Future WEB technologies and (La)TeX
An earlier question
("converting to HTML")
addresses the issue of converting existing (La)TeX documents for
viewing on the Web as HTML. All the present techniques are
somewhat flawed: the answer explains why.
However, things are changing, with
better font availability, cunning HTML programming and the
support for new Web standards.
- Font technologies
- Direct representation of mathematics in
browsers has been hampered up to now by the limited range of symbols
in the fonts one can rely on being available. In the near future,
we can expect rather wide availability of Unicode fonts with better
coverage of symbols.
- XML
- The core of the range of new standards is
XML, which provides a framework for better structured markup;
limited support for it has already appeared in some browsers.
Conversion of (La)TeX source to XML is already available
(through TeX4ht at least), and work continues in that arena. The
alternative, authoring in XML (thus producing documents that
are immediately Web-friendly, if not ready) and using (La)TeX to
typeset is also well advanced. One useful technique is
transforming the XML to LaTeX, using XSLT,
and then simply using LaTeX; alternatively, one may
typeset direct from the XML source.
- Direct represention of mathematics
-
MathML is a standard for representing maths on the Web; its
original version is distinctly limited, but efforts to give it
greater richness (approaching that of TeX) are under way.
Browser support for MathML (e.g., in amaya, a
version of the Netscape 'Open Source' browser mozilla and
in specially extended versions of Internet
Explorer) is becoming available. There's evidence that
(La)TeX users are starting to use such browsers.
Work, to produce MathML, is well advanced in both the
TeX4ht and TtH projects.
- Graphics
-
SVG is a standard for graphics representation on the web.
While the natural use is for converting existing figures,
representations of formulas are also possible, in place of the separate
bitmaps that have been used in the past (and while we wait for the
wide deployment of MathML).
Browser plug-ins, that deal with SVG are already available
(Adobe offer one, for example).
- Direct use of TeX markup
-
Some time back, IBM developed a browser plug-in called
TechExplorer, which would display (La)TeX documents direct in a
browser. Over the years, it developed into a MathML browser
plug-in, while still retaining its (La)TeX abilities, but it's now
distributed (free for Linux and Windows platforms) by
Integre Technical Publishing.
The disadvantage of the TechExplorer approach is that it places the
onus on the browser user; and however technically proficient
you are, it's never safe to assume too much of your readers.
An interesting alternative is MimeTeX, which sits on your server
as a CGI script, and you use it to include your TeX, in
your HTML, as if it were an image:
<img src="../cgi-bin/mimetex.cgi?f(x)=\int\limits_{-\infty}^xe^{-t^2}dt">
- MimeTeX
- support/mimetex (zip, browse)
This question on the Web: http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=mathml