It would be nice if Mozilla developers could clarify why they decided to move in this way.
My main concerns are twofolds, first is the fact that converting currently XML based MathML to text/html tagsoup is not the step in right direction as MathML community has no text/html legacy content and there are simply no MathML implementations that support text/html, but does not support X(HT)ML, while there definitely are XML only MathML implementations and different XML tools are used by MathML community and the fact that all MathML content is wellformed be design is something that did not come for granted, people had to pay price for this for seven years until finally MSIE/MathPlayer started to recognize application/xhtml+xml and thus allowed people to deliver the same XHTML+MathML to MSIE/MathPlayer and Mozilla. So today is the most inappropriate time to make experiments that may convert XML math content to tag soup. Second concern is related to MathML/CSS integration issues, I think I should not be explaining that for mathematical markup language it is important to be integrated with the environment in which math formulae are embedded. In case of web this environment is XML/CSS/DOM (well there are people that think that universe = text/html, but math markup simply MUST be highly extesible as requirements of math community are diverse and it is not uncommon to combine presentational MathML with other XML applications, including OpenMath, content MathML, sometimes SVG and other XML applications). Currently there is subgroup in W3C Math WG chartered to address MathML/CSS integration issues so one could use appropriately designed profile of MathML in XML/CSS framework, that is we are moving towards markup language that admits default CSS style sheet. This process requires coordination between Math WG (some changes are required on MathML side), CSS WG (at least some CSS extensions are needed to ensure minimal requiremnts of math markup are addressed) and browser developers that are most exposed to issues that arise from lack of MathML/CSS integration. Opera is involved in process in hope that in long term perspective MathML will work smoothly in XML/CSS environment and many artificial incompatibility issues and unnecessary doubling of functionality at the price of tons of bugs and underspecified issues that emerge in componud documents due to incompatibility between different specs, Microsoft intends to join Math WG that hopefully will help to coordinate efforts between math markup related activities in ECMA backuped by Microsoft and at least partly avoid problems with double standards W3C vs. ECMA in the area, I am sure we would be glad to see Mozilla onboard either by joining WG or being involved in the process otherwise in any convenient for you form, as well as developers of other layout engies including KHTML/WebKit and Prince. However I am seriously concerned about spontaneous changes that may take MathML further from XML+CSS framework and I am surprised that initiative for such a changes is coming from Mozilla foundation. Today is the most inapproprite time for turning things upside down, but definetely is a good time to improve coordination between different working groups and browser developers to resolve actual problems. Note also that Math WG has subgroups like liason with WhatWG and liason with CDF chartered to impove coordination between different units and ensure that MathML works smoothly in compound documents. So there is a lot of space for moving the process through this channels instead of making unilateral steps that may damage MathML in long term perspective. _______________________________________________ dev-tech-layout mailing list [email protected] https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-tech-layout
