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Opening webpages in Edge such as this one shows funny symbols. Opening it in Firefox shows proper equations. What gives?

Any way to make it work in Edge? Change the font? File a bug report?

martineau
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Andreas
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    I've just tried Edge, IE, Chrome and Firefox, and for me, this page only renders nicely in Firefox... – Attie Jun 04 '18 at 12:54
  • The linked page is using something called [Mathematical Markup Language (MathML)](https://www.w3.org/Math/whatIsMathML.html) which (apparently) Microsoft browsers don't support—because I get the same "funny symbols" in Internet Explorer 11 (since I don't have Edge on my Windows 7 system). I'd file a bug report or stick with a more capable browser. This isn't something new, as the MathML page says "W3C released MathML 1.0 as a Recommendation in April 1998"—20 years ago. – martineau Jun 04 '18 at 12:55

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According this section of the Wikipedia MathML page: "Of the major web browsers, Gecko-based browsers (e.g., Firefox and Camino) have the most complete native support for MathML" and "Internet Explorer does not support MathML natively". Here's the entire relevant paragraph:

Internet Explorer does not support MathML natively. Support for IE6 through IE9 can be added by installing the MathPlayer plugin.[22] IE10 has some crashing bugs with MathPlayer and Microsoft decided to completely disable in IE11 the binary plug-in interface that MathPlayer needs.[23] MathPlayer has a license that may limit its use or distribution in commercial webpages and software. Using or distributing the MathPlayer plugin to display HTML content via the WebBrowser control in commercial software may also be forbidden by this license.

In summary, it sounds like you could download and install the (free) MathPlayer plug-in to make it work. Unfortunately—as I mentioned in a comment—I don't have Edge on my system, so I can't verify whether doing so would solve your problem or not...

Here's the current MathPlayer Download and Installation page, so you can try it yourself if you wish (note however there's no mention of Edge support that I could find).

martineau
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  • How did you find out it was MathML? – Andreas Jun 04 '18 at 15:53
  • Andreas: By reading the underlying HTML used by the web page you have a link to in your question. – martineau Jun 04 '18 at 16:36
  • Knowing it is MathML I managed to google a few pages on the subject. There are open issues @Microsoft since 2015, but no signs of activity. MathPlayer did not work with Edge when I tried it. – Andreas Jun 05 '18 at 18:55
  • Andreas: Thanks for accepting my answer. Well...given the history of its support in Microsoft's older browsers, I can't say I'm very surprised. I still suggest you file a bug report against Edge about it because user-demand may be the only thing this developer understands (be sure to mention it working in one or more other browsers). – martineau Jun 05 '18 at 19:08
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    No problem, just had to verify it. Filed a report through Feedback Hub. Not holding my breath. – Andreas Jun 06 '18 at 18:50