Arabic Mathematical Notation in Firefox 12

[Frédéric WANG]

Dear Arabic Mozilla Community,

As you know, Aurora 12 has recently been released [1]. This version
includes a new feature to write mathematical formulas from right to left
using MathML 3. Obviously, this may be relevant to some people from the
arabic community [2]. To use it, one only has to attach an attribute
dir=rtl to <math> elements. See for example [3]. To get a good rendering
of mathematical formulas, it is also important to have the STIX fonts
installed on your computer [4]. Any feedback or question on this new
feature is welcome!

Frédéric Wang

[1] http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/aurora/
[2] http://www.w3.org/TR/arabic-math/
[3]
http://www.w3.org/Math/testsuite/build/main/Topics/BiDi/Complex/Maghreb1-full.xhtml
[4] https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Mozilla_MathML_Project/Fonts

[Mohamed AMAROCHAN]

Hi,

That's great news!
We don't write mathematical formulas in Arabic here (Morocco, Arabic
country!). In contrast, the author of this code is a Moroccan!
Here is an article (in Arabic) about that story: http://itwadi.com/node/2319

I tested the code, it is rendering correctly.
But, using Firefox & Android 4, the RTL attribution is not working
correctly (still better than other browsers of course), see picture:

[image: Screenshot_2012-02-05-13-48-27.png]

Mohamed


2012/2/5 Frédéric WANG <fred...@free.fr>

> Dear Arabic Mozilla Community,
>
> As you know, Aurora 12 has recently been released [1]. This version
> includes a new feature to write mathematical formulas from right to left
> using MathML 3. Obviously, this may be relevant to some people from the
> arabic community [2]. To use it, one only has to attach an attribute
> dir=rtl to <math> elements. See for example [3]. To get a good rendering of
> mathematical formulas, it is also important to have the STIX fonts
> installed on your computer [4]. Any feedback or question on this new
> feature is welcome!
>
> Frédéric Wang
>

> [1] http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/**firefox/aurora/<http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/aurora/>
> [2] http://www.w3.org/TR/arabic-**math/<http://www.w3.org/TR/arabic-math/>
> [3] http://www.w3.org/Math/**testsuite/build/main/Topics/**
> BiDi/Complex/Maghreb1-full.**xhtml<http://www.w3.org/Math/testsuite/build/main/Topics/BiDi/Complex/Maghreb1-full.xhtml>
> [4] https://developer.mozilla.org/**en/Mozilla_MathML_Project/**Fonts<https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Mozilla_MathML_Project/Fonts>
>
> ______________________________**_________________
> community-arab-world mailing list
> community-arab-world@lists.**mozilla.org<community-...@lists.mozilla.org>
> https://lists.mozilla.org/**listinfo/community-arab-world<https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/community-arab-world>
>

[Frédéric WANG]

Thank you for your feedback Mohamed.

You're right, I should have say that this work on arabic mathematical
notation started a long time ago thanks to Azzeddine LAZREK and his team
of researchers from Cadi Ayyad University:

http://www.ucam.ac.ma/fssm/rydarab/

The RTL markup was finally standardized in MathML3 in October 2010 and
now going to be included in Firefox :-)

Yes, I was also told that Moroccan people no longer use this notation. I
think in Tunisia, people are still using the RTL notation, at least
until high school. The W3C note I mentioned in my last mail [2] gives
more details, but folks here certainly know more than me about that subject.

As for your question on Firefox on Android, I don't know if there is an
Aurora version for this platform? Can you tell me which version of
Firefox you are testing?

BTW, there seems to be a problem with STIX fonts on Android, causing
grey rectangles to be displayed on your screenshot:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=709159

On 05/02/2012 14:54, Mohamed AMAROCHAN wrote:
> Hi,
>
> That's great news!
> We don't write mathematical formulas in Arabic here (Morocco, Arabic
> country!). In contrast, the author of this code is a Moroccan!
> Here is an article (in Arabic) about that story:
> http://itwadi.com/node/2319
>
> I tested the code, it is rendering correctly.
> But, using Firefox & Android 4, the RTL attribution is not working
> correctly (still better than other browsers of course), see picture:
>

> Screenshot_2012-02-05-13-48-27.png
>
> Mohamed
>