Scientific software 206

Paragraph about Scientific software

Currently, WebCT only officially supports Netscape and Internet Explorer. As soon as Mozilla reaches a sufficient level of maturity, WebCT.com should add it to the list of supported browsers. Because Mozilla is an open-source browser, WebCT.com could contribute to its development thereby insuring a degree of compatibility that may not be possible with Netscape or Internet Explorer. We know that Mozilla will support MathML, but it is not clear when or if Netscape Scientific software will.

What about Internet Explorer 5 and MathML? We have this report from Robert Miner of Geometry Technologies, Inc. dated March 29, 2000. There is some progress. Internet Explorer 5 introduced something called behaviors that in essence allow a developer to "bind" some executable code to a particular XML element. In our latest release of WebEQ, we have used behaviors to attach the WebEQ Math Viewer to the $element.\; The\; net\; effect\; is\; that\; once\; a\; reader\; has\; installed\; the\; Math\; Viewer\; in\; Internet\; Explorer\; 5,\; by\; putting\; a\; couple\; of\; lines\; of\; style\; and\; script\; code\; at\; the\; top\; of\; your\; file,\; straight\; MathML\; markup\; in\; the\; pagemathlabwill\; be\; automatically\; rendered\; in\; the\; client\; browser\; with\; WebEQ.\; This\; has\; the\; very\; positive\; effect\; that\; the\; same\; document\; will\; render\; properly\; in\; both\; the\; new\; Mozilla\; browser,\; and\; in\; Internet\; Explorer\; 5.\; The\; down\; side\; is\; that\; there\; are\; still\; a\; couple\; of\; technical\; problems\; with\; Internet\; Explorer\; 5\; behaviors,\; and\; on\; top\; of\; that,\; because\; of\; Java\; flakiness,\; WebEQ\; bogs\; down\; badly\; if\; there\; are\; more\; than\; a\; couple\; dozen\; equations\; in\; a\; page.\; When\; I\; approached\; Dave\; Massey\; (the\; contact\; person\; for\; MathML\; on\; the\; Internet\; Explorer\; team\; at\; Microsoft)\; about\; these\; problems,\; he\; was\; very\; responsive,\; and\; it\; looks\; like\; behaviors\; will\; be\; very\; much\; improved\; in\; the\; 5.5\; release\; of\; Internet\; Explorer,\; and\; in\; particular,\; they\; will\; be\; nicely\; set\; up\; for\; native\; binary\; behaviors\; as\; opposed\; to\; Java/JavaScript\; behaviors\; that\; have\; performance\; limitations.$

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Math software
Scientific workplace