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Re: Normative figures

2006-01-09 11:00:47
In message <43C28701(_dot_)4000203(_at_)cisco(_dot_)com>, Scott W Brim writes:
On 01/09/2006 10:41 AM, Sam Hartman allegedly wrote:
Are you looking for normative figures?  If so, can you point to an
example where you think they are necessary?  (I'd like to avoid a
discussion of packet diagrams for the moment if that's OK)

Normative figures perhaps.  Normative equations definitely.

Is there any input format for *just* equations (or figures), standing
by themselves, which we can agree is open, standardized, stable and
deterministic in output?


LaTeX is the standard in the math and theory world.  It's free, and 
runs on just about everything.  If I recall correctly what Kernighan
once said, eqn was designed so that its input language was more or 
less what one mathematician would say to another over the phone, which 
(I assume) would help with accessibility.  There are open source versions
of eqn; I think that they run on more or less anything, too.
In the pure HTML world, there's MathML, though it's *really* ugly to 
read.  I have no idea how much it's supported by today's browsers.  
(Kernighan started working on an eqn to HTML translator some years ago, 
but back then no browser really worked properly for it.)

Note that I'm *not* saying we should adopt any of these for RFCs; I'm 
simply saying that there are some well-known systems that satisfy at 
least your four criteria.

                --Steven M. Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb



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