Re: The MathML documentation is broken

Dear Thomas,

I think you will have more success by sending your comments to the 
www-math@w3.org mailing list where MathML is maintained. Have you 
already tried to contact the authors or that list? It is archived 
here:

http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-math/

At 3:59 PM +0200 5/12/04, Thomas Fischbacher wrote:
>If a MathML newbie like me has a very specific problem, such as
>auto-generating XML code to display formulae with lots of overbars and
>such in them, then _certain_ pages such as
>
>http://www.w3.org/Math/testsuite/testsuite/Presentation/TokenElements/mo/moAaccent10.xml
>
>are - to state it mildly - less than helpful by lying about what's going on.
>
>We see on this page (if viewed with a MathML enabled browser) a formula
>with a few overbars in it, and below a block of XML code that claims to be
>the source for that formula. Alas, it is not.
>
>Rather, the math part is:
>
>       <mrow>
>         <mover>
>           <mrow>
>             <mi>G</mi>
>             <mo>-</mo>
>             <mn>1</mn>
>           </mrow>
>           <mo accent="false">&#x000AF;</mo>
>         </mover>
>         <mo accent="false">+</mo>
>         <mover accent="true">
>           <mrow>
>             <mi>G</mi>
>             <mo>-</mo>
>             <mn>1</mn>
>           </mrow>
>           <mo accent="false">&#x000AF;</mo>
>         </mover>
>         <mo accent="true">+</mo>
>         <mover accent="false">
>           <mrow>
>             <mi>G</mi>
>             <mo>-</mo>
>             <mn>1</mn>
>           </mrow>
>           <mo accent="false">&#x000AF;</mo>
>         </mover>
>       </mrow>
>     </math>
>
>and the text claims the math part to be:
>
>     <pre>
>     &lt;math>
>       &lt;mrow>
>         &lt;mover>
>           &lt;mrow>
>             &lt;mi>G&lt;/mi>
>             &lt;mo>-&lt;/mo>
>             &lt;mn>1&lt;/mn>
>           &lt;/mrow>
>           &lt;mo accent='false'>&amp;OverBar;&lt;/mo>
>         &lt;/mover>
>         &lt;mo accent='false'>+&lt;/mo>
>         &lt;mover accent='true'>
>           &lt;mrow>
>             &lt;mi>G&lt;/mi>
>             &lt;mo>-&lt;/mo>
>             &lt;mn>1&lt;/mn>
>           &lt;/mrow>
>           &lt;mo accent='false'>&amp;OverBar;&lt;/mo>
>         &lt;/mover>
>         &lt;mo accent='true'>+&lt;/mo>
>         &lt;mover accent='false'>
>           &lt;mrow>
>             &lt;mi>G&lt;/mi>
>             &lt;mo>-&lt;/mo>
>             &lt;mn>1&lt;/mn>
>           &lt;/mrow>
>           &lt;mo accent='false'>&amp;OverBar;&lt;/mo>
>         &lt;/mover>
>       &lt;/mrow>
>     &lt;/math>
>   </pre>
>
>Please notice that the displayed text claims that the XML source uses
>
>          <mo accent='false'>&OverBar;</mo>
>
>while indeed, it _does_ use
>
>           <mo accent="false">&#x000AF;</mo>
>
>Not only that the documentation makes obviously false claims here -
>which is a sin by itself - the &OverBar; construction does _not_ work with
>e.g. the Mozilla version in Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 (Woody).
>
>
>Now, wouldn't it be much simpler, better, nicer, easier, and more
>reliable to auto-generate the "Source is ..." part from the XML math code?
>After all, if XML is such a hot thing, this should be no big issue at
>all, right?
>
>--
>regards,               tf@cip.physik.uni-muenchen.de              (o_
>  Thomas Fischbacher -  http://www.cip.physik.uni-muenchen.de/~tf  //\
>(lambda (n) ((lambda (p q r) (p p q r)) (lambda (g x y)           V_/_
>(if (= x 0) y (g g (- x 1) (* x y)))) n 1))                  (Debian GNU)


-- 
Susan Lesch           http://www.w3.org/People/Lesch/
mailto:lesch@w3.org               tel:+1.858.483.4819
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)    http://www.w3.org/

Received on Thursday, 20 May 2004 15:19:24 UTC