results are exchanged between the system
+components as well as the queries, and thus both the queries and the query
+results need to be encoded in a clearly defined format.<br>