posts/MathML.mdwn_itex

   1 I've been cleaning up the course website for Drexel's PHYS405
   2 (Parallel Computing), and I wasn't a fan of the [latex2html][]
   3 equations and their resulting PNGs.  Searching around for a solution,
   4 I found a few command line [MathML][] generators: [itex2MML][] and
   5 [blahtexml][].  itex2MML struck me as cleaner after a brief spin with
   6 blahtexml.  Jason Blevins has written an [ikiwiki plugin using
   7 itex2MML][plugin] so you don't have to bother with MathML in your blog
   8 postings (there is an [alternative implementation][plugin2] by Gustaf
   9 Thorslund):
  10
  11 \[ e^{i \pi} + 1 = 0 \]
  12
  13 Now that you can generate MathML, you'll need to [serve it
  14 correctly][XHTML].  For simple cases, you can try something like
  15 [this][negotiate].
  16
  17 That takes care of generating the MathML, but can we view it?
  18 [Gecko][] has supported MathML [since 1.8.0][Gecko support] (Firefox
  19 1.5), so Firefox support [is quite good][Firefox].  MathML has also
  20 recently (August 17th) [moved into the WebKit trunk][WebKit], so new
  21 builds of [Safari][] and [Chrome][] should have native support as
  22 well, although at such an early stage there are bound to be some
  23 [issues][WebKit support].  Opera has supported MathML since
  24 [9.5][Opera] (June 2008), although again there were some [growing
  25 pains][Opera support].  For those using [IE][], the [MathPlayer][]
  26 plugin can render MathML.  MathPlayer can even [speak][] MathML for
  27 the visually impaired.  Unfortunately, I don't have all those browsers
  28 installed to test out my above claims.  [[Let me know|contact]] if
  29 something's not working!
  30
  31 [latex2html]: http://www.latex2html.org/
  32 [MathML]: http://www.w3.org/Math/
  33 [itex2MML]: http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/~distler/blog/itex2MML.html
  34 [blahtexml]: http://gva.noekeon.org/blahtexml/
  35 [plugin]: http://jblevins.org/git/ikiwiki/plugins.git/plain/mdwn_itex.pm
  36 [plugin2]: http://blog.thorslund.org/posts/2010/Getting_math_into_the_blog/
  37 [XHTML]: http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/~distler/blog/archives/000167.html
  38 [negotiate]: http://protempore.net/~calvins/howto/xhtml-apache/
  39 [Gecko]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Gecko
  40 [Gecko support]: https://developer.mozilla.org/En/Accessibility/AT-APIs/Web_Specifications#MathML
  41 [Firefox]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Mozilla_MathML_Project/Status
  42 [WebKit]: http://webkit.org/blog/1366/announcing%E2%80%A6mathml/
  43 [WebKit support]: https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3251
  44 [Safari]: http://www.apple.com/safari/
  45 [Chrome]: http://www.google.com/chrome/
  46 [Opera]: http://my.opera.com/mathml/blog/2008/06/12/opera-9-5-released
  47 [Opera support]: http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/~distler/blog/archives/001588.html
  48 [IE]: http://www.dessci.com/en/products/mathplayer/tech/IE9compatibility_bug.htm
  49 [MathPlayer]: http://www.dessci.com/en/products/mathplayer/
  50 [speak]: http://www.dessci.com/en/products/mathplayer/tech/accessibility.htm
  51
  52 [[!tag tags/blogging]]