[Haskell-cafe] Haddock Markup

[Duncan Coutts]

On Mon, 2009-02-09 at 15:18 +0100, Henning Thielemann wrote:
> Khudyakov Alexey wrote:
> 
> > I think MathML is much less accessible than images. Yes, there are problems 
> > with them but any browser is able to display them save for text based ones. 
> > MathML on contrary doesn't have much support. According to wikipedia only 
> > recent versions of gecko based browsers and opera >=9.5 can do this. For IE 
> > special plugin is required (MathPlayer). I believe image are safest way at 
> > least for now. 
> 
> As far as I know, Haddock is not bound to HTML output. (And if it is 
> bound this way, I wished it wouldn't.)

Right, it's not. Though there are not many other backends. Translating
haddock markup into pandoc or docbook might be an easy way to get more.

> For PDF Haddock output TeX formula will be the best choice, whereas
> for HTML, MathML or embedded images are the best. I expect there will
> be no consensus and the Haddock user should decide how he wants the
> formulas to be rendered. That's best generated from a structure
> preserving notation of math formulas (like Haskell expressions).

Right, the problem is that since it is not bound to a specific output
format then it cannot use embedded tex or whatever. The current haddock
markup is deliberately very limited and simple so that it can be
rendered in more or less any output format.

Duncan