MathML is a failed web standard

It’s instructive to see how different MathML is from other math markup languages. Here’s the quadratic formula: In troff, x = {-b +- sqrt { b sup 2 - 4ac}} over 2a In TeX, x = {-b \pm \sqrt{b^2-4ac}} \over {2a} In plain Unicode, 𝑥 = (−𝑏 ± √(𝑏² − 4𝑎𝑐))⁄2𝑎 In MathML, <mrow><mi>x</mi><mi>=</mi><mfrac><mrow><mi>−</mi><mi>b</mi><mi>±</mi><msqrt><mrow><msup><mi>b</mi><mi>2</mi></msup><mi>−</mi><mi>4ac</mi></mrow></msqrt></mrow><mi>2a</mi></mfrac></mrow> MathML is simply unreasonable to write by hand. Most of the time…

I don't understand what is wrong with TeX. - As a syntax/language for mathematics, it's the actual standard. Do you think Terry Tao will bother learning some other language for his blog? You might as well argue that English is poorly-specified and the web should switch to Lojban. - As a layout engine, it encodes all the damn typographical conventions that are in every single research article, academic journal and textbook. In the world. Trying to replace TeX is so…