Mathml: Using {,} for decimal separator translates to . about mathlive HOT 6 CLOSED

from mathlive.

This is a deliberate choice. Consistently using "." to represent a decimal separator avoids ambiguities such as <mn>1,234</mn>. The agent rendering the MathML can then decide to represent it appropriately, possibly taken into account user preferences.

from mathlive.

The problem with that is that it still leaves room for ambiguities. There are regions that uses the "." as a thousand separator, creating the same possible confusion.

Wikipedia has this to say on thousand separators:

Three ways to group the number ten thousand with digit group separators.

1. Space, the internationally recommended thousands separator.
2. Period (or full stop), the thousands separator used in many non-English speaking countries.
3. Comma, the thousands separator used in most English-speaking countries.

It doesn't look to me like MathML specifies how a decimal number should be represented, the specification does not say and MDN seems to say that any number representation should be fine.

So I don't think that the MathML renderer can adjust what's rendered, it simply renders what is there. I would imagine that screen readers would use the current locale to determine if it should read it as "one point two hundred thirty four" or "One thousand two hundred thirty four" (maybe @NSoiffer could chime in here). But visually it seems to be up to the user to determine.

from mathlive.

Depending on which flavor of MathML you follow, you can have different interpretations.

MathML Core does suggest that decimal numbers should be represented with a decimal point: "Generally speaking, a numeric literal is a sequence of digits, perhaps including a decimal point, representing an unsigned integer or real number." (emphasis added).

"Full" MathML is even more vague, except to say that negative numbers are not allowed inside a <mn> tag. So <mn>onze</mn> is a perfectly valid MathML number, but <mn>-11</mn> is not.

However, you can be confident that the MathML produced by MathLive will generate numbers in a consistent manner, including their decimal representation. If you want a different representation, you can of course manipulate the output from MathLive to suit your needs.

from mathlive.

MathML Core does suggest that decimal numbers should be represented with a decimal point: "Generally speaking, a numeric literal is a sequence of digits, perhaps including a decimal point, representing an unsigned integer or real number." (emphasis added).

In the full mathml spec there's a setting called decimalpoint which is used to determine which decimal separator to use. While decimalpoint is not part of the MathML Core I would argue that they have just used the same language from the full spec, and what they mean is "decimal separator".

But I agree that the intent is not clear, if they mean "decimal separator" it should say that. If they do mean point, and only point, then that should be made clear so there's no room for misinterpretation.

from mathlive.

We discussed how numbers should be represented and the unanimous opinion (including those from countries that use "," for decimal separator) was to stick with "." as a decimal separator as Arno did. The feeling was that it was hard to use systems that accepted either and mistakes were very common.

Alright, then this issue can be closed as nothing to fix, working as intended. Thanks for the clarification. :)

from mathlive.