Configuring your Unix Web browser to use Mathematica

Most Unix Web browsers use .mailcap files to associate file types with particular applications. When a file is downloaded from a Web server, it has associated with it a MIME type. The .mailcap file contains a mapping from these MIME types to the applications that are used to interpret the files.

The MIME type for a Mathematica notebook is application/mathematica, the corresponding application is, of course, Mathematica. These are combined to form a line in the .mailcap file that reads:

    application/mathematica; mathematica %s

The %s represents the name of the file where the downloaded information is stored. After inserting this line in the .mailcap file in your home directory, restart the browser. Now, when a Mathematica notebook is downloaded from a properly configured server, Mathematica will automatically be started with the downloaded file as its current notebook.