fred-wang / mozsummitmathml

Slides for the Innovation Fair of Mozilla Summit 2013

MozSummitMathML

Slides for the Innovation Fair of Mozilla Summit 2013

• Open index.html in a Gecko browser.
• Press space to start the looping slideshow or pause it.
• Use left and right arrows to navigate between slides.

Additional resources:

1. History: Mozilla MathML Project Update ; History of the Mozilla Project ; Mozilla mascot ; History of the World Wide Web ; HTML version timeline ; HTML 3.0 <MATH> ; Introducing the Mozilla Science Lab

2. MathML demos ; install math fonts for best rendering.

   • MathML Start Page in various languages: English, Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Thai
   • MathML Demos: Basics, Extras, Instiki, jquery-mathml, Jacques Distler's Blog
   • MathML Tests: Mozilla Torture Test, Joe Java's test, MathML Acid Tests
   • arXMLiv Project: Pick one of the 658847 output files from No Problems, Warning or Missing Macros or Error and open the xhtml file. Here I did it for you: 1206.7017, 0704.1173, cond-mat.0611593, math.0211411, quant-ph.0102023, alg-geom.9202012, 0804.2714, astro-ph.0409266, 1206.7094... That gives a success rate of about 60% and a conversion of 95% of the arXMLiv LaTeX papers.
   • Wikipedia: Try a random math article like Normal_distribution. Currently, PNG images are used for all anonymous users. If you want to enable MathJax in Wikipedia, you must create a user account. Once logged in, go to Preference → Appearance → Math and select "MathJax". By default, the MathJax HTML-CSS output is used. To select the Native MathML output, right click on a formula and select Math Settings → Math Renderer → MathML. You may also try the SVG output. - Connexions. See also Mathematics E-learning Community Benefits from MathJax.

3. MathML in Gecko applications - Firefox: See the demos above ;-) - FireMath: Install the FireMath add-on in Firefox. After restart, the editor is accessible from Tools → FireMath. - EPUBReader: Install the add-on and restart. You can import the linear-algebra example and read it. - Thunderbird: See Writing-mathematics-in-emails and MathML and ThunderBird. In your preference, be sure that your mails are "sent as HTML". When writing an email, you can then use Insert → HTML to insert some MathML code. Of course, you probably don't want to do that by hand, so use one of the MathML authoring tools described below. For example, the MathBird add-on gives you access to a menu Insert → MathML that opens an ASCIIMathML parser with preview. You can try to send your email to various mail clients to see how they handle the MathML equations. - InstantBird: Install the MathJax LaTeX plugin. By default, the MathJax HTML-CSS output mode is used, you can switch to the native MathML output by right clicking on a formula and selecting Math Settings → Math Renderer → MathML. - BlueGriffon: Buy and install the MathML add-on. (Not tested)

4. Authoring tools

   • For Gecko-based authoring tools: See above ;-)
   • AsciiMathML, MathJax and more. You can try the online demos to test the ASCII and LaTeX input: AsciiMath and MathJax. See Client Side Conversion for quick hints on how to use them on your pages.
   • itex2MML, LaTeXML and more: See Command line Programs for how to install and use them. itex2MML is used by instiki and you can play with the Sandbox. For LaTeXML, it is recommended to use the development version for now as the release is very old ; you can try the LaTeXML/ directory on this repository for an example and various configurations. There is also an online LaTeX editor with on-the-fly preview.
   • By default, LibreOffice uses a "semi-WYSIWYG" editor that is, you enter a simple "StarMath" syntax and you have access to a math preview and to an equation panel with predefined constructions. There is an experimental WYSIWYG editor that you can enable in "Tools → Options → Advanced → Experimental Features". LibreOffice has a standalone Formula Editor but you can also create formulas in a normal text document using "Insert → Object → Formula". You can convert this document into a Web page using "File → Export → XHTML". Note that the MathML code generated by LibreOffice is very bad at the moment but this will be improved in version 4.2.
   • Handwriting Recognition: Go to webdemo.visionobjects and select "Web Equation". On recent Windows versions, you can also try the "Math Input Panel" to transmit MathML to programs supporting the "MathML Clipboard Specification" (see getting involved below). Watch this video for an example of handwriting recognition in the Samsung Galaxy Note

5. Future - MediaWiki. Note: these are prototype and testing machine for development purpose, so you may experience some latency and meet other bugs.

   • Registered users can test Wikipedia with the experimental MathJax mode (see above).
   • For server-side TeX-to-MathML conversion via LaTeXML and Native MathML Gecko rendering, there is a WMFlabs instance here: Discrete Fourier Transform. Click "random page" if you want to read more articles.
   • You can also try a Math Search. - MathJax:
   • MathJax 2.3 will add support for new Open Type Fonts. Clone this GitHub branch and try the open-type-fonts.html test on this repository. Right click on a formula and select Math Settings → Font Preference to test Asana Math, Neo Euler, Latin Modern etc Note: be sure that open-type-fonts.html points to a local server (because of the Same-origin policy) and that the "unpacked" version of the open-type-fonts branch is used.
   • Benetech has a prototype implementation of MathSpeak in MathJax (not tested). Other tools like ChromeVox or MathPlayer or Apple VoiceOver in iOS7 also have this feature. Watch Advancing Web Accessibility with ChromeVox or Spoken Mathematics on the Web for an example. Mozilla had FireVox, but unfortunately it seems that it is no longer maintained and not compatible with the most recent version of Firefox. An experimental MathML support for NVDA has recently been provided by James Teh. Also, MathML nodes are not exposed as a hierachical accessible tree bug 916419 (see getting involved below).
   • There have been a few improvements to WebKit MathML. Try a Nightly build or check how to build one of the port. Two tracking bugs: Basic Support and MathJax. - Getting involved:
   • Complete Gecko's MathML support (bugs 534959 and 525772).
   • Fix issues that prevent Gecko's Native MathML from being the default in MathJax: bug 687809. The missing features are included in the previous point but there are a few layout bugs too.
   • Improve Font Installation 770005, 467729 and 648548
   • Add support for more Open Type Math fonts: bug 407059
   • Make the editor aware of MathML: bug 78128. See editor.html for more details.
   • Implement MathML Clipboard Specification: bug 539506. Watch this video for an example. Note that the Firefox context menu has a command to show the MathML source but it would be best to directly copy the math into the clipboard that having to select the MathML source!
   • Create an EPUB reader or other math tools for FirefoxOS! Again, watch the video mentioned above for the Samsung Galaxy Note. You might want to try EPUBReader.
   • Make MathML accessible in Firefox: bug 916419, bug 917598. Also, make FireVox work in recent versions of Firefox. It seems that there was an updated version called ML-FireVox at some point, but the Web site is down. An NVDA try build with experimental MathML support has recently been provided by James Teh and works with Firefox Windows Nightly ;
     try to read accessibility.html with that tool.
   • See also MathML, MathMLProject MathML:HomePage.