DOCBOOK-APPS: Re: XSL implementation of DBTeXMath

[Norman Walsh <ndw at nwalsh dot com>]

/ Jirka Kosek <jirka@kosek.cz> was heard to say:
| A text (or other nonvisual) description of a graphical element. This is
| intended to be an alternative to the graphical presentation. 

As Mike pointed out, the intent here was really some sort of plain
text description, not another machine readable form.

| I suggested using alt over adding new element by DocBook customization
| as in initial DBTeXMath release from Allin there on DocBook list. No one
| disagreed, so I though that using TeX inside of alt is nothing wrong.

Sorry if I missed the earlier thread. I don't think it's wrong
exactly, just a little bit of a stretch.

| > <inlineequation>
| > <inlinemediaobject>
| > <imageobject>
| > <imagedata fileref="eq1.gif"/>
| > </imageobject>
| > <textobject><phrase>E=mc squared</phrase></textobject>
| > <textobject role="tex"><phrase>E=mc^2</phrase></textobject>
| > </inlinemediaobject>
| > </inlineequation>
| 
| I think that I'm understand you point there. But if someone wants to
| read document with many equations he will probably have graphical client
| and will be able to see equations as images and won't need text
| alternative at all. To me "E=mc squared" is less understable notation
| than E=mc^2. I agree that using TeX in DocBook is a hack and if you want
| be fully semantic and allow smooth text to speach etc. you should use
| MathML. IMHO using "E=mc squared" won't help to users in terms of
| accessibility and reusability. Thus using TeX directly in alt may be
| acceptable. If someone wants all benefits of highly structural he can go
| MathML way.

Well, I can easily imagine that I might want the alt-text for the
equation graphic to be something other than the TeX markup that
produces the graphic for the HTML publication of my document.

It's not hard to produce TeX equations that are completely opaque to
the uninitiated. Perhaps this is a better example:

<inlineequation>
<inlinemediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="a2b2c2.png"/>
</imageobject>
<textobject><phrase>The Quadratic Formula</phrase></textobject>
<textobject role="tex"><phrase>a^2+b^2=c^2</phrase></textobject>
</inlinemediaobject>
</inlineequation>

                                        Be seeing you,
                                          norm

-- 
Norman Walsh <ndw@nwalsh.com>      | It is not impossibilities which
http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/ | fill us with the deepest despair,
Chair, DocBook Technical Committee | but possibilities which we have
                                   | failed to realize.--Robert Mallet