[Axiom-developer] Re: New version of jsMath

[Bob McElrath]

Hello again Davide,

I installed jsMath 2.0 yesterday and it is quite impressive, you've come
a long way!

As you remember, we are working on a browser-based interface to the
computer algebra system.  We have decided to incorporate the SVG and
MathML technologies for this.  While jsMath is a wonderful stepping
stone, it is too slow to render the quantity of math that would appear
in a "worksheet".

Instead, how about using jsMath to convert tex to MathML?  I tried to do
this trivially by creating a XHTML+SVG+MathML page with jsMath, but I
find:
    1) jsMath uses document.write() to add math.  this is incompatible
    with XHTML.  One should instead use DOM-based methods such as
    appendChild, removeChild, etc.
    2) jsMath uses upper case tags in all cases.  (XHTML requires
    lower-case tags)

I think full XHTML-ization of jsMath will not make it incompatible with
existing implementations that use HTML 4.0, as the DOM is still there in
both cases (with minor differences), and one would just disable MathML
when the parent DOCTYPE doesn't support it.

I tried this using your competing tool, ASCIIMathML, but frankly your
tex parsing is far superior to theirs, so I'd like to insert MathML
output into your tex parsing machinery.

I have partially XHTML-ized jsMath.js (file here:
http://mcelrath.org:9674/ZiddlyWiki2/jsMath/jsMath.js) but as I
mentioned due to document.write[ln] it will not work in XHTML.

Would you be opposed to making jsMath XHTML-compatible?  Would you be
opposed to adding a MathML rendering path?

Could you give me any pointers as to how to proceed?  I can convert your
document.write[ln]'s but I am unsure how/where to insert MathML.  I
assume in Typeset() but I keep looking at this code and it keeps being
very opaque to me.

--
Cheers,
Bob McElrath [Univ. of California at Davis, Department of Physics]

    "One of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen
    these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding
    fathers used in the great struggle for independence." --Charles A. Beard

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