Minutes_ MathML Core meeting _ 29 July_ 2024

07/29/2024 MathML Core Meeting

Attendees

  *   Brian Kardell
  *   Louis Maher
  *   David Carlisle
  *   Bruce Miller

Regrets

Action Items

ACTION BK is looking for more people to join our group, and for more money to support our work. If anyone has suggestions about people who might be interested in joining us, and any additional sources for funding, please let BK know.
ACTION DC: How is the review on the spec proceeding? BK: I need to circle back on the comments we received, and then to check back with Bert.

Vertical alignment of large operators #250<https://github.com/w3c/mathml-core/issues/250>
ACTION DC will reply to the author saying that we find his suggestion reasonable, and that we would like him to provide a PR with the requested specification update.

::before and ::after pseudo-elements #247<https://github.com/w3c/mathml-core/issues/247>
ACTION BK will reply that we know it does not work, and we will look at it at another time.

math-auto is now included in the value definition of text-transform #246<https://github.com/w3c/mathml-core/issues/246>
ACTION DC will make a PR for the spec changes.

Support .ownerMathElement (or something akin to it) #241<https://github.com/w3c/mathml-core/issues/241>
ACTION DC will respond to the authors of issue #241<https://github.com/w3c/mathml-core/issues/241>, and DC will put a level 2 label on this issue.

Discussion On MathML on Mobile Phones
ACTION DC: I am going to add a web font that should allow Chrome to render MathML on an Android phone.

Agenda Items

Announcements/Updates
ACTION BK is looking for more people to join our group, and for more money to support our work. If anyone has suggestions about people who might be interested in joining us, and any additional sources for funding, please let BK know.

ACTION DC: How is the review on the spec proceeding? BK: I need to circle back on the comments we received, and then to check back with Bert.

Some review on implementations progress, WebKit and Gecko
From Brian Kardell to everyone;
https://gist.github.com/bkardell/08e421a1d3b6b6e329b9a25035c2ade9#file-mathml-updates-md
BK: This link is Fred's notes of the work done by Igalia from March 26 through July 24, 2024.
BK: These items were submitted to Interop, and Fred has been working on them.
DC: Is WebKit still separate from Chromium?
BK: Yes.

Agenda Issues

Use shorthand padding-line for mfrac's rule in User Agent stylesheet #251<https://github.com/w3c/mathml-core/issues/251>
Fred closed this issue.

Vertical alignment of large operators #250<https://github.com/w3c/mathml-core/issues/250>
Ron Kok writes: I propose an addition to the MathML Core specification Section 3.2.4.3 Layout of operators.<https://w3c.github.io/mathml-core/#layout-of-operators> Currently, part 2 addresses operators with the stretchy and symmetric attribute and specifies that their vertical alignment should be adjusted. So far, so good. Part 3 addresses operators with the largeop attribute and has nothing to say about their vertical alignment. That is a mistake. An operator with the largeop and symmetric attributes should, when display = block, also have their vertical alignment adjusted around the math axis. ...
DC shared an example where Firefox was producing some non-vertically symmetric glyphs whereas Firefox's glyphs were symmetric about the math axis.
ACTION DC will reply to the author saying that we find his suggestion reasonable, and that we would like him to provide a PR with the requested specification update.

::before and ::after pseudo-elements #247<https://github.com/w3c/mathml-core/issues/247>
The issue author writes: I've noticed that Chrome does not render the ::before and ::after pseudo-elements. The spec does not appear to specify whether they should or should not be supported. I would expect that most CSS features would be supported unless explicitly specified not to.
BK: We want to get something to CR with at least three Interoperable implementations.
DC: Should people expect some arbitrary CSS thing to work? From our current spec, can you tell which parts of CSS will work?
BM: CSS is a moving target.
DC: We do not want to list every CSS feature.
BK: Push this request to level two.
ACTION BK will reply that we know it does not work, and we will look at it at another time.

math-auto is now included in the value definition of text-transform #246<https://github.com/w3c/mathml-core/issues/246>
The text-transform property is extended with the math-auto property used to control when single letters should be italicized.
ACTION DC will make a PR for the spec changes.

Support .ownerMathElement (or something akin to it) #241<https://github.com/w3c/mathml-core/issues/241>
Preact is a lightweight JavaScript library for building user interfaces. It was not generating correct MathML.
The author is looking to add support for rendering MathML elements with the correct namespace in Preact.
He wants to add an SVG property called .ownerSVGElement !== undefined<https://github.com/preactjs/preact/blob/a832512a4e749bac9e618bc1cdbff3b5e1f41853/src/render.js#L44>
BK: Recently many JavaScript libraries were updated to generate proper MathML. Preact may not have been one of these libraries.
BK: Bump this request to level two. We cannot add anything new to the spec unless it is essential.
BK: The issue authors have a work around.
ACTION DC will respond to the authors of issue #241<https://github.com/w3c/mathml-core/issues/241>, and DC will put a level 2 label on this issue.

Discussion On MathML on Mobile Phones
BK asked if people had Android or iPhones. Only Louis had an iPhone.
BK uses chrome and Firefox on his Android phone. He said that MathML was not rendering correctly on Chrome on Android phones. Firefox, on Android, worked well with MathML.
DC: Once he used the STIX font on Chrome, MathML was rendered correctly.
DC: So, that is the main issue on phones, that there are no appropriate fonts.
ACTION DC: I am going to add a web font that should allow Chrome to render MathML on an Android phone.