OT: [OS X TeX] tex, pdf, and doc

[Gerben Wierda]

> Le 4 sept. 06 à 18:08, Alex Hamann a écrit :
>> It is particularly relevant because Microsoft now implements math
>> typesetting entirely based on Unicode and MathML, and extended the
>> OpenType font format to implement math-related typographic features.
>> What Microsoft is doing is relevant, especially that this time,
>> they're
>> doing it "by the book", i.e.:
>> * the new math typesetting engine uses Unicode, which is an
>> international standard (ISO 10646)
>> * the new math typesetting engine uses MathML, which is an
>> international
>> standard from W3.org and XML-based
>> * the new math typesetting uses OpenType, which will soon be an
>> international standard (as ISO Open Font Format)
>> * the new Office 2007 altogether uses an XML-based file format
>> natively,
>> which is likely to become a standard soon (at ECMA)
>> * Microsofted consulted with Donald Knuth on the development of their
>> new math typesetting engine
>>
>> BTW, there is a paper that discusses some aspects of Office's new math
>> typesetting. The PDF is typeset using Microsoft Word 2007 itself, and
>> uses Cambria as the basic font:
>> http://www.unicode.org/notes/tn28/UTN28-PlainTextMath.pdf

Well, well.

This has a potential to be good enough (and in some ways easier for the
user, but with a price to pay because heuristics is involved) to become
the de facto standard. In fact, if Word will include something like this,
it is possible that this will be good enough for so many that it will put
a serious dent in TeX's popularity in the science community.

Add some finer stuff like protrusion and better support for conceptual
writing (and stability with huge documents) and Microsoft will in fact
have produced a winner.

I get the feeling that OpenOffice's pressure is making Microsoft innovate
seriously here.

G

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