RE: MathML browser test page

Hello Mike,

You are welcome.

I too was quite surprised by how well the STIX Beta fonts on Firefox 3.5

compared to TeX.

I am also optimistic about the future of MathML usage on the Web.

Graduate students often post their papers online.  It is a great way to 
get your papers referenced and to let others interested in your topic 
find you.  The problem is most papers are posted in a PDF format.  
Great for printing out, but horrible for pulling out an equation 
or diagram to use in future papers.  After properly referencing the 
source, most graduate students have to struggle through the process of 
recreating from scratch the equations or diagrams they want to use.  
MathML would greatly ease this problem, and I believe allow much faster 
and easier exchange of ideas and information.  

I look forward to the day when most graduate students post their 
technical papers using MathML. 

    Joe 

   -------- Original Message --------
 Subject: RE: MathML browser test page
 From: "Waters, Michael, Springer US" <Mike.Waters@springer.com>
 Date: Thu, July 16, 2009 1:19 pm
 To: <joe.java@eyeasme.com>, <www-math@w3.org>
 
  Hi Joe,
  
 Thanks for the test page.
  
 I’m always checking things out re: MathML, so I tried your link. At
first, my reaction was underwhelming. Problems with under- and
overbraces, awkward-looking radical signs, and others. Overall, I was
disappointed with STIX Beta on Firefox 3.0.11.
  
 I have a tendency to install/upgrade browsers (FF, IE, Amaya, Opera),
plug-ins, and utilities, so I thought it worthwhile to check my Firefox
configuration. About:config/Preference Name/font.mathfont-family set for
the STIX Beta fonts, yup, AOK. But when I went to the Fonts Control
Panel in Windows, the STIX Beta fonts WERE NOT INSTALLED. Geesh, what
did I do in my experimenting??
  
 Anyway, after going to “Fonts for MathML-enabled Mozilla”,
downloading the latest STIXBeta.zip, unzipping to a directory,
installing and copying the fonts using the Control Panel, and restarting
Firefox, I was pleasantly surprised: MathML display that was comparable
to TeX output on your test page. Altogether, the process took only about
2 min and that includes restarting Firefox. Performance is good on page
zooming up/down--less than a second.
  
 I know there are some who are unhappy with a separate install for math
fonts (at least for now), but we’ve all installed Acrobat Reader to
view PDFs and other sorts of players for special applications, so I
think it’s more than worthwhile to (properly) install the STIX Beta
fonts for MathML viewing. As Christoph Lange commented separately,
it’s “really easy”.
  
 Thanks, that helped. I’m much more optimistic about the future of
MathML.
  
 Regards,
 Mike Waters
  
  
  
    From: www-math-request@w3.org [mailto:www-math-request@w3.org] On
Behalf Of joe.java@eyeasme.com
 Sent: Thursday, July 16, 2009 11:54 AM
 To: www-math@w3.org
 Subject: MathML browser test page
 

 
 Hello MathML Community,
 
 While learning TeX and MathML, I wrote a one page website
 that covers a range of mathematical formulas, I use the web-page
 for testing some of a browser's MathML (presentation Markup)
 capabilities.  It might be of use to others, so here it is:
 
 https://eyeasme.com/Joe/MathML/MathML_browser_test.html
 
 The equations are shown in 3 forms:
 (all hyperlinked to the code that generated them)
 
 1) an image the TeX presentation
 2) an image of the MathML representation using STIX Beta fonts on
Firefox 3.5
 3) the present browser's representation of the equation using MathML
 
 This way a person can see how TeX (produces a very good representation
of
 mathematical equations) compares with MathML on Firefox 3.5 using STIX
beta
 fonts, and how these both compare with their present browser's MathML
 representation.
 
 The page validates as 'XHTML 1.1 plus MathML 2.0', validates as 'CSS
level 2.1'
 and the page passes the WAI automatic tests
 
 Included on the web-page are a few useful links and some notes about
lessons
 I learned while making the web-page.
 
 Feel free to make any Comments / suggestions / corrections.
 
     Joe

Received on Friday, 17 July 2009 02:03:57 UTC