Re: ***MATH***

On Tue, 16 Jul 1996, Lineaer Algebraiker wrote:

> > Is it really a standard you want, or some software that supports
> > math functionality?
> 
> First and foremost I want the STANDARD!!! Then, when thats established, I want 
> software (anything that runs on Unix/Linux, and, of course, Netscape) that 
> supports the standard. If I only wanted "software that supports math 
> functionality" then I could have stayed with Arena, or done a number of other 
> stupid things that ensured that I was the only one that could read my web 
> pages... (They're in Norwegian already, so I feel no need to decrease my 
> potential audience any further ;-)
> 
Personally I would be happy with an assurance that Arena will be
maintained, maybe by the group in Japan that seems interested, I am
perfectly prepared to tell any visitors to my pages that they have to get
Arena or udiWWW or else go away.


> I ***DON'T*** want plug-ins, inline gifs or what-have-you. latex2html does 
> that job more than well enough (sorry Ping, but your stuff is useless to me 
> because of this, as far as I could see).
> 
Plug-ins in particular are a particularly bad idea, <math> is mainstream,
and should be supported by browsers. Have plug-ins for silly amimations by
all means, but <math> is too important for this.


> HTML3.0 worked just fine for my purposes, except that noone supported it in 
> the end; I didn't quite understand what people had against it.
> 
> It is *very* frustrating to have to sit and wait aroud so long for a standard 
> I have no real influence on. Could we at least have some dates? Will my 
> grandchildren be able to code math directly in html?;-(
> 
> I just hope the end-product uses some experience from LaTeX, which every 
> mathematician knows is the only sensible way to write mathematics. <fear>Or 
> does MS's membership in W3C mean that we'll get something based on <yuck>
> Word</yuck>?</fear> 

Well I think Mathematica and Maple are part of this, basically it is their
participation which seems to have stopped the current development.

> 
> Whilst I'm at it, why not just add a new tag or two:
> <latex><text>here I can write all the math I want...<text>\int^\alpha_\beta 
> \sin x dx</latex>?
> 

> alternative to the W3C, which, after all, functions far from ideally from my 
> point of view?
> 
Yes, (sorry I lost the top of this) but if there were an alternative to
W3C which concentrated on serious rather than commercial issues, then I
would be prepared to put some effort in.


> -- 
> James Ø. Baum
> MA104 Lineær Algebra Fjernundervisningsprosjektet -
> MA104 Linear Algebra 'Open University Project' - Oslo, Norway
> http://www.math.uio.no/~ma104/	#include <standard/disclaimer>
> 
> 

Dave Carter

Received on Tuesday, 16 July 1996 12:28:40 UTC