←back to thread

HTML as an Accessible Format for Papers (2023)

(info.arxiv.org)
262 points el3ctron | 4 comments | 06 Dec 25 14:59 UTC | HN request time: 0.627s | source
1. _dain_ ◴[06 Dec 25 18:46 UTC] No.46175602[source]▶
Wasn't the World Wide Web invented at CERN specifically for sharing scientific papers? Why are we still using PDFs at all?
replies(1): >>46175904 #
2. fsh ◴[06 Dec 25 19:23 UTC] No.46175904[source]▶
No, it wasn't. Scientists at CERN used DVI and later PDF like everyone else. HTML has no provisions for typesetting equations and is therefore not suitable for physics papers (without much newer hacks such as MathML).
replies(2): >>46182915 #>>46207043 #
3. teddy-smith ◴[07 Dec 25 16:31 UTC] No.46182915[source]▶
Why not typeset in something else and import the image into html/css?
4. cxr ◴[09 Dec 25 16:39 UTC] No.46207043[source]▶
MathML isn't new. It predates Windows 98 and the birth of a substantial part of HN's userbase.