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Why did Chrome drop MathML support?
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I volunteered for a year and got MathML working in Chrome 24, but Google turned it off in Chrome 25 because I couldn't afford to keep maintaining it for free. (Yes, grumble. Donate your nickels to Google.) There was a security bug, but Google had a fix, which has since been landed in WebKit and the Safari browser, for instance. No one on the Chrome/Blink team cared about MathML, so they preferred removing it to maintaining it. They tell people that a library like MathJax is good enough, but it isn't without native browser support for MathML - it's too slow for many use cases, it doesn't integrate well enough with CSS, etc. (the MathJax team agrees with all this). Presumably as digital textbooks gain in popularity, Google will rethink their position, or schools will have to use a different browser than Chrome (Firefox and Safari would both work). In the meantime, Google has no one working on MathML in Chrome at all, even part-time. Go figure. (And no, I would not work on it again.)
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Here is my understanding of the situation. I don't work for Google so take it for what it's worth.
A little over a year ago Chrome forked the WebKit HTML engine and called it Blink. When that happened they assessed WebKit's MathML support code and decided that it had security issues and that there was no programmer willing to resolve them so they removed the code. Although some take this as some sort of statement that they are against MathML, I don't see any reason to believe this. They just wanted to remove a potential security problem. Of course, it also means they don't favor MathML enough to hire programmers to fix the security leaks and finish the implementation.
Many browser vendors have the impression that MathML support is not something people ask for or need. This is hard to fathom considering that mathematics is considered a key component of a grade-school education, educational content is mandated by US federal law to be accessible, and MathML is the accepted technology to provide accessible math. Finally, MathML is part of HTML5 for which all browser makers have pledged support. My guess is the real problem is that the people that care about math and education do not have a venue in which they can make their needs known and get them heard by browser makers.
A little over a year ago Chrome forked the WebKit HTML engine and called it Blink. When that happened they assessed WebKit's MathML support code and decided that it had security issues and that there was no programmer willing to resolve them so they removed the code. Although some take this as some sort of statement that they are against MathML, I don't see any reason to believe this. They just wanted to remove a potential security problem. Of course, it also means they don't favor MathML enough to hire programmers to fix the security leaks and finish the implementation.
Many browser vendors have the impression that MathML support is not something people ask for or need. This is hard to fathom considering that mathematics is considered a key component of a grade-school education, educational content is mandated by US federal law to be accessible, and MathML is the accepted technology to provide accessible math. Finally, MathML is part of HTML5 for which all browser makers have pledged support. My guess is the real problem is that the people that care about math and education do not have a venue in which they can make their needs known and get them heard by browser makers.
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