MINSE: [index]
design - syntax - usage - notations - styles - contexts - why? - demo
LaTEX - WebEQ

Why MINSE?

You may have heard of or seen some other schemes for getting mathematics on the Web, like LaTeX2HTML, Hyperlatex, or the more recent Java script, WebEQ. Why use a new system like MINSE instead?

Objectives of this project

Clearly there is a need to be able to communicate mathematical and scientific ideas on the Web, but in many cases these concepts need to be represented symbolically. The sad fact is that practically every major browser manufacturer feels that mathematics support isn't important enough to their market share to bother implementing it (or perhaps that blinking, coloured, or scrolling text is more important than symbolic expression).

MINSE tries to fill this need with a solution that is easy to use immediately, but still leaves room for extension. One of the most important objectives is for the communication of such concepts to be accessible to as many people as possible, and to have it work right now. The only way to get equations to reliably show up in graphical browsers is to insert images, and in character-based browsers is to insert preformatted text.

If you want to communicate with mathematics on the Web now, the only options (i know of) other than MINSE are:

If you need to put up a big LaTEX document on the web and you've already got all the necessary tools installed, it's probably worth the effort to try running it through a converter. But for quick and direct expression when you're authoring anything new, or if you're looking for something that will remain useful to the widest possible audience, i think MINSE has many advantages.


copyright © by Ping (e-mail) updated Wed 19 Jun 1996 at 03:11 JST
since Mon 17 Jun 1996