Re: MATH

> You, Lineaer Algebraiker wrote:
> ++ 
> ++ Oblig. Math question:
> ++ Why the <math> - tag at all? I don't mean abolish it, but in some instanc=
> ++ es it =
> ++ 
> ++ can be quite unnecessary and annoying:
> ++ 
> ++   If <math> a &le; b </math> then ...
> ++ 
> ++ should be as valid as
> ++   =
> ++ 
> ++   If a &le; b then ...
> 
> The advantage is that with using <math>, a reader (and also an author)
> can choose a different rendering. For instance, one can choose to
> have the a and b in your example be displayed in italics, while the
> context is normal. The choice would be gone as soon as you leave out
> the <math>. 
> 
> 
> Abigail 
> 

I agree with you there, and was aware of the issue, but I still maintain that 
the author should be given the opportunity to omit the <math> tags around 
'math symbols' such as &le; - definitely not all uses of this symbol are in 
mathematical contexts - imagine the rendering from a speech synthesizer which 
makes the audience aware of the fact that this is math markup as opposed to 
regular text.
Another good example are the greek letters:(how would your stylesheet render 
this?!):
<math>&alpha; &beta; &gamma; </math> are the first letters of the greek 
alphabet and a priori have nothing to do with mathematics though they are 
often used there.
-- 
James Ø. Baum
MA104 Lineær Algebra Fjernundervisningsprosjektet -
MA104 Linear Algebra 'Open University Project'
Institute of Mathematics, University of Oslo, Norway
http://www.math.uio.no/~ma104/

Received on Sunday, 12 May 1996 07:42:20 UTC