Re: [MathML4] Deprecation/Removal of the mfenced element

On 26/07/2016 20:11, Daniel Marques wrote:
> I also like the "mfenced". Vertical stretchies with <mo> are difficult to
> understand from the point of view of someone who uses a formula editor.
> What people understands when editing is that an open and close parenthesis
> grows according to what's inside. Thus, for people who do editors, the
> preferred feature is the mfenced.
>
> There is also a VERY important aspect which is BACKWARD COMPATIBILITY.
> There are plenty of formulas that use mfenced. Both Microsoft Word and
> WIRIS (I'm not able to test MathType at this moment) use the mfenced tag
> for stretchy parenthesis.
>
> Losing backward compatibility will result that a lot of formulas stop
> working. This would yield a lack of trust on the MathML specification.
> Please do not commit that mistake!
>
> Dani
>
>

I don't think we should remove (or even deprecate) anything but if there
are features that can be omitted from a profile that makes it easier to
get mathml into browsers I'm certainly open to discuss that.

especially cases that could easily be polyfilled with some lightweight
javascript as for mfenced->mrow conversion.

If the alternative is not a "full" mathml3 implementation but rather no
native implementation at all, and having to implement the entire
rendering in javacript then some subset profile should I think be
considered even if it complicates the story on compatibility.

I think the question is what's the minimum that need to be added to a
browser's core rendering code that enables a useful subset of mathml to
be rendered directly and the rest via some (relatively) simple
javascript support.

Anyway I encourage Frédéric to keep posting suggestions, certainly
there's no rush to standardise anything at this stage, but keeping track
of what works in practice across webkit and gecko (and hopefully one day
blink and edge) and specifying that at some point, even if that is a
subset of "full" mathml would I think be a useful exercise.

David




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Received on Tuesday, 26 July 2016 22:13:29 UTC