Re: Math markups

dcmartin@library.ucsf.edu (David C. Martin)
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Message-id: <199310061813.AA02249@library.ucsf.edu>
From: dcmartin@library.ucsf.edu (David C. Martin)
Organization: UCSF Center for Knowledge Management
Email: dcmartin@ckm.ucsf.edu
Phone: 415/476-6111
Fax: 415/476-4653
To: Emanuel Knill <knill@c3serve.c3.lanl.gov>
Cc: www-talk@library.ucsf.edu
In-Reply-To: Your message of Tue, 05 Oct 1993 17:48:39 -0600
	<9310052348.AA23188@c3serve.c3.lanl.gov> 
Subject: Re: Math markups 
Date: Wed, 06 Oct 1993 11:09:14 PDT
Sender: dcmartin@library.ucsf.edu
One question that I would ask is why not just generate a TIFF image of
the mathematical formula and connect it to a representation of the
formula that would be suitable for using the formula (e.g. in whatever
format Mathematica utilizes).

That would simplify the presentation and actualy distribute the
the formula, not just some HTML+ representation (although someone could
always write an HTML+ to Mathematica converter :-)

dcm
--------
Emanuel Knill writes:

In-reply-to: Your message of "Tue, 05 Oct 1993 18:10:10 -0000."

--------

Dave Raggett writes:

>According to Phil, to get good results with TeX you need to fiddle with the
>style settings, and the code needed to run HTML+ with TeX for embedded
>formulae would be painful, particularly with the style stuff.

Is this assuming that the standard TeX program/process is run
to produce a math formula? 
Here's a question for Phil Hallam-Baker:
Do you have an encapsulated way of producing images of
elementary TeX math expressions that can be embedded in html files
with reasonable alignment? I could make immediate use of that.

> Hence the
>interest in seeing how to do this directly in HTML+. I have looked at the
>ISO 12083 Math DTD, but it is unfortunately far too complex to win support
>within the WWW community. My proposal is conceptually a cut-down version
>aimed at meeting most but not all peoples needs.
>

I have not seen ISO 12083, is your proposal
compatible with this standard? 
I like the principle of your proposal, though I must say
that the sub/superscript tags look a bit clumsy. This is of course
not really a problem with a good editor. It would be nice
if we could add easy-to-use facilities for embedding more complicated
stuff in the future (as images or other). 

>We definitely need to make sure that any proposal for maths is solid and
>easy to implement, otherwise browser writers are going to work on other
>problems first.
>
>Dave Raggett

I am looking forward to seeing the HTML+ math proposal. 
Do you have a prelimiary copy which includes the math parts?

Manny