Re: More than just HTML (was Re: Poetry and Maths)

Neal Holtz (nholtz@civeng.carleton.ca)
Tue, 25 May 93 11:30:56 EDT

Thomas A. Fine writes:
>
> I really think we're going the wrong way here. HTML was always meant
> to be a small, even minimal document type. The promised strong point
> of the web would be multiple document types, all tied together within
> a structure of HTML documents.
>
There is certainly a danger of a very good idea becoming bloated with
too many things. On the other hand, as one example ...

> HTML only provides the framework by which lots of other document types
> are accessed. You want to do lot's of neat TeX things? Use TeX.

The kind of documents I am most interested in are about 50\% math
and 50\% text with {\em lots} of cross-references. It is important
that the math appear in-line with the document. A typical unit (node)
is 1/2 page. I worry about performance if, for example, the math
portion is farmed out to TeX/xdvi for rendering, and I wonder whether
an acceptable cacheing scheme can be found (perhaps it can).

I was attracted to HTML for this purpose because of the nice tools
that are now available, in contrast to other mechanisms.

-- 
Prof. Neal Holtz,  Dept. of Civil Eng.,  Carleton University,  Ottawa,  Canada
Internet: nholtz@civeng.carleton.ca  Ph: (613)788-2600x5797 Fax: (613)788-3951