Re: disambiguating mathematical notation

Hi,

This document is a very curious time capsule, thank you for sharing.
It is amusing that some comments sound like our design discussions on
Intent.
I enjoyed:

"The compositor should not be satisfied with attaining only mathematical
accuracy,
  but should strive for an elegant and easily read arrangement.
  Even when a good deal of time can be devoted to copy preparation it is
not wise
  to give the compositor too many instructions which may confuse rather
than assist.
  A simple code of copy-marking must be used to avoid mistakes."

---

The classic factorial notation on page 31 was of particular note to me,
quite surprising!
It seems to be border-based, and may be beyond the usual Presentation
MathML terrain of expressivity?
I gave it a try with some CSS + Intent, and it worked out nicely in Chrome
(and OK in Firefox):

https://codepen.io/dginev/pen/oNQOjLv

Deyan

P.S. I also stumbled on a more in-depth exploration of that forgotten
factorial notation, for others who may be curious:
https://kconrad.math.uconn.edu/factorials/


On Sat, Aug 5, 2023 at 6:30 PM Stephen Watt <smwatt@gmail.com> wrote:

> David,
>
> Thank you for sharing the mr_40_4 link.   That was a delightful read.
>
> Stephen
>
> On Sat, Aug 5, 2023 at 6:23 PM David Carlisle <davidc@nag.co.uk> wrote:
>
>>
>> > An attempt has been made to name all the mathematical signs that > have
>> been cut by the Monotype Corporation. It is obvious that this can > be only
>> partially successful, firstly because there is a continuous > influx of new
>> signs and secondly because signs are not always used > for the same
>> purpose. In more advanced mathematics it would be > necessary to know the
>> context in order to identify the exact meaning > of the sign.
>>
>>
>> You may think this is a good description of intent from
>>
>> https://w3c.github.io/mathml/#mixing_intent
>>
>>
>> But it is a quote from the Editorial note of this interesting manuscript
>> from the Monotype  Corporation, first published in 1956
>>
>> https://www.metaltype.co.uk/downloads/mr/mr_40_4.pdf
>>
>> Some things never change...
>>
>> David
>>
>> Thanks to Barbara Beeton for the link
>>
>>
>>
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