Just joined the group

Hello,

I've just joined the group, and I'm wondering whether there are any 
ongoing activities.  The most recent post seems to be back in 2012!

I work on instructional delivery platforms, and I'm constantly dismayed 
by the huge gap in function between what can be delivered on the web 
(HTML, SVG, JavaScript, perhaps MathML if you're lucky), and the 
capabilities of "real" applications (Photoshop, Excel, Word, Premiere, 
World of Warcraft, Halo, etc.).  Education is a domain where this gap is 
most pronounced, since we're constrained to deliver things ONLY through 
browsers (universal access).

My interest in this group's area is in finding/creating tools that can 
present graphs and charts without losing their semantic meaning in the 
process.  I'm more focused on the authoring and presentation of the data 
than on its accessibility right now, but I understand the importance of 
that aspect.

Here's my main "wants"...

    - I want extensions to SVG to allow authors to create graphs and 
charts declaratively, including:
         - Elements that represents a chart or graph (bar chart, line 
chart, etc)
         - A way to provide spreadsheet-like data sets that can serve as 
data for charts
         - Declarative specification of chart titles, layout, legend 
style and placement
         - CSS styling of all chart elements
         - All semantic information should be preserved - a 
screen-reader should be able to interpret a chart and render it in 
speech like "a bar chart, titled Student Achievement, with vertical axis 
labeled Score (percent), and seven bars.  Bar 1 is labeled Grade 3, and 
has height 72.  Bar 2 is labeled Grade 4, and has height 75, ..."

     - I want to be able to generate graphs of mathematical functions, 
like "y = sin( pi + e^x )"
         - Declarative control of axis, axis labels, tick marks, and 
grid lines
         - Ability to specify the domain over which to plot
         - Piecewise functions (different function over different 
domains) including single points
         - Control over number of intervals to use to draw a graph (more 
intervals for smoother curve)
         - Optional markers at specified points on graph
         - This will require the ability to specify the mathematical 
functions and expressions - MathML Content Markup or a generalized 
expression language?
         - Need to plot multiple functions at the same time and define 
styled fills above, below, or between curves
         - Parametric curves
         - Implicit curves (like "x^2 + y^2 = 6")

     - I want to be able to do polar plots
         - CSS translations are currently all linear transformations 
representable as matrices
         - Polar coordinate transformation is nonlinear - how to 
establish polar coordinate frame?
         - This will support polar function plots and pie/doughnut charts.
         - Parametric polar curves and implicit curves
         - Styled fills for areas inside, outside, or between polar curves

     - I want to be able to provide user control
         - Embed controls (sliders, entry boxes) in the surrounding HTML 
(or possibly in the SVG itself)
         - Allow the user to control parameters and adjust the plot and 
see results in real-time
         - An HTML table should be able to serve as the data source for 
plots so a user can view or edit data.

     - I also want 3-d surface plots, but I think that's stretching 
things beyond what SVG can hope to provide.  X3D may be a better venue 
for that effort.

At the moment, I'm building these things in a higher-level XML document 
that then gets rendered into SVG.  I can author the charts and generate 
the images, but all the semantic information is lost in the process.  
I'm surprised that W3C is not seeing this as equal in importance to 
something like MathML.

I look forward to learning what else is happening, and contributing 
where I can!

Best regards,
Dr. Steve Benoit

Special Assistant Professor
Department of Mathematics
Colorado State University
benoit@math.colostate.edu