[Bug 295193] Allow downloading STIX fonts / bundle STIX fonts with firefox for better MathML experience

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--- Comment #10 from SamyDagan   2008-05-31 07:44:31 PDT ---
With the soon expected release of the stable FF3 version, the solution of this
bug becomes urgent. I propose a simple, not yet discussed solution, to deliver
STIX fonts to the clients that use MathML,  together with the downloading of
FF3, and without going through the burden of their installation in the
appropriate OS platform. Most of the clients are not developers, and the burden
of installing the fonts becomes intolerable.

On May 25 I opened a thread in the mathml-list called "STIX fonts for clients" 
mathhttp://groups.google.com/group/mozilla.dev.tech.mathml/browse_thread/thread/...
but unfortunately no one of the FF MathML team took part so far.

The first part of the proposed solution is not mine, and I fill an agreement
among the MathML team to present to the clients the choice of adding the fonts
when downloading the browser without increasing its time for people not using
MathML. Besides that, the increase of time is about 16% (the fonts take space
of 1.2MB, compared to 7.5MB of the browser).

Now comes the second part: By downloading of the browser, the fonts will be
just put in a new directory of the installed browser, without doing the fonts'
installation in the platform. The browser should take care to look for these
fonts in this directory, when a <math ..> element is encountered, instead of
looking among the installed fonts in the system (as for now). That way the task
of fonts' installation, which  differs from platform to platform is avoided.

I don't see any legal problem, or any complication, in the application of such
a simple and quick solution.

Cheers, Samy