RE: MathML won't display (or: what triggers mathplayer behaviour?)

Hi Jacques,

There isn't a direct connection between the charset and the XML tree.
But just as IE doesn't seem to always follow the rules for determining
the encoding, it also does not play by the rules for determining the
MIME type (as I'm sure you know).  

The XML tree shows up when IE doesn't believe the http header's
declaration that the MIME type is application/xhtml+xml and doesn't
start up MathPlayer.  Somewhere later on, it must realize the document
is XML at least, since it displays the tree.  But at the point it is
supposed to invoke MathPlayer if the MIME type is application/xhtml+xml,
the call never comes, at least as far as I can determine by setting a
breakpoint in the relevant routine in the debugger.

We had been experimenting with the charset parameter, on the hypothesis
that somehow that might be preventing IE from recognizing the MIME
declaration in the http header. But it doesn't seem to.  Mostly it seems
like if the document is dynamically generated, so there isn't a file
name in the http header, IE just sniffs the content and get's it wrong
for purposes of firing off MathPlayer.  At least that is what the
experimental evidence seems to suggest to me.

I thought perhaps Richard's comment about the BOM meant that if there
was a BOM, suddenly IE's sniffer did the right thing and recognized the
content as application/xhtml+xml and fired up MathPlayer.  But I guess
not.

--Robert

Robert Miner
Director, New Product Development

Design Science, Inc.
140 Pine Avenue, 4th Floor
Long Beach, California  90802
USA
Tel:  (651) 223-2883
Fax:  (651) 292-0014
robertm@dessci.com
www.dessci.com
~ Makers of MathType, MathFlow, MathPlayer, WebEQ, Equation Editor,
TexAide ~


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jacques Distler [mailto:distler@golem.ph.utexas.edu]
> Sent: Tuesday, May 29, 2007 10:19 AM
> To: Robert Miner
> Cc: R.W.Kaye@bham.ac.uk; www-math@w3.org; William F. Hammond
> Subject: Re: MathML won't display (or: what triggers mathplayer
> behaviour?)
> 
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> 
> On May 29, 2007, at 9:33 AM, Robert Miner wrote:
> 
> > So does the byte order mark solve the problem in all the situations
> > you know of?  It would be great if it really was that simple?
> 
> Depends on what "the problem" is.
> 
> MSIE (both 6 and 7) does not, under some circumstances, respect the
> established rules for setting the encoding of the document. Instead,
> it tries to sniff the encoding, a procedure that probably does not
> play well with the MathPlayer plugin. See, e.g. this discussion:
> 
>      http://annevankesteren.nl/2005/02/charset#comment-3167
> 
> That, as far as I can tell, does not have anything to do with the "IE7
> +MathPlayer shows an XML document tree"  problem.
> 
> Or, if it does, no one has explained the connection to me.
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Received on Tuesday, 29 May 2007 15:49:27 UTC