Overview

For the rationale and initial plan see ​Alex's message on webkit-dev mailing list. See also ​Fred's MathML branch for an overview of the list of commits and bug entries.

The idea is now to remove the flexbox dependency (CSS properties & class inheritance) only after having rewritten MathML layout functions from scratch. Hence we no longer need to temporarily "duplicate" flexbox code and this should make review easier. When refactoring renderer classes, we also remove the anonymous renderers (and their associated style) that were created for the sake of the flexbox-based layout.

Layout changes

​The general box model for MathML renderers is available on the MathML in HTML5 note where you can also find other rules specific to each element. During this first step, we do not always follow completely the layout suggested in that note. Also for now, we ignore the distinction between ink VS logical metrics as well as classical CSS features like margin, padding, border, absolute position, vertical layout or linebreaking. However we do pay attention to right-to-left rendering of mathematical formulas.

There are essentially four functions to look at:

• computePreferredLogicalWidths: it sets the preferred min/max width. For now we do not do math line breaking so these widths are equal. They are only an estimate of the final width, because we do not know the exact width of stretchy operators (e.g. vertical parenthesis) until they get their final size.
• layoutBlock: it calculates the (exact) logical width, the logical height and and position of child renderers.
• firstLineBaseLine: it calculates the ascent of the renderer.
• paint: it does special painting for e.g. fraction line or root overbar.

Phase 1

The initial goal is 10) below. It now depends on the following bugs. Patches are generally more or less independent, although test expectations will depend on the exact order in which they are applied.

1) ​RenderMathMLRow: layout a row of math items (numbers, operators, variables... or any subformulas), maybe with some operators stretching vertically.

2) ​RenderMathMLUnderOver: base with some scripts above and below.

3) ​RenderMathMLFraction: layout a fraction with numerator & denominator. The patch also fixes some bugs and uses some parameters from the OpenType MATH table.

4) ​RenderMathMLScripts: base with arbitrary number of pre/post scripts. Note that the patch introduces many parameters from the OpenType MATH table so be sure to read the ​corresponding section in the MathML in HTML5 note.

5) ​MathOperator module: Some stretchy operators (e.g. the radical sign) are currently drawn using anonymous RenderMathMLOperators. Since we want to get rid of anonymous renderers, we need this preliminary step. It also improves a bit the rendering of horizontal operators. See also ​bug 156538, ​bug 156542, ​bug 156571, ​bug 156572, ​bug 156574, ​bug 156910, ​bug 156913, ​bug 156921, ​bug 156950, ​bug 157071.

6) ​RenderMathMLRoot: square root or arbitrary N-th root. Again, read ​the corresponding section in the MathML in HTML5 note to understand all the parameters. Since we want to draw radical signs without anonymous renderers, we need bug 152244 first. See also ​bug 156836.

7) ​RenderMathMLOperator and RenderMathMLToken: Simple text (operators, variables, numbers etc). This removes anonymous renderers but the layout functions still rely on the RenderFlexibleBox's implementation. A new generic layout code will only be introduced for RenderMathMLBlock in bug 153991.

8) ​RenderMathMLMenclose: A RenderMathMLRow with some additional notations on it (strikes, boxes, circles etc). It is the follow up of bug 153208. See also ​this proposal.

9) ​RenderMathMLSpace: Simple renderer to insert blank boxes for adjusting spacing of math formulas.

10) ​Remove flexbox dependency: This is the final patch to make RenderMathMLBlock inherit from RenderBlock rather than RenderFlexibleBox

Phase 2

In a second phase we add support for important MathML features and OpenType MATH properties:

11) ​Implement an internal style property for displaystyle

12) ​Add support for movablelimits

13) ​Add support for mathvariants that cannot be emulated via CSS

14) ​Use OpenType MATH constant AxisHeight

15) ​Use Radical* constants from the OpenType MATH table

16) ​Use Fraction* parameters from the OpenType MATH table

17) ​Use Stack* parameters from the OpenType MATH table

18) ​Use parameters from the OpenType MATH table for <munderover>

19) ​Basic implementation of mpadded

20) ​Add support for @href attribute in MathML

21) ​Use OpenType MATH fonts by default. See also ​bug 156840

This refactoring will fix many known MathML bugs and open the way for more bug fixes & features. See Bugzilla dependencies for details.

Phase 3

In this third phase, we try and ​move all parsing of MathML attributes from renderer classes to element classes. Hopefully, this will also improve how we handle the update of the renderers when dynamic changes of attributes happen.

22) ​Create a MathMLLength class to handle the parsing of MathML length

23) ​Move parsing of mspace attributes to a MathMLSpaceElement class

24) ​Move parsing of dictionary-based operator attributes into the MathML element classes

Accessibility Changes

The following patches impact the a11y code:

3) ​RenderMathMLFraction: The Mac accessibility code seems to need the linethickness relative to the default linethickness (which now depends on the math font).

4) ​RenderMathMLScripts: Some small box shifts happen.

6) ​RenderMathMLRoot: Anonymous wrappers are removed.

7) ​RenderMathMLOperator and RenderMathMLToken: We disable the mac test for mfenced because the render subtree for the anonymous operators has changed.