Re: The problems with namespaces in text/html

Jacques Distler <distler@golem.ph.utexas.edu> writes:

> As to namespaces, looking at the output of itex2MML, there are two
> places where namespaces are used.
>
> 1) There's a
>        <math xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML'>...</math>.
>    The MathML elements themselves are un-prefixed.
> 2) Hyperlinks in MathML are <mrow>s with XLink attributes:
>        <mrow xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
>            xlink:type="simple" xlink:href="..."> ... </mrow>
>
> Clearly, if presentational MathML elements are added to HTML5, the
> first can safely be ignored (as namespaces are currently ignored).

Yes, the xmlns in math should be safely ignorable in HTML5.

> The second is more of an issue. Substituting an (X)HTML <a> element
> seems likely to do nasty things to the layout.

Regarding links from inside math: I think the most interoperable
approach is to allow HTML <a> elements inside <mtext>.  Beyond that I
would like to see the HTML elements <a>, <em>, and <b> (or <strong>)
incorporated in the XHTML+MathML document type definition as elements
that are allowed in <mtext>.

These things have actually been working in Mozilla when the <mtext>
element has an xmlns attribute flagging it for the HTML namespace.
But this namespace artifice has not been interoperable with
MathPlayer.  See
http://math.albany.edu/math/pers/hammond/G/Math/mtextWithABem.xhtml

                                    -- Bill

Received on Monday, 9 October 2006 16:43:04 UTC