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<head>
<title>UK TeX FAQ -- question label mathml</title>
</head><body>
<h3>Future WWW technologies and (La)TeX</h3>
<p/>An earlier answer
(<a href="FAQ-LaTeX2HTML.html">“converting to HTML”</a>)
addresses the issue of converting existing (La)TeX documents for
viewing on the Web as HTML. All the present techniques are
somewhat flawed: the answer explains why.
<p/>However, things are changing, with
better font availability, cunning HTML programming and the
support for new Web standards.
<dl>
<dt>Font technologies<dd> Direct representation of mathematics in
browsers has been hampered up to now by the limited range of symbols
in the fonts one can rely on being available. Some existing
(La)TeX to HTML converters provide maths symbols by
hitching them to alternate font face specifications for standard
code points in a non-standard way. This does nothing for the
universality of the HTML so generated.
<p/> In the near future, we can expect rather wide availability of
Unicode fonts with good coverage of symbols, which should make life
easier for those who need to represent mathematics.
<dt>XML<dd> The core of the range of new standards is
XML, which provides a framework for better structured markup;
limited support for it has already appeared in some browsers.
<p/> Conversion of (La)TeX source to XML is already available
(through TeX4ht at least), and work continues in that arena. The
alternative, authoring in XML (thus producing documents that
are immediately Web-friendly, if not ready) and using (La)TeX to
typeset is also well advanced. One useful technique is
<a href="FAQ-SGML2TeX.html"><em>transforming</em> the XML to LaTeX</a>,
using an XSLT stylesheet or code for an XML library,
and then simply using LaTeX; alternatively, one may
<a href="FAQ-readML.html">typeset direct from the XML source</a>.
<dt>Direct representation of mathematics<dd>
MathML is a standard for representing maths on the Web; its
original version was distinctly limited, but version 2 of MathML
has had major browser support since 2002 with richness of mathematical
content for online purposes approaching that of TeX for print.
Browser support for MathML is provided by <i>amaya</i>, the
‘Open Source’ browser <i>mozilla</i> (and its derivatives
including <i>NetScape</i>, <i>Firefox</i> and <i>Galeon</i>) and
<i>Internet Explorer</i> when equipped with a suitable plug-in
such as <i>MathPlayer</i>.
There’s evidence that (La)TeX users are starting to use such
browsers. Some believe that XHTML+MathML now provides
better online viewing than PDF.
Work to produce XHTML+MathML is well advanced in both the
TeX4ht and <i>TtH</i> projects for (La)TeX conversion.
<p/> An approach different from (La)TeX conversion is taken by
the <a href="http://www.albany.edu/~hammond/gellmu/"><em>GELLMU</em> Project</a>.
Its <em>article</em> XML document type, which has a markup vocabulary
close to LaTeX that can be edited using LaTeX-like markup
(even though it is not LaTeX — so far), comes with translators
that make both PDF (via <em>pdflatex</em>) and
XHTML+MathML. Such an approach avoids the inherent
limitations of the “traditional” (La)TeX translation processes,
which have traps that can be sprung by unfettered use of (La)TeX
markup.
<dt>Graphics<dd>
SVG is a standard for graphics representation on the web.
While the natural use is for converting existing figures,
representations of formulas are also possible, in place of the separate
bitmaps that have been used in the past (and while we wait for the
wider deployment of MathML).
<p/> Browser plug-ins, that deal with SVG are already available
(Adobe offer one, for example). More recently, the open source
graphics editor <a href="http://www.inkscape.org/"><i>Inkscape</a></i>
has appeared, and has been reported to be useful for
SVG-related work in at least one TeX-related project. Be
aware that the developers of <i>Inkscape</i> have no illusions
about being able to replace commercial software, yet…
<dt>Direct use of TeX markup<dd>
Some time back, IBM developed a browser plug-in called
TechExplorer, which would display (La)TeX documents direct in a
browser. Over the years, it developed into a MathML browser
plug-in, while still retaining its (La)TeX abilities, but it’s now
distributed (free for Linux and Windows platforms) by
<a href="http://www.integretechpub.com/">Integre Technical Publishing</a>.
<p/> The disadvantage of the TechExplorer approach is that it places the
onus on the browser user; and however technically proficient
<em>you</em> are, it’s never safe to assume too much of your readers.
An interesting alternative is
<a href="http://www.forkosh.com/mathtex.html">MathTeX</a>, which sits
on your server as a CGI script, and you use it to include
your TeX, in your HTML, as if it were an image:
<blockquote>
<pre>
<img src="/cgi-bin/mimetex.cgi?f(x)=\int\limits_{-\infty}^xe^{-t^2}dt">
</pre>
</blockquote><p>
(<i>Mathtex</i> supersedes the author’s earlier <i>mimetex</i>.)
</dl>
<dl>
<dt><tt><i>GELLMU</i></tt><dd><a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/support/gellmu.zip">support/gellmu</a> (or <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/support/gellmu/">browse the directory</a>)
<dt><tt><i>MathTeX</i></tt><dd><a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/support/mimetex/">support/mimetex/</a>
<dt><tt><i>MimeTeX</i></tt><dd><a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/support/mimetex/">support/mimetex/</a>
<dt><tt><i>TeX4HT</i></tt><dd><a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/support/TeX4ht/tex4ht-all.zip">support/TeX4ht/tex4ht-all.zip</a>
</dl>
<p/><p>This question on the Web: <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=mathml">http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=mathml</a>
</body>
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