[webkit-dev] Implementing MathML stylistic attributes in WebKit

[Frédéric Wang]

Hello,

Currently MathML attributes mathvariant, displaystyle and scriptlevel
[1] [2] are implemented in WebKit using custom "style resolution" and
"one-glyph rendering" inside the MathML layout code [3] [4] [5]. These
features involve text rendering and interaction with CSS font-size, so
it is difficult to implement them properly and completely that way.
There are known bugs and missing features right now (e.g. mathvariant
transform only applies to one-character strings, automatic
displaystyle/scriptlevel does not work with fractions, etc)

Several years ago, Gecko used to do something similar but that was
causing a lot of problems (dynamic update, assertion failures...). At
the end, this is now implemented in Gecko more reliably by mapping the
attributes to internal CSS properties ; [6] is based on that. When I
tried to do something like this in WebKit three years ago, I was only
able to rely on proprietary -webkit-* extensions exposed to users [7].

So my questions are:

(1) What is WebKit's mechanism to implement such stylistic attributes?

(2) Is it possible to implement internal (i.e. not web-exposed to users)
CSS properties/values in WebKit?

(3) Is it ok to add more -webkit-* properties/values or should these
properties be standardized at the CSS WG instead?

I understand answers to these general questions from other browser
project is either use internal properties or standardize them.

Thanks,

Frédéric

PS: For a concrete example, see [8]. Automatic mathvariant is used for
italic variables while font-size in fractions is calculated according to
displaystyle / scriptlevel rules. The latter is incorrect (check the
attached screenshot) while selection highlight is broken for the former.

[1] https://mathml-refresh.github.io/mathml-core/#the-mathvariant-attribute
[2]
https://mathml-refresh.github.io/mathml-core/#the-displaystyle-and-scriptlevel-attributes
[3]
https://trac.webkit.org/browser/webkit/trunk/Source/WebCore/css/mathml.css
[4]
https://trac.webkit.org/browser/webkit/trunk/Source/WebCore/rendering/mathml/MathMLStyle.cpp
[5]
https://trac.webkit.org/browser/webkit/trunk/Source/WebCore/rendering/mathml/RenderMathMLToken.cpp#L593
[6]
https://mathml-refresh.github.io/mathml-core/#css-extensions-for-math-layout
[7] https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=133845#c5
[8] https://bug-201242-attachments.webkit.org/attachment.cgi?id=377730

-- 
Frédéric Wang

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