[Bug-gnupedia] LaTeX, XML, MathML

[Thomas E. Vaughan]

On Fri, Jan 19, 2001 at 11:36:55PM +1100, Edmund Lam wrote:
>
> Thomas Vaughan wrote:
>
> > That seems like a fun project in itself.  Surely someone has started
> > working on translating TeX math expressions into MathML.

After a quick search I have found quite a bit of stuff on integrating TeX,
XML, and MathML.

> Just a little point. I thought LaTeX stores what the equation looks like.
> MathML attempts to store the actual meaning of the equation so that
> automated programs such as Mathematica can fiddle with it.

Actually, in MathML, one can choose either to represent a mathematical
expression with presentation tags or to represent it with semantic tags.
Also, LaTeX macros provide quite a bit of semantic meaning.  For example,
$\sqrt{2}$ obviously means "the square-root of 2."  Nevertheless, a LaTeX
math expression often contains both semantic and presentation information
mixed together.

> Not that a LaTeX-2-MathML cannot (or would not) be done, but even better
> would to to get MathML tools into the mathematical community ASAP.

There is very little chance that any system easier to use than LaTeX for
writing mathematical content will come along soon.  MathML is WAY too
cumbersome to write natively, and mouse-menu equation editors are WAY too
slow if there is a lot of math content.  We need to be able to use LaTeX:
the quality of the printed material that it produces is far better than
anything else, and the mark-up notation is more convenient and complete
than anything else.  Moreover pdflatex produces a searchable PDF file that
contains both internal links and URLs that can be handed to a Web browser
from the PDF viewerk, and that PDF file renders beautifully with
antialasing.

-- 
Thomas E. Vaughan <address@hidden>
CIMMS/NSSL, Norman, OK, USA