(last updated 2007-08-17) Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1999 16:45:45 -0800 (PST) From: "Kenneth R. Brownfield" To: iana&iana.org, kenb&wolfram.com Subject: Request for MIME media type Application/IETF Tree -mathematica Name : Kenneth R. Brownfield E-mail : kenb&wolfram.com MIME media type name : Application MIME subtype name : IETF Tree -mathematica Required parameters : A required version parameter must be specified. The value of the version parameter should be in one of the following forms: . and are digits. Examples of valid values for the version parameter include: 2 2.2 3 4 Optional parameters : An optional filename parameter may be specified. Encoding considerations : All the necessary information in Mathematica notebooks is represented in text format, usually ASCII. Whenever possible, Mathematica notebooks should be transmitted with the 7-bit encoding mechanism. Notebooks created with version 2.x of Mathematica may contain 8-bit characters, which should be transmitted using the quoted-printable mechanism. Version 2.x notebooks may also have a binary portion (see COMMENTS section), which should be transmitted with base64 or another suitable encoding scheme. Security considerations : Mathematica notebooks can contain "initialization cells", which are intended by the notebook's author to be evaluated by a Mathematica kernel when the notebook is opened. The Mathematica front end, the primary viewer of Mathematica notebooks, provides an option to have a notebook's initialization cells automatically evaluated without prompting the user. This option is OFF by default. Since Mathematica can run external programs on some computers, and can effect the filesystems on all computers, users of the Mathematica front end are strongly encouraged to disable the option to automatically evaluate initialization cells when receiving potentially unsafe Mathematica notebooks. Whenever possible, MathReader, a read-only notebook viewer, should be used to view notebooks that are potentially unsafe. No security risks are present when MathReader is used to view notebooks. Interoperability considerations : Published specification : The published file format specification is available in "The Mathematica Book", an extensive guide to Mathematica written by Stephen Wolfram. Applications which use this media : Two known applications that are aware of this media type are "Mathematica", and the read-only "MathReader" notebook viewer, both made by Wolfram Research, Inc.. Additional information : 1. Magic number(s) : 2. File extension(s) : .nb,.ma,.mb 3. Macintosh file type code : Creator: OMEG Type: ttxt Valid Mathematica version 3 and 4 notebooks only contain 7-bit ASCII characters. All 8-bit content is encoded to and decoded from a 7-bit format. Mathematica version 2 notebooks are created in two "portions": the text portion which contains all of the notebook's necessary information, and the binary portion which facilitates fast loading of the notebook. On non-Macintosh computers, the text portion of a notebook is stored in a file with a ".mb" extension. On Macintosh computers, the text portion is stored in the file's data fork and the binary portion is stored in the file's resource fork. Person to contact for further information : 1. Name : Wolfram Research, Inc. 2. E-mail : info&wolfram.com Intended usage : Common Author/Change controller : Wolfram Research, Inc. 100 Trade Center Drive Champaign, IL 61820-7237