[whatwg] Mathematics in HTML5

[Alexey Feldgendler]

On Fri, 02 Jun 2006 22:08:54 +0700, White Lynx <whitelynx at operamail.com>  
wrote:

>> * correct continuation of long fractions on the next line

> Never seen something similar. We just prohibiting line breaks in  
> fractions.

TeX avoids them, too, but sometimes a complex fraction is simply longer  
than the line. There are typesetting rules on conitnuation of fractions.

Continuation rules also apply to breaking other formulae over lines. Some  
typographical traditions (depend on the surrounding language, I guess)  
require that the formula is broken only on an operator, and that the  
operator is repeated (once in the end of a line, and once more in the  
beginning of the next line).

>> * stacking of multiple signs like tildes, arrows etc above variables

> Unicode allows several combining diacritical marks per base character.
> But browser support for combining diacritics is not perfect.

They need to stack over each other, not overlay each other.

>> * stretching of tildes etc over complex expressions

> It's an open issue. Can't promise anything. Possible solution could be  
> SVG inserted from style sheet using CSS generated content.

Can SVG content be generated?

>> * matrices with cells of uniform size (as to accomodate for the largest
>> expression found)

> Not possible within CSS2.1 tables model, unless widths are specified  
> explicitly. So the burden of making cells uniform lays on author.

Is it possible in CSS3?

>> * nice embedding of inline formulae in paragraphs of text (without
>> unnecessarily increasing line spacing)

> It is not a problem, unless formula actually requires more space.

Here is what should happen:

text text text
text x^2 text
text text text

Here the superscript should not increase line spacing. But if there was  
some more complex expession, TeX would add some extra spacing above (or  
below, if needed) that line. TeX has a configurable threshold of how far  
can an inline formula ascend and descend from a line without having to  
increase the line spacing.


-- 
Alexey Feldgendler <alexey at feldgendler.ru>
[ICQ: 115226275] http://feldgendler.livejournal.com