MathML Setup
From Privateer
Contents |
MathML Support
Overview
MathML support is actually pretty easy to get on most (Windows) computers these days. You can just install a plugin for IE or some fonts for Firefox and go. Support for Mac OS X exists, but only with Mozilla 1.3a and a few fonts. Firefox (with fonts) will try to display the equations, but there are a few bugs that prevent them from showing up right.
Take a look at the MathML Test Page to see how well your browser does.
Windows
Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer with the MathPlayer plugin gives really good MathML support. Equations render really well, there's no oddball characters or garbage printed around the equation. Get the MathPlayer plugin here (comes with fonts).
Firefox
Without any modifications, the only real problem with FireFox's MathML on Windows is the square root symbol, and other stretchies. The stretchy part displays as black blocks. However, it's easy to fix, just install MIT's MathML fonts.
For all the gory details, see Firefox's MathML Fonts page.
Other Mozilla/Gecko
Mozilla itself should work ok. Apparently Thunderbird (the Mozilla mail program) will/does work too? Other Gecko-based browsers may or may not support MathML.
Mac OS X
You're pretty much out of luck, due to bugs with Firefox. It sort of works.
Mozilla 1.3a with fonts works great, but why would you want to load up an old browser just to read some math?
There aren't any other browsers for Mac OS X with MathML support that I'm aware of.
Linux/BSD/Unix
I tested Mozilla v1.something on RedHat 9. Seemed to work ok (though I was missing fonts). I would guess it works about like the Windows version once you have the fonts installed.
Summary
| Internet Explorer (No MathPlayer) | Internet Explorer (With MathPlayer) | Firefox 1.0.7+ | Mozilla 1.3a+ | Other Gecko | Other Non-Gecko | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Windows | Pages won't display | Works great | Works great with Fonts | Works great with Fonts | Maybe? | Pages probably won't display |
| Mac OS X | No, and you shouldn't be using it anyway | No Mac MathPlayer Plugin | Sort Of (problems with square roots, etc.) | Works great with fonts | Maybe? | Pages probably won't display |
| Other Linux/BSD/Unix | n/a | n/a | With Fonts | With Fonts | Maybe? | Pages probably won't display |
Non Supported Browser Issue
Internet Explorer without the MathPlayer plugin, and probably every other browser that doesn't support MathML, fails miserably. The problem is that MathML requires the page's content-type to be 'application/xhtml+xml', rather than the normal 'text/html'. The browser doesn't know what to do with this, so it tries to download it or displays it as plain text or something.
