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Merged
bkardell merged 2 commits into from
Jan 20, 2026
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add a element to mathml-core #142 #307

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add a element to mathml-code #142
davidcarlisle Jan 7, 2026
f24a71a
editorial fixes, from PR review
davidcarlisle Jan 8, 2026
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34 changes: 34 additions & 0 deletions spec.html
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -161,6 +161,7 @@ <h3>Elements and attributes</h3>
<dfn>Unknown MathML element</dfn>.
</p>
<ol>
<li>[^a^]</li>
<li>[^annotation^]</li>
<li>[^annotation-xml^]</li>
<li>[^maction^]</li>
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -4658,6 +4659,39 @@ <h4>Entry in Table or Matrix <code>&lt;mtd&gt;</code></h4>
</p>
</section>
</section>
<section id="the-a-element">
<h3>Linking <code>&lt;a&gt;</code></h3>
<p>
The
<dfn class="element">a</dfn>
element is used to group together any number of sub-expressions equivalently
to [^mrow^]. It's main purpose is to enable the specification fo hyperlinks
via the use of the <code>href</code> attribute.
</p>
<p>
The <code>&lt;a&gt;</code> element accepts the attributes described
in <a href="#global-attributes"></a> as well as the all the attributes of the
<a href="https://html.spec.whatwg.org/#the-a-element">corresponding element in HTML</a>.

@fred-wang fred-wang Jan 8, 2026

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I don't know yet if we want to support all the attributes or just href. I wonder what SVG is doing?

Maybe we should check existing implementations and ask browser vendors for feedback here.

@davidcarlisle davidcarlisle Jan 8, 2026

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SVG lists the attributes explicltly but is I think all of them https://svgwg.org/svg2-draft/linking.html#AElement, so ping, download etc not just href

@lukewarlow lukewarlow Jan 8, 2026

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In practice SVG support isn't quite what is specified just as an fyi.

@bkardell bkardell Jan 8, 2026

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relevant discussion whatwg/html#12063

@lukewarlow lukewarlow Jan 8, 2026

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I think regardless of that some IDL would be useful. For example, HTML A and Area elements when you call .toString() returns the href value. SVG does not have this, so it would be good to define if that behaviour is wanted.

@bkardell bkardell Jan 8, 2026

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yeah, I think no... I want to hear some reasoning but it seems weirdly esoteric... It would be not great if relevant parts of math turned into URLs.

@davidcarlisle davidcarlisle Jan 8, 2026

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The main requirement here is for linking in MathML. Using <a> and adopting the properties of HTML a are more about trying to better integrate MathML into the web platform, so whatever makes the most sense from an implementation perspective would I think be fine. Agreed it needs to be specified but I think changes from HTML a are fine if they don't cause implementation issues

The primary additional attribute is [^a/href^].
</p>
<ul id="a-attributes">
<li>[^a/href^]</li>
</ul>
<p>
If the
<dfn data-dfn-for="a" class="element-attr">href</dfn>
attribute is used then the <code>&lt;a&gt;</code> element creates a hyperlink
to the URL specified by the <code>href</code> attribute. The linking behavior
is as described for the <code>a</code> element in HTML.
</p>

<p> The layout algorithm of the <code>&lt;a&gt;</code> element
is the same as the <code>&lt;mrow&gt;</code> element.</p>

<div class="note">
Note that this means that in the absence of an <code>href</code> attribute,
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<code>&lt;a&gt;</code> may be seen as equivalent to <code>&lt;mrow&gt;</code>.</div>
</section>
<section id="enlivening-expressions">
<h3>Enlivening Expressions</h3>
<p>
Expand Down