Re: ["William F. Hammond" <hammond@csc.albany.edu>: listmail W3C-MATH-ERB]

I suppose most everybody in the HTML Math-erb read the EMJ list too,
but if not, here is a recent posting by Hammond that further
illuminates his message to us.

Robert

>EMJs may want to consider presenting articles for screen viewing
>as layered hypertext.  One reason would be that an author might
>want it.  Another reason would be that the EMJ might want to put
>up layered hypertext for free and reserve a flat easily-printable
>form for paid subscribers.  (Yes, the layers could be printed up
>but in a rather messy way.  The economics of this are parallel to
>those of taping recorded music off the air against purchase of the
>published recording.  The published form is better, and those who
>can afford it will buy it.  In the EMJ case the free layered form,
>if well constructed, would be better for screen viewing than the
>flat form.)
>
>Somewhat related:
>
>In connection with the subject of graphic inclusions in DVIs Hans
>Hagen had raised privately the question of whether there was any
>mechanism for including DVI in DVI.  (The web is beginning with
>"frames" to consider recursive HTML.)  I have not seen any such thing
>for DVI.  Has anyone?
>
>This raises in my mind the question of pageless, headless, footless,
>marginless TeX and DVI.  Of course, if such a thing makes any sense,
>it should also have at least formal standalone existence.
>
>I think that the mathematical community needs for the sake of its
>public relations to be able to show semi-formal typeset mathematics to
>a very wide audience (the generic member of which does not have DVI
>rendering).  HTML-math might be the vehicle for this if popular
>browsers ever pick it up.
>
>Whatever the vehicle I think that we should be trying to standardize
>a narrow dialect of LaTeX (maybe also a narrow dialect of TeX) that
>could be simply auto-processed to the vehicle.
>
>It might be optimal for Math Reviews under MathSciNet.  As it is, most
>of our deans cannot read our reviews.
>
>                                   -- Bill