Math with and without MathML

Mark,

I welcome your comment that your interest in MathML is largely
because it is embedded in CellML.  CellML does seem to have quite
wide support.  I've wondered for some time what difficulties users
of CellML may have found with aspects of MathML, and if there are
suggestions from that user community that can be used to improve
MathML as it goes toward a new revision (the WG that can write
such a revision has just ben chartered).  I'd say you should feel  
free to
comment, and to ask others using CellML to do the same.

The CML for chemistry also thought of MathML as a given with which to
work, as did, say, MatML for materials and others.   It would be great,
I think, if anyone who can comment from experience on what such
markups need from a MathML will do so.

You are right that, in effect, this is a MathML list nowadays.  But
Juan is technically correct that it was conceived to discuss math on
the Web more generally. Perhaps the present situation may be summed
up by saying 'www-math is a place to discuss the W3C's efforts to
facilitate communicating math on the Web'.  So naturally the messages
are mostly about MathML and its interactions with other W3C  
technologies.

It has to be admitted that Juan R and George C are proposing use
of W3C specs (XML and CSS).  However, it seems  to be clear
  that they are proposing that yet another markup language for
math be specified, as is implicit in George's Universal Math
Style Sheet (cf., say, the new elements <ker> <sat> </line/> <wrap/>).

In addition, they seem to be assuring us of the  effectiveness, and wide
correct future deployment of enhancements to CSS that have yet to be
made.  We probably all dearly hope for that.

Some great advantages of starting again from scratch will need to be
more explicitly demonstrated for me personally to be inclined to do so.
However, it is my opinion that  any good examples of problems
and solutions with markup and  rendering of math and formulas
should be useful to the W3C Math WG.   The WG does have
an 'installed base' to consider as Robert Miner has clearly pointed
out.  They will be helped by any good solutions that can be adopted.


          Patrick

Received on Friday, 14 July 2006 21:43:27 UTC