Re: small phi font problem

Hi Bill,

On Feb 2, 9:58 pm, William F Hammond <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> I suppose most of us interested in math know the LaTeX names
> \phi (straight) and \varphi (curly).
>
> The current (version 2) xhtml+mathml dtd flags U-03C6 as varphi
> (a name from LaTeX) and U-03D5 as straightphi.  Those characters
> display in my -u8 xterm as the DTD indicates and in a way
> that is consistent with the "stixgeneral" beta font.
>
> However, their display in mathml segments by Firefox 2 with pre-
> stixbeta Mozilla-recommended fonts, both in linux and windows, has
> always been reversed for me.  (One of those old fonts must have it
> wrong.)
>
> Question 1.  Why use the plane 1 versions rather than U-03C6 and
> U-03D5?  Will the version 3 DTD reflect this change?
>
Since I am using mathml generated by MathType (Design Science) with
swapped phi fonts and Firefox 2 used to swap them again for mathml
(before the STIX fonts), I've got everything right. But I agree, that
using the same convention for embed phi font in a text and for mathml
expressions does make more sense.

One has only to make sure that this convention will be adapted by
other browsers with mathml support, as Opera (Firefox 3 will take over
Firefox 1). IE and MathPlayer should probably have to make some
changes.

>
> Question 2.  Is there a reasonable way for a Firefox user to
> determine what font provides the glyph under the mouse in
> her display?
I was thinking that the browser could easily swap among the glyphs for
a mathml expressions only, by using CSS or other means.

I am still puzzled why FireFox 3, using the same STIX fonts, renders
the phi differently on Windows and on Mac ?

Cheers, Samy