Re: MathML vs HTML math, vs ???

>>>>> "Gregory A. Landrum" <landrum@hal9000.ac.rwth-aachen.de> writes:
    Gregory> Of course, the problem with all of these things, is that
    Gregory> they are not part of the HTML standard, so plugins are
    Gregory> required.  This inevitably limits the portability of
    Gregory> whatever is used.  For example, I am sitting at an IBM
    Gregory> workstation running AIX.  This means that I cannot use
    Gregory> most plugins. Even IBM's TechExplorer doesn't work on my machine.
Doesn't work YET. Soon it will!

    Gregory> I realize that this problem isn't even remotely the fault
    Gregory> of the working group, but is more a consequence of the
    Gregory> economic factors driving the development of the HTML
    Gregory> specification. I guess I am doomed to disappointment.
    Gregory> [...]
    Gregory> You guys are working towards a markup
    Gregory> language for math, not some way of getting math into the
    Gregory> HTML standard. I was confused, and I directed my
    Gregory> complaints at the wrong target.
There will never be support for maths in HTML, true. Science
publishing -- scientific communication in general -- is too much of a
niche market for that (the same argument holds for the SGML systems or
Web-publishing systems that support scientific communication).

But the recent announcement by Netscape that they will make the source
code for Netscape freely available is good news. This will make it
easier for our working group or for other parties interested in MathML
to add support for MathML to (one of) the most popular Web browser(s).

Nico

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Nico A.F.M. Poppelier
Elsevier Science                         
Product Application Development          Email: n.poppelier@elsevier.nl.
Molenwerf 1, 1014 AG Amsterdam                    Phone: +31-20-4853482.   
The Netherlands                                   Fax:   +31-20-4853706.   
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                       The sword of Charlemagne the Just
                                         Is ferric oxide, known as rust.

Received on Tuesday, 27 January 1998 05:24:12 UTC