RE: Help get math turned back on in Chrome

Ok, let me try another tack.

You say "few web pages count on it." I don't think that is true any more. Lots of things count on it. Unfortunately, we don't have a list or a number. Here are some arguments we can use:


-          HTML5 and EPUB3 are standards that virtually everyone cares about. Both include MathML as THE way to encode math.

-          Half the departments of a typical university use math in their educational content and this is going to increasingly be consumed as HTML5 and EPUB3.

-          MathML is the basis of accessible math standards and education and governments have committed to making content accessible.

-          Most of the big publishing companies that make textbooks and scientific journals are using MathML internally and will be putting it in their content once EPUB3 and HTML5 are well-established.

There are strong arguments to be made but voting by clicking on bugs or telling Google directly won't do it by themselves.

Paul

From: Dave Barton [mailto:dbarton@mathscribe.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2013 4:00 PM
To: www-math@w3.org
Subject: Re: Help get math turned back on in Chrome

On Feb 7, 2013, at 3:20 PM, Peter Krautzberger wrote:
Sorry to interject with a technical question.

@Dave Barton, @David Carlisle: I tried to look up the bug that eventually led to deactivation. It seems this is not public anymore. Is that correct? (If so, then that's not helpful for communication.)

There are security and other reasons that bugs are sometimes private. There are also technical issues and interactions between related bugs here. I could go into more details in a private e-mail. But the important point here is that Neil's summary is quite correct.


On the constructive side, how realistic is comment #35<https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=152430#c35> (changing MathML from build-time-flag to runtime-flag)?

I've never done this so I don't know. But I think it doesn't solve the basic problem for folks that want to put MathML in their web pages - lack of browser support by default.

Look, I think we're getting a little political and splintering into various pet topics here. I think it's good for all the issues to be discussed, but in the end the big picture is that Google and other browser vendors are not putting any development resources into MathML, because few web pages count on it, because few vendors support it. Is this a cycle we can unite to break, by expressing our opinions in various ways, including lobbying others to star the chromium issue as Neil suggests? That appears to be the official feedback route to Google. Or we can try to clearly explain why MathML is important in general, for future users of it, as Neil did in mentioning education. Or we can wait another 15 years for adoption. (Seriously.)

JMHO, Dave B.