- From: Ian Hutchinson <hutch@psfc.mit.edu>
- Date: Fri, 30 Oct 1998 15:26:47 -0500 (EST)
- To: James Ramsey <jjramsey_6x9eq42@yahoo.com>
- cc: www-math@w3.org
Let's try and bring some clarity here. The issue: MathML is too verbose and complicated to author directly. One Suggestion: Extend MathML to include simpler-to-author macros or add-ons interpreted by the browser. Comment: That amounts to discarding MathML as the standard for communication in favor of the simpler authoring language. Sounds like a disastrous recipe for confustication. Better approach: Generate STANDARD MathML by translation from a language in which authoring mathematics is relatively easy. TeX is the natural choice, and means that only one source file would be necessary, though naturally the MathML version would be the web-published version. MathML editors are also a reasonable approach. Ensure that browsers NATIVELY render MathML (not yet done) so that no specific renderer has to be installed or downloaded. Current Problems: No standard has been set for including MathML in HTML. No complete MathML renderers are freely available. The Point: If MathML is adopted as the standard, it MUST be the basis for communication even if documents are authored by other means. Publishing in other forms amounts to rejection of the standard. Ian Hutchinson, Plasma Science and Fusion Center, MIT. http://cmod.pfc.mit.edu/~hutch/home.html
Received on Friday, 30 October 1998 14:31:11 UTC