A simpler tack for making MathML more readable?

I thought of another way to attack the problem of making source code
containing MathML readable. Recommend, or perhaps even require, MathML
equation editors to preface their MathML output with comments that
specify what the MathML code means, e.g.:

<!--Output of Foo Equation Editor
  The MathML syntax means:
 
  x^2 + 3*x + 5 = 40
  x^2 + 3*x + 5 - 40 = 40 - 40 
  x^2 + 3*x - 35 = 0
  
  -->
 
  . . . MathML marked-up eqs . . .
 
This way, even if the MathML code in the source document isn't too
readable, the comments can tell the reader of the source what the
MathML tags are supposed to say. Also, if the comments are generated
by the equation editor rather than typed in by the author directly, it
will help insure that the content of the comments actually reflects
the content of the MathML, avoiding problems like author typos,
forgetting to change the comments when the MathML is reedited, etc.

You might have to come up with conventions for how to indicate such
things as integration, differentiation, special characters, etc. The
conventions could probably be borrowed from eqn, Mathematica syntax,
and such.

This may not be an optimal solution, but it seems reasonably feasible
and relatively easy to do without demanding radical changes from
browser software and such.

--J. J. Ramsey

==


----I am a fool for Christ. Mostly I am a fool.----

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Received on Friday, 13 November 1998 15:05:33 UTC