RE: equation editors and TeX (long) (was "Equation Editor")

[Paul Topping <PaulT mathtype com>]

Sri,

MathML, like all XML-based languages, is a representation, not an input
language. Although it is handy for programmers and other gurus that XML is
text, it is not expected that ordinary people enter and edit it directly.

Paul

----------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Topping                          http://www.mathtype.com
Design Science, Inc.                  email: pault mathtype com
                                      phone: 562-433-0685
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sri Ramkrishna [mailto:sri aracnet com]
> Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2000 2:38 PM
> To: Martin Sevior
> Cc: Paul Topping; 'gnome-components-list gnome org'
> Subject: RE: equation editors and TeX (long) (was "Equation Editor")
> 
> 
> > I've done some more checking and there is a lot of momentum 
> behind MathML.
> > Amaya can already directly edit MathML into their web 
> browser. Both IE and
> > Mozilla have plans to display MathML. MathML can be 
> directly translated by
> > expat 1.1 and libXML 2.0. There a lot of projects to 
> display MathML we can
> > borrow code from. MathML 2.0 has just been approved and 
> there is a project
> > in Italy to display advanced Math using MathML 2.0. They 
> even have a gtk
> > widget to do it. We can steal any or all of this code as it 
> is all GPL or
> > freer. In short I am extremely comfortable with MathML as 
> our internal
> > representation of Maths in Abiword.
> 
> I have a question.  Are you using MathML for _rendering_?  
> Frankly, from
> the examples I saw of MathML I find it rather difficult to 
> use compared to
> say LaTeX.  For instance:
> 
>          <mrow>
>             <mrow>
>               <msup>
>                 <mi>x</mi>
>                 <mn>2</mn>
>               </msup>
>               <mo>+</mo>
>               <mrow>
>                 <mn>4</mn>
>                 <mo>&InvisibleTimes;</mo>
>                 <mi>x</mi>
>               </mrow>
>               <mo>+</mo>
>               <mn>4</mn>
>             </mrow>
>             <mo>=</mo>
>             <mn>0</mn>
>           </mrow>
> 
> It feels overly wordy with an overuse of tags.  However, I 
> have not used
> MathML and this is my first exposure.  Perhaps you could 
> expand on how you
> plan on using MathML a little further?
> 
> 	sri
>