Re: How to write a "proper" math document
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg120198] Re: How to write a "proper" math document
- From: Richard Fateman <fateman at cs.berkeley.edu>
- Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2011 07:00:51 -0400 (EDT)
- References: <201107080854.EAA28729@smc.vnet.net> <iv9eu9$dg4$1@smc.vnet.net> <201107100902.FAA24708@smc.vnet.net> <ivel1d$87u$1@smc.vnet.net>
On 7/11/2011 3:58 AM, Murray Eisenberg wrote: > Due to its verbosity alone, MathML is an utterly horrible language for > directly writing or reading mathematical expressions. This is entirely true and I think no one disagrees. So is HTML. Neither MathML nor HTML is generally written directly, but is a target language for editors and automatic generators of one sort or another. I never directly write MathML, but then I rarely write Latex except for very small pieces. I can generate Latex from a computer algebra system. So the actual readability of MathML is not so important. The fact is that it is a standard. The way I would use it (and at least one CAS does this) is to generate the blecherous MathML code but have in it a comment which says how a human would write it in the CAS syntax. (La)TeX, by > contrast, is infinitely more writable and readable. Even more readable > (and writable) than Content MathML. > > Moreover, not all browsers natively render MathML, e.g., Safari on a Mac. That is probably a good reason not to use Safari for math documents. Until relatively recently (and maybe even now), MathML is rarely used. PDF for math dominates. I haven't looked at recent surveys though. RJF > > > On 7/10/11 5:02 AM, Richard Fateman wrote: >> >> ...I think that there is very little likelihood of the world standardizing >> on CDF for digital distribution of mathematical documents. There IS a >> standard, and it is different. The www has evolved document >> representation to include math, and MathML is how. Numerous programs, >> including Mathematica, can use MathML. Is this a good standard? Eh, >> probably not the simplest way of representing a Mathematica notebook. >> >> However, one can, via "save-as", save a Mathematica notebook as XML+MathML. >> >> There is another standard, "OpenMath" which is more ambitious. >> >> I have been critical of both of these, in part because they are >> incredibly verbose.... >
- References:
- Re: How to write a "proper" math document
- From: John Fultz <jfultz@wolfram.com>
- Re: How to write a "proper" math document
- From: Richard Fateman <fateman@cs.berkeley.edu>
- Re: How to write a "proper" math document