I would highly appreciate a lightweight, pragamatic solution for doing
math on the web in a convenient way. This solution could parallel MathML
the same way as Canvas parallels SVG. And that does not necessarily
mean, it should be javascript or Latex based -- though it might be.
Personally I like a minimal vocabulary, which allows declarative math
markup and integrates well with HTML. The proposal from George, refined
by Michel currently being discussed here, is definitely a good start.
Even if it ends only in a 80% solution, it presumeably will have only
20% implementation cost -- compared to MathML -- if at all. And these
80% would be more, than the target audience in engineering and economics
really needs.
As an example for successfully creating pure HTML+CSS based math
formulas using the great concept of XML-Maiden see here for an example,
http://goessner.net/learn/tm/exercises/exm/2005-07-06-II/
which was authored by students using a Wiki/Latex style markup. So a
proof of concept to convert Latex style markup to HTML+CSS *and back*
exists and works very well.
http://goessner.net/articles/wiky/
Math in HTML5 would help a lot and might lead to even better tools,
widgets or whatever.
Stefan Goessner
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[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://goessner.net
