RE: MathML-in-HTML5

 
I'm not sure why David thinks "<math xmlns="...">...</math>" will work
in IE7.x.  David, did Bill tell you something in your morning call with
him :-)  Putting the namespace on the math tag doesn't work in the
release candidate for IE7 and it isn't something that MathPlayer has any
control over.  IE's behavior mechanism wants to see a prefix on the tag
to trigger it.  The following will work in IE6 and IE7:

  <m:math xmlns:m="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML">
    <m:mfrac>
      <m:mn>y</m:mn>
      <m:mi>x</m:mi>
    </m:mfrac>
  </m:math>

That only works if the document header contains:

<html xmlns:m="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML">
 <head>
  <OBJECT ID=MathPlayer
   CLASSID="clsid:32F66A20-7614-11D4-BD11-00104BD3F987"></OBJECT>
  <?IMPORT NAMESPACE="m" IMPLEMENTATION="#MathPlayer"?>
 </head>

If HTML5 ignores the xmlns:m="..." on the <html> tag and the other
elements, then I think we would have a cross-browser solution.  Mozilla
should (of course) allow the other (more correct) MathML forms.  The
main point is that a cross platform solution would exist and the those
who wish to put math on the web would find it much easier to do so.

Neil Soiffer
Senior Scientist
Design Science, Inc.
neils@dessci.com
www.dessci.com
~ Makers of Equation Editor, MathType, MathPlayer and MathFlow ~
 



-----Original Message-----
From: www-math-request@w3.org [mailto:www-math-request@w3.org] On Behalf
Of Roger B. Sidje
Sent: Wednesday, October 11, 2006 9:44 AM
To: Ian Hickson
Cc: White Lynx; www-math@w3.org
Subject: Re: MathML-in-HTML5


On 12/10/2006 2:25 AM, Ian Hickson wrote:
> 
> Given how little the namespace-prefix syntax has taken off, and the 
> number of people who are confused by namespace syntax of any kind, and

> the large amount of content on the Web that uses namespace-like syntax

> in a way that would break renderings if it was interpreted according 
> to namespace-like parsing rules, however, I would strongly recommend 
> against any sort of namespace-based parsing extensions to HTML. As I 
> mentioned before, I've worked with an implementor in the past who 
> tried to do this, and they ended up wasting months of intense work 
> trying to be compatible with the large amounts of legacy content 
> before eventually backing out the whole thing and ignoring namespaces
in text/html content.

I can technically restrict the implementation to only support the plain
<math>...</math>, while authors will effectively use <math
xmlns="...">...</math> for IE+MathPlayer. (That is, Mozilla wouldn't
actually require the xmlns attribute for the MathML rendering to kick
in. Authors only put the attribute there for interoperability.) The
issues now become:
- can  IE+MathPlayer be made to at least support <math
xmlns="...">...</math>? (from David's recent post, it seems possible in
IE7.x?)
- what is the implication for HTML5? Just one of those random attributes
that people put in their HTML document? (which wll be fine with me,
BTW).
- what about generators that emit prefixed tags?
---
RBS

Received on Wednesday, 11 October 2006 17:18:06 UTC