415223 - Installer should install the necessary OS-specific MathML fonts by default

Status: VERIFIED DUPLICATE of bug 295193

(Firefox :: Installer, defect)

Description

[Mike Pearson]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.8.1.11) Gecko/20071127 Firefox/2.0.0.11
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.8.1.11) Gecko/20071127 Firefox/2.0.0.11

We cannot rely on educational institutions that need access to mathematical material to install the necessary fonts. It simply does not happen. We (University of Cambridge NRICH schools mathematics project) have provided quality mathML resources for 5 years and despite our best efforts it is still rare to find a school that has made the necessary installations. 

This must be made simple and straightforward for users. Priorities are 1. Windows distributions, 2: Mac OSX dists, 3: Unix dists.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Install Firefox
2.Browse to a page featuring mathML 
(e.g. http://www.mozilla.org/projects/mathml/demo/basics.xhtml)
3.Be disappointed and decide to mark some course assignments instead...
Actual Results:  
In practice, users see no benefit in Firefox and Mozilla supporting mathML.

Expected Results:  
Good, clear, scalable mathematics 

I imagine the reasons for omitting mathML fonts are not technical. It may be necessary to route this request to the correct level where negotiations to distribute the necessary fonts with Firefox (and Mozilla) can get underway.

Comment 1

[Jesse Ruderman]

Firefox for Mac doesn't have an installer.

Comment 2

[Robert O'Callahan (:roc) (email my personal email if necessary)]

Office 2007 users and Vista users will have Cambria Math, which FF3 will be able to use to render MathML pretty well. On Mac, FF3 can use the Symbol font pretty well.

Post-FF3 we might want to investigate, when no useful font is available, having a dialog informing the user additional fonts are required and offering to download and install the STIX fonts (with OK/Cancel).

Comment 3

[Jesse Ruderman]

Or an information bar, I hope.

Comment 4

[Robert O'Callahan (:roc) (email my personal email if necessary)]

That'd be an option. But this is a dialog where we want most users to hit "OK" and it won't happen again. AFAIK infobars are best when we want most users to ignore the message.

Comment 5

[Jesse Ruderman]

Why ask at all, then?

Comment 6

[Mike Pearson]

Thanks for looking at this Jesse & Robert. Couple of points:

I'd guess that the MathML project group - if still around - would need to restest with the fonts you suggest at the very least. I somehow doubt that they would be a drop-in replacement for the MIT maths fonts.

I feel that any installations should happen up front since time of first use is typically too late. Teachers and lecturers often do not have root privileges allowing them to install stuff, and the technicians responsible for this do not typically test against mathML sources. If it has to be time of first use, then a dialog box with some explanation is preferable to an easily missed status bar. An option to switch off future appearances would be useful.

Comment 7

[Robert O'Callahan (:roc) (email my personal email if necessary)]

(In reply to comment #5)
> Why ask at all, then?

Because it affects the user's system, these fonts would be available to other apps.

(In reply to comment #6)
> I'd guess that the MathML project group - if still around - would need to
> restest with the fonts you suggest at the very least. I somehow doubt that they
> would be a drop-in replacement for the MIT maths fonts.

Karl is now the "MathML project group" and he has been working with these fonts.

> I feel that any installations should happen up front since time of first use is
> typically too late. Teachers and lecturers often do not have root privileges
> allowing them to install stuff, and the technicians responsible for this do not
> typically test against mathML sources. If it has to be time of first use, then
> a dialog box with some explanation is preferable to an easily missed status
> bar. An option to switch off future appearances would be useful.

Bundling STIX with Firefox for all users isn't all that attractive, it would add to the download size. On Linux and Mac you can install fonts in user directories, not sure about Windows.

Comment 8

[Michael Lefevre]

Is this a dupe of bug 295193 ?

Comment 9

[Mike Pearson]

Well spotted! Yes I think it is.