My understanding is that latex2html takes the opposite approach--it
tries to produce HTML, and resorts to using TeX to produce dvi files
when it can't figure out what to do. In particular, latex2html cannot
embed active links in the middle of TeX-produced output--for example,
to allow you to make the limits of a definite integral be active
regions that can be clicked on to take you to other documents.
Here's a more realistic example of what I'd like to be able to do:
Create a formula, typeset by TeX, such that clicking on any symbol in
the formula causes a separate window to pop up with that symbol's
definition. Note that this requires two new facilities:
* the ability for TeX to tell the displayer to assign a link to
a particular region of its output.
* the ability for TeX to tell the displayer to pop up a new window rather
than replacing the contents of the current window (rather than
requiring the user to perform an awkward sequence of mouse clicks
to tell the displayer to do it).
Leslie Lamport
P.S. I will be going out of town, so I'll be signing off after today
and will not participate in the discussion for a while.