Re: [LaTeXML] Fwd: Special TeX/LaTeX fonts in MathML (calligraphy vs. script)

Le 17/07/2014 21:39, David Carlisle a =E9crit :
 > MathML is rendered by css and non css systems so I think _unless_ we =

extend mathml (or more to the point extend Unicode)  the least effort =

way for the user (and mathml generators) tp get cross system support for =

calligraphic would be to agree a class name such as <mi =

class=3D"calligraphic" mathvariant=3D"script"> then any css based renderer =

can use standard css selectors to do as you showed but say MS Word or =

mathematica or TeX or APP/3B2 or any number of other non css renderers =

can also produce calligraphic.  Nothing of course prevents authors using =

arbitrary css selectors and arbitrary css styling with the standard =

fallback that that styling is ignored in non css systems, but a =

standardised class name (which is hardly a novel idea) allows a wider =

range of systems to understand the markup.

As I see, the HTML and SVG specs only say that the class attribute is =

used for general processing and affects CSS selectors. Adding reserved =

class names to indicate special rendering behavior *without* assuming =

CSS involvement is new to me, so I'm not sure at this point whether this =

is good or bad thing. As I see, this is just standardizing what MathJax =

does in order to avoid for the MathML WG issues with mathvariant/unicode =

and RelaxNG changes... but is it really a good design from a =

standardization point of view or is it just a quick solution used as a =

pragmatic approach? It seems that even adding new presentation =

attributes or defining mathvariant=3D"calligraphic" to temporarily behave =

differently than the other mathvariant values would be less confusing =

for CSS users.

I think it would be good to have the opinion of someone from Mozilla, =

here as I don't really like the idea to follow non css systems to define =

the MathML spec.

 > there would be no clash with css all I'm suggesting is that you could =

add something for mi.calligraphic to the mathml css that you already have.

So if someone decides to do .calligraphic { color: red; } to change the =

color of some HTML elements, he will suddenly see all the MathML =

formulas generated by a third-party tools in red (well that will happen =

even if the names are not reserved, but at least the MathML spec remains =

neutral). If he decides to use some class=3D"calligraphic" on some MathML =

elements for another purpose than the one in the MathML spec, the =

elements will unexpectedly have the specific style applied to them. I =

believe the trend in Gecko is currently to remove arbitrary values from =

the MathML user agent stylesheet (e.g. default font-family on the <math> =

element) to have a minimum set of rules and make the behavior more =

predictable for Web authors. Adding reserved class names for MathML-only =

is likely to lead to the opposite effect for people that are used to CSS =

but don't know the details of the MathML spec. Personally, I'd prefer to =

let people specify their own CSS themselves rather than trying to =

magically do something that they may not actually want.

-- =

Fr=E9d=E9ric Wang
maths-informatique-jeux.com/blog/frederic