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The existing ways of putting math on the web are all already here too, and have been for a long time. Apart from the old way of generating images by running TeX
by svat 5y ago
The existing ways of putting math on the web are all already here too, and have been for a long time. Apart from the old way of generating images by running TeX (still used by Wikipedia, for instance), both of the most common libraries used for typesetting (MathJax and KaTeX) can produce either HTML+CSS or SVG which are well-supported by browsers, and both of them (KaTeX since the beginning, and MathJax since version 3.0) can be run server-side so that no JavaScript needs to run on the user's browser. And regardless of whether or when the "native in-browser" rendering of MathML becomes good enough and widespread enough, the "native in-browser" rendering of HTML+CSS and SVG will continue to exist and be well-supported. (See the last section of http://bit-player.org/2020/mathjax-turns-3-0 http://bit-player.org/2020/mathjax-turns-3-0 for some interesting conclusions.)
- mindcrime 5y agoI don't disagree that the existing non-MathML approaches have merit. I think I even alluded to that already above. My comment was meant mainly to address the specific case of the people screaming "Why not just implement LateX in the browser, instead of MathML in the browser" or whatever. To which I say, again, "go ahead, and let us know when it's ready." As it stands, every approach that we have for putting math on the web has short-comings - including MathML. Nonetheless, I think having a well known, widely supported, standardized way of natively rendering math in the browser - without needing extra Javascript libraries or extra server-side processing, is a Good Thing. Note what I'm very explicitly not saying: "MathML is the be all end all" or "MathML is the very best way to put math on the web now and forever", or "MathML is better than TeX / LaTex", etc. I just think this is Good News, and I'm excited to see tis move forward. I also hope MathJax continues to develop (there was some noise at one time about MathJax interoperating with native browser MathML rendering, but I'm not sure where that stands), as well as whatever other ideas people find appealing. More clean/elegant ways to put math content on the web is always good, IMO.