RE: support of MathML in Safari?

Dear Daniel,

My thoughts would be to establish a plug-in interface that was general
enough to handle XML-based extensions, such as MathML and SVG. It would have
similar functionality to the ones that MathPlayer uses in Internet Explorer
(but better, of course):

- A mechanism (possibly user controllable) would allow the association of
plugin software with a particular namespace URI (eg, MathML or SVG). A
MathPlayer installer would make this association for MathML.

- Based on the above mechanism, Safari would invoke the plugin on each
instance of <math>, passing it a DOM interface starting at that node.

- During layout, Safari would call the plugin with ambient properties, such
as font, point size, text color, etc. The plugin would lay out the equation
and return the dimensions of the equation, as well as baseline and
side-bearings.

- During display (and print), Safari would call the plugin with some kind of
display (print) context, and the plugin would perform graphics operations to
draw the equation.

Hopefully, there would also be other interfaces to support such things as
interaction (mouse clicks, menus) and accessibility. It would possibly make
sense to make this kind of plugin into some kind of standard, although it
might not be within the W3C's scope.

Although MathPlayer obviously has Windows and IE-dependent code, it is
largely platform-independent code that uses library for which me have a Mac
implementation. So, with any luck, it should be too much work.

Paul

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Daniel Jamous [mailto:jamous@MIT.EDU] 
> Sent: Monday, April 12, 2004 6:11 AM
> To: Paul Topping
> Cc: 'www-math@w3.org'
> Subject: RE: support of MathML in Safari?
> 
> 
> Dear Paul,
> 
> Thank you very much for your response.
> 
> I will try to see if there's anything we can do in this regard.
> 
> Just a follow-up question: from a technical point of view, 
> what would be the requirements for Safari to be able to 
> support MathPlayer?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Daniel
> 
> At 02:27 PM 4/8/2004 -0700, Paul Topping wrote:
> >Daniel,
> >
> >We at Design Science would like to help in this effort. We 
> would like 
> >to be able to create a version of MathPlayer that works 
> inside Safari 
> >and offer it for free just as we do for Internet Explorer. 
> We have been 
> >in contact with someone at Apple that has promised to put us 
> in contact 
> >with the Safari team but that has not happened yet. Last 
> time I looked, 
> >Safari had not committed to supporting XML or to a plug-in interface 
> >rich enough to make MathPlayer possible. But these things 
> should not be 
> >insurmountable barriers and the sooner we start addressing 
> them the better.
> >
> >The best thing that you and others on the www-math list can do is to 
> >tell the Safari people how important MathML support in Safari is. I 
> >suspect that MathML support is somewhere on a long wish list 
> of Safari enhancements.
> >Input from parties other than those who stand to profit from the 
> >success of MathML can help move it higher on that list.
> >
> >Paul
> >
> >----------------------------------------------------------------
> >Paul Topping                     email: pault@dessci.com
> >President                        phone: 562-433-0685
> >                                  http://www.dessci.com 
> Design Science, 
> >Inc.
> >"How Science Communicates"
> >MathType, WebEQ, MathPlayer, Equation Editor, TeXaide
> >----------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Daniel Jamous [mailto:jamous@MIT.EDU]
> > > Sent: Thursday, April 08, 2004 1:29 PM
> > > To: www-math@w3.org
> > > Subject: support of MathML in Safari?
> > >
> > >
> > > Hello,
> > >
> > > I'm just wondering if anyone knows whether there are plans to 
> > > support MathML in future versions of Apple's browser Safari.
> > >
> > > Thanks for any info you can share.
> > >
> > > Daniel Jamous
> > > Academic Computing -- MIT
> > >
>

Received on Monday, 12 April 2004 13:11:40 UTC