🚀 go-pugleaf

Some individuals connected with the Euromath project for an SGML DTD
for mathematical formulae have expressed concern at misconceptions
possibly raised by my mention of their work in my recent report on
SGML '92, posted to this list.  In the interests of a fairer depiction
of their work, therefore, the text of the trip report ought really to
be amended as follows.

For

    (I was surprised to learn that the Euromath project
    had produced a very typographically oriented tag set,
    rather than the logical markup I had expected; the
    influence of TeX appeared to be the explanation.)

read

    (I was surprised to learn that the Euromath project
    had produced a tag set oriented to the typographical
    layout of the formula on the page, rather than the
    logically or semantically oriented markup I had
    expected --- one that would allow arithmetic expressions,
    for example, to be imported from SGML into spreadsheets
    or computer algebra programs; the difficulty of providing
    full semantic markup for all of known mathematics
    appears to have deterred them from attempting such a
    scheme.)

Obviously, as with any one-sentence description of a complex topic,
even the new description of the motivation behind the Euromath DTD
should be taken with a grain of salt.  It accurately summarizes my
perception of the general gist of the arguments various Euromath
participants have sent me lately, but it also simplifies them greatly,
and represents my interpretation, not their description, of their
reasoning.

Thank you.

-C. M. Sperberg-McQueen
 ACH / ACL / ALLC Text Encoding Initiative
 University of Illinois at Chicago