MathML 3 review

Hi folks,

I have made quick review of MathML 3.0 (http://www.w3.org/TR/MathML3/)
and there are my comments related to ITS:

- MathML allows foreign attributes almost everywhere, so it is possible
to use local ITS markup within MathML

- MathML allows foreign elements inside general annotations framwork
(http://www.w3.org/TR/MathML3/chapter5.html#mixing.semantic.annotations),
inside annotation-xml element, so it is possible to store global rules
inside it

So for, so good. But I think that MathML has some areas which should be
improved.

In general MathML provides markup for mathematical expressions which
usually are not translated. But there is element called mtext, which can
contain arbitrary text that is part of math expression:

http://www.w3.org/TR/MathML3/chapter3.html#presm.mtext

There are several problems with mtext:

- although MathML defines dir attribute for directionality on several
elements, dir is not allowed on mtext

- schema disallows attributes from XML namespace on mtext, so it is not
possible to use xml:lang on mtext

- there is no generic inline element (something like span in HTML) which
can be used inside mtext to markup changes in directionality, language
or other local ITS categories

If no one objects, I think that we should send inquiry to MathML WG
asking for

1. adding dir to mtext
2. allowing xml:lang on mtext
3. adding child element to mtext which can contain dir, xml:lang and any
number of other foreign attributes (e.g. ITS local markup).

Any comments or additions?

					Jirka

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  Jirka Kosek      e-mail: jirka@kosek.cz      http://xmlguru.cz
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