RE: [dita] MathML entities issue in DITA 1.3

[Tarun Garg <tarung@adobe.com>]

Hi Robert & Eliot,

I was re-thinking this entire e-conversation. Sorry for the (long) pause :).  Last couple of months; it has been really crazy at my end.

I agree to Eliot, that there is no magic to those entities & those characters/codepoints can still be typed/added through numeric representation.

Still, if we go ahead with it in current form (i.e. by default the MathML markup's entities module is excluded in the DITA 1.3 DTDs.), than the question is - How 'MathML support added in DITA 1.3' is being presented to the users ?
In my understanding, the story can be any one of the following:
 - (Story-A) Hence for using the inline MathML, you need to use/type the numeric (or hex) character representation, which otherwise are defined as entities in the standard MathML markup.
Or
-  (Story-B) Hence the people who want to use inline MathML in their documentation, should include the MathML markup's entities module by enabling the corresponding flag. (But this can cause interoperability issues; would look like 2 different flavors of DITA 1.3 - one with it & one without)
Or
-  (Story-C) Hence, for using MathML in your documentation; strictly avoid using inline MathML. Store your MathML documents independently of the DITA markup, and reference them with the <mathmlref> element.

Please suggest ?

Regards,
Tarun Garg | Adobe Systems | +91-120-2444711 | tarung@adobe.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Eliot Kimber [mailto:ekimber@contrext.com] 
Sent: Monday, March 16, 2015 9:54 PM
To: Tarun Garg; Robert D Anderson
Cc: dita@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: Re: [dita] MathML entities issue in DITA 1.3

The use of named entities in MathML is simply a convenience and is in no way mandatory--every entity maps to a Unicode character that can be directly typed or represented by a normal numeric character reference.
There is no magic to those entities.

Cheers,

E.
—————
Eliot Kimber, Owner
Contrext, LLC
http://contrext.com




On 3/16/15, 9:26 AM, "Tarun Garg" <tarung@adobe.com> wrote:

>Hi Robert,
> 
>Well, if that is the right way to use MathML with DITA, then shouldn’t 
>we remove the MathML markup from DITA (effectively removing inline 
>MathML support). And  provide only <mathmlref>.
> 
>Regards,
> 
>Tarun Garg
>Computer Scientist, Adobe Systems Inc.
>
> 
>From: Robert D Anderson [mailto:robander@us.ibm.com]
>
>Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2015 6:23 PM
>To: Tarun Garg
>Cc: dita@lists.oasis-open.org
>Subject: Re: [dita] MathML entities issue in DITA 1.3
>
>
> 
>Hi Tarun,
>
>That is intentional. The problem with adding those entities in a DTD is 
>that they cannot be confined to the MathML markup. So, if we include 
>them in the Math markup, which is included in DITA, all of those 
>entities become available in any DITA topic, anywhere.
> A lot of my customers noticed that when we tried an early beta of the 
>math markup, and it didn't go over well (particularly among those who 
>didn't actually use the Math markup).
>
>The best way to get around this is probably to store your MathML 
>documents independently of the DITA markup, and reference them with the 
><mathmlref> element. For example, the DITA markup could be this:
><fig>
><title>My equation will appear here</title> <mathml><mathmlref 
>href="MathFragment.xml"/></mathml>
></fig>
>
>When the math file is stored externally, it can (and should) use the 
>original MathML DTD, which includes the full range of entities.
>Processors should import this math content and treat it as they would 
>any math markup directly within the topic. Entities will  be understood 
>based on the definitions in the original DTD.
>
>Robert D Anderson
>IBM Authoring Tools Development
>Chief Architect, DITA Open Toolkit (http://www.dita-ot.org/)
>
>Tarun
> Garg ---03/12/2015 06:25:37---I was looking at the MathML DTD fileset 
>in the DITA 1.3 DTDs. In the file "mathml3-ditadriver.dtd",
>
>From: Tarun Garg <tarung@adobe.com>
>To: "dita@lists.oasis-open.org" <dita@lists.oasis-open.org>
>Date: 03/12/2015 06:25
>Subject: [dita] MathML entities issue in DITA 1.3 Sent by: 
><dita@lists.oasis-open.org> ________________________________________
>
>
>
>
>
>I was looking at the MathML DTD fileset in the DITA 1.3 DTDs. In the 
>file "mathml3-ditadriver.dtd", the following setting excludes the 
>MathML
>entities:
>
><!-- DITA-specific: Don't allow use of general text entities. DITA 
>documents should not
>    have any general text entity references.
> -->
><!ENTITY % mathml-charent.module "IGNORE" >
>
>From the comment along with it, this seems to be intentional. But then 
>how will MathML actually work with DITA 1.3, if these entities cannot 
>be included in the DITA files ?
>
>
>Regards,
>Tarun Garg | Adobe Systems | +91-120-2444711 | tarung@adobe.com
>
>
>