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:

• Putting your raw PostScript online. This works only as long as your reader has either a PostScript printer or the means to view PostScript files, as with GhostScript, for example -- and the patience to wait for the download. In this case, however, your entire document is encapsulated in the PostScript file and immutable.
• Writing HTML 3.0 math. As far as i can tell, only Arena supports this, and the HTML 3.0 draft has expired by now.
• LaTEX-based packages like LaTeX2HTML or Hyperlatex. These are programs that try to convert documents from the popular LaTEX mathematics typesetting program to HTML format. Here are some of the differences between LaTEX conversion and MINSE.
• WebEQ, a project at the UMN Geometry Center. This is a Java applet that you download and run in your browser, which renders the equations in your browser window. Here are some of the differences between WebEQ and MINSE.

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.

• The expressions are right in your HTML document. There are no other files to edit or deal with. Making changes is easy.
• Writing expressions with MINSE is simple and concise.
• You don't need to install any software to use MINSE. All the work is done by the polymediator.
• Your readers don't need to install any software to use MINSE. All the work is done by the polymediator.
• You can look at your HTML source code and know what it will look like. You can preview it immediately if you want to be sure.
• You don't need a workstation to use MINSE. All you need is a text editor, which you can find just as easily on a Macintosh or a DOS machine as on a Unix box.
• WebEQ is better at scaling. Images produced by the renderer in this implementation don't break lines or scale when you change the size of the surrounding text...
• ...but this is just the first implementation, and since MINSE expressions contain the semantics of the communication, they will last while implementations may come and go. While support is being developed for other media or for other browsers, you can be confident that you don't need to change any of your documents to chase a moving target.