[whatwg] Mathematics in HTML5

[Stefan Gössner]

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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stefan at goessner.net
http://goessner.net