[Bibulus-dev] Re: Math

[Torsten Bronger]

Halloechen!

address@hidden (Thomas M. Widmann) writes:

> "Torsten Bronger" <address@hidden> writes:
>
> [...]
>
>> >> Probably it's wise to switch to something like the following
>> >> 
>> >> <!ENTITY % inline "(#PCDATA | b | i | t | math)*">
>> >> 
>> >> for all inline content models eventually.  Most DTDs do something
>> >> like this.  Alternatively, you can use the "mml:" namespace for
>> >> math.  It's possibly more secure, but I think it just makes typing
>> >> more difficult.
>> >
>> > Indeed, but of course math is probably the exception in
>> > bibliographies.  Something to consider.
>> 
>> Well, if you don't use it, you don't feel its presence in the DTD.
>> But you're right, it should not distract you from creating the core
>> of your DTD.
>
> What I meant was that using the mml: namespace wouldn't be too bad
> because it would get used relatively seldom, but that of course it
> would be more convenient leaving it out.

Oh -- okay.

> [...]
>
>> >> > [...]
>> >> >
>> >> >> For LaTeX (or BibTeX), you have to convert it with e.g. XSLT.  But
>> >> >> this has been done already by numerous people.
>> >> >
>> >> > Has it?  Do you have a reference?  And is any implementation of it
>> >> > released under the GNU license so that we can include it?
>> >> 
>> >> I did it for my tbook DTD.  But you have to extract the MathML code,
>> >> I'm afraid.
>> >
>> > How difficult would that be, you think?
>> 
>> Rough estimate: one weekend.
>
> Thanks.

I cannot promise the whether and the when of course.

> [...]
>
>> But I've seen some examples of XML-->LaTeX conversion directly in
>> Perl in a book (The LaTeX Web Companion by Goosens/Rahtz).  It's not
>> as elegant as in XSLT, but it works.  However using this for MathML
>> is totally new I think.  You could not use existing code.
>
> And so, it would take a lot of time.

Or, you concentrate on the most important elements.  *Nobody* has
ever implemented the whole of MathML, and probably nobody will.
Sub- and superscripts, roots, operators, variables, and numbers can
be enough.

Another possibility is an <m> element that takes #PCDATA which is a
LaTeX formula, but with very restricted syntax.  This can be used
immediately for LaTeX output (which is the most important at the
moment anyway) and can be translated probably very easily with Perl
to MathML.  For example tbook offers both <math> and <m>.

> [...]
>
>> >> (And I'm still looking for a good BibTeX replacement in tbook. ;-))
>> >
>> > It certainly would be very easy to make an output module called
>> > Bibulus::tbook which would output the bibliography in tbook XML.
>> 
>> This is not necessary.  I can import e.g. raw or cooked DocBook
>> bibliographies, and maybe even the Bibulus XML file itself.
>
> You know that better.  But if you can use DocBook bibliographies, what
> is it that you need for tbook?

I cannot use them right now, but I could extend tbook to read a
DocBook bibliography, especially a cooked one.  But where should
that come from?  BibTeX can't do that, and if I compile my
bibliography in DocBook directly, I don't know how to use that for
my LaTeX documents.

Therefore I'm useing BibTeX in a very awkward way at the moment, and
wait until a good XML replacement comes into existence.

Tschoe,
Torsten.