Re: Why mtable doesn't have also an attribute height

If you want curved arrows or other "fancy" arrows for a commutative diagram,
then you are beyond what MathML is currently capable of describing.
However, if you just need straight arrows, MathML can often achieve what is
needed.  In MathML, you can set the minsize and/or a maxsize attr on a
stretchy arrow to guarantee certain sizes.

Neil Soiffer
Senior Scientist
Design Science, Inc.
www.dessci.com
~ Makers of MathType, MathFlow, MathPlayer, MathDaisy, Equation Editor ~


On Wed, Aug 18, 2010 at 11:14 AM, Urs Holzer <urs@andonyar.com> wrote:

> Allow me to join this discussion.
>
> Neil Soiffer wrote:
> > For the use cases of tables in math, each cell is laid out
> > horizontal, line wrapping contents if needed because of a width
> > restriction.  The cells, and ultimately the table, will then have a
> > height that is computed based on the width of each cell.
> > Restricting a table to a page or column width is common in laying
> > out tables.  A height restriction would imply that widths are not
> > constrained so that the height restriction can be met.  Of the to of
> > my head, I think it would be difficult to implement since multiple
> > widths would need to be tried.
> >
> > I am unaware of a use case for restricting or setting an explicit
> > height. Do you have a use case in mind?
>
> Simple commutative diagrams could be built using tables. To make them
> look better one could adjust the height of certain rows as well as the
> width of certain columns. This would work good because a stretchy
> operator (for example an arrow) stretches to the size of the mtd if it
> is it is the sole subexpression of the mtd.
>
> Is there another way to achieve the same in MathML? Anyway, for
> commutative diagrams, one perhaps better uses SVG (or even better,
> MathML in SVG).
>
> Greetings
> Urs
>