Math: Rendering MathML using IE5

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Math Rendering MathML using IE5

• Thomas G. Habing
• Grainger Engineering Library Information Center
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• http//dli.grainger.uiuc.edu
  thabing_at_uiuc.edu

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Demo

• http//dli.grainger.uiuc.edu/mathmlstyle/samples.h
  tm
• http//dli.grainger.uiuc.edu/mathmlstyle/W3Csample
  s.htm

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Key Points

• Based on the Draft MathML 2.0 Spec.
• Presentation Markup Only
• MathML converted to HTML for Display
• i.e. ltmogt becomes ltspan classmogt
• Employs advanced CSS techniques
• CSS2 Positioning (CSSP)
• MS Extensions to CSS (Dynamic Properties)
• Allows direct access to actual geometry
• Only IE 5 supported (IE 5.5 preferred)with the
  latest MSXML 3.0 parser added in

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Other Rendering Options

• Native rendering as with Mozilla or Amaya
• Browser plug-ins as with TechExplorer
• Java Applets
• Other Browser Extensions as in IE Behaviors
• We are exploring this option for IE

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MathML Presentation Markup

• Token Elementsltmigt ltmngt ltmogt ltmtextgt ltmspacegt
  ltmsgt ltmchargt ltmglyphgt
• General Layout Schemataltmrowgt ltmfracgt ltmsqrtgt
  ltmrootgt ltmstylegt ltmerrorgt ltmpaddedgt ltmphantomgt
  ltmfencedgt ltmenclosegt
• Script and Limit Schemataltmsubgt ltmsupgt ltmsubsupgt
  ltmundergt ltmovergt ltmunderovergt ltmmultiscriptsgt
• Tables and Matricesltmtablegt ltmtrgt ltmlabeledtrgt
  ltmtdgt ltmaligngroupgt ltmalignmarkgt
• Enlivening Expressionsltmactiongt

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MathML Content Markup

• We do not support
• Cant deduce from original SGML markup
• Probably more difficult to render
• More tags
• Not designed for presentation
• XSLTs for transforming Content to Presentation
  are available

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Advantages Over Original Markup

• Standardized (one styling implementation)
• More precise
• Easier to style
• Standard entities
• Operator dictionary
• Disadvantages
• Verbosity
• More difficult to generate by hand

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Special Characters

• Standard Set Defined in the Spec STIX
• Named Entity ltmogtrarrlt/mogt
• Requires a DTD Deprecated in Draft 2.0 Spec
• Numeric Entity ltmogt8594lt/mogt
• mchar ltmogtltmchar namerarr/gtlt/mogt
• May be dropped from the standard???
• mglyph ltmogtltmglyph altRight Arrow
  fontfamilySymbol index174/gtlt/mogt
• Depends on availability of the specific font
  probably not supported by Operator Dict.
• Just Do It w/ Unicode (UTF-8) ltmogt?lt/mogt

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ltmogt

• Operator ltmogt Attributes
• fence, separator, stretchy, accent, lspace,
  rspace, largeop, movablelimits, maxsize, minsize,
  symmetric, form
• formltmrowgt ltmogtprefixlt/mogtltmogtinfixlt/mogtltmogtpos
  tfixlt/mogtlt/mrowgt
• Operator Dictionary
• Show example code

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ltmstylegt

• scriptlevel font-size
• displaystyle inline versus block formatting
• These are also effected by other tags, primarily
  the script and limit schemata
• other inheritable attributes
• implemented as stack

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CSS Dynamic Properties (IE only)

• Moves the geometry calculations to the client
• Performance Issues
• Expressions
• Center Verticallytopexpression((this.offsetHeig
  ht-8)/2'px')
• Set the widthwidthexpression(Math.max(
  this.parentNode.children(1).offsetWidth,
  this.offsetWidth)'px')
• Behaviors
• Center Verticallybehaviorurl(center.htc)
• Example Code

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TO DO

• More and better error checking
• Better support for stretchy operators and the
  symmetric attribute
• Move more of the geometry to the client, possible
  via IE Behaviors
• Italic correction
• Better spacing support for ltmsubsupgt
• Support more mtable attributes
• Tags ltmpaddedgt, ltmmultiscriptsgt,ltmaligngroupgt,
  ltmalignmarkgt

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MathML and Math on the Web

• When October 20-21
• Where Here
• http//www.mathmlconference.org/