Added MathML.
authorW. Trevor King <wking@drexel.edu>
Wed, 29 Sep 2010 20:49:45 +0000 (16:49 -0400)
committerW. Trevor King <wking@drexel.edu>
Wed, 29 Sep 2010 20:49:45 +0000 (16:49 -0400)
posts/MathML.mdwn [new file with mode: 0644]

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+I've been cleaning up the course website for Drexel's PHYS405
+(Parallel Computing), and I wasn't a fan of the [latex2html][]
+equations and their resulting PNGs.  Searching around for a solution,
+I found a few command line [MathML][] generators: [itex2MML][] and
+[blahtexml][].  itex2MML struck me as cleaner after a brief spin with
+blahtexml.  Jason Blevins has written an [ikiwiki plugin using
+itex2MML][plugin] so you don't have to bother with MathML in your blog
+postings:
+
+\[ e^{i \pi} + 1 = 0 \]
+
+Now that you can generate MathML, you'll need to [serve it
+correctly][XHTML].  For simple cases, you can try something like
+[this][negotiate].
+
+That takes care of generating the MathML, but can we view it?
+[Gecko][] has supported MathML [since 1.8.0][Gecko support] (Firefox
+1.5), so Firefox support [is quite good][Firefox].  MathML has also
+recently (August 17th) [moved into the WebKit trunk][WebKit], so new
+builds of [Safari][] and [Chrome][] should have native support as
+well, although at such an early stage there are bound to be some
+[issues][WebKit support].  Opera has supported MathML since
+[9.5][Opera] (June 2008), although again there were some [growing
+pains][Opera support].  For those using [IE][], the [MathPlayer][]
+plugin can render MathML.  MathPlayer can even [speak][] MathML for
+the visually impaired.  Unfortunately, I don't have all those browsers
+installed to test out my above claims.  [Let me know][contact] if
+something's not working!
+
+[latex2html]: http://www.latex2html.org/
+[MathML]: http://www.w3.org/Math/
+[itex2MML]: http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/~distler/blog/itex2MML.html
+[blahtexml]: http://gva.noekeon.org/blahtexml/
+[plugin]: http://jblevins.org/git/ikiwiki/plugins.git/plain/mdwn_itex.pm
+[XHTML]: http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/~distler/blog/archives/000167.html
+[negotiate]: http://protempore.net/~calvins/howto/xhtml-apache/
+[Gecko]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Gecko
+[Gecko support]: https://developer.mozilla.org/En/Accessibility/AT-APIs/Web_Specifications#MathML
+[Firefox]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Mozilla_MathML_Project/Status
+[WebKit]: http://webkit.org/blog/1366/announcing%E2%80%A6mathml/
+[WebKit support]: https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3251
+[Safari]: http://www.apple.com/safari/
+[Chrome]: http://www.google.com/chrome/
+[Opera]: http://my.opera.com/mathml/blog/2008/06/12/opera-9-5-released
+[Opera support]: http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/~distler/blog/archives/001588.html
+[IE]: http://www.dessci.com/en/products/mathplayer/tech/IE9compatibility_bug.htm
+[MathPlayer]: http://www.dessci.com/en/products/mathplayer/
+[speak]: http://www.dessci.com/en/products/mathplayer/tech/accessibility.htm
+[contact]: http://www.physics.drexel.edu/~wking/contact.shtml
+
+[[!tag tags/blogging]]