One of our aims within the Dirac project is to support and encourage other open standards. As part of this we're keen to support W3C in their work on standards for the web. This site is written in XHTML 1.1 and parts of it make use of MathML for equations and SVG for diagrams. Here's the nub of the problem: the browsers are still catching up with the defined standards, and you're very likely to need a newer browser version or plug-ins in order to see this content. We'd recommend using Firefox, but if you'd rather use something else, that's your choice.

Because SVG support is still very limited in mainstream browsers, we've arranged for browsers to show GIF renderings if they can't handle it. But these renderings aren't included in the Dirac distribution - if you're browsing a local copy of the documentation, your browser will try and download the GIF images from the internet. If it can't retreive them, you'll see a message explaining why.

For more information, please click on your preferred browser and OS combination below:

Windows with...

• Internet Explorer
• Firefox
• Mozilla Suite
• Netscape
• Opera

Linux with...

• Firefox
• Mozilla Suite
• Konqueror
• Opera

MacOS with...

• Firefox
• Camino
• Safari

Windows with Internet Explorer

You'll need IE 6 or later. You'll also need the MathPlayer 2.0 plugin from Design Science for rendering the MathML equations and the Adobe SVG plugin (3.0 or later) for the SVG diagrams.

IE seems to throw a wobbly if you load the pages from local disc rather than from the Dirac site. This is caused by trouble with MIME types (IE doesn't recognise files with a .xht extension). If you see a message saying "This XML page cannot be rendered" or you find that IE insists on using Firefox to load certain pages, this is what's going on. There's a nasty registry hack that might help get you around this: download it here. This is a kludgy solution - you have been warned! Otherwise, read the online version of the site with IE or use another browser to look at the local one.

Windows with Firefox

Firefox supports the MathML equations natively, although Mozilla recommend that you download extra fonts to your system to get the best performance.
In the off-the-shelf version of Firefox, you'll see the GIF renderings of SVG diagrams. Firefox will display an "install additional plugins" message, but you should ignore it as when you click it it won't find a suitable plugin. To handle the SVG graphics natively, you'll need a bleeding-edge version of Firefox: get it from the Mozilla SVG project page.

Windows with Mozilla Suite

Follow the instructions given for Firefox, above, but if you want native SVG rather than GIF renderings, download the SVG-enabled version of Mozilla Suite from the build page

Windows with Netscape

Netscape 7.2 can do the MathML fine, but takes the GIF substitutions for the SVG. If you upgrade to Netscape 8, you'll find that it works like Firefox when in Firefox mode and like IE when in IE mode (look at the icon in the bottom left hand corner). It does still suffer trouble when loading files from local disc when in IE mode - pages take a long time to load, or fail to appear at all.

Windows with Opera

Opera 8 has support for SVG (although sometimes the rendering isn't ideal) but no support for MathML at all. You may be able to fudge MathPlayer into Opera by installing MathPlayer for Netscape and then copying the plug-ins across, but we can't guarantee anything.

Linux with Firefox

Firefox supports the MathML equations natively, but to get the equations to look right you'll need to download and install the extra fonts.
In the off-the-shelf version of Firefox, you'll see the GIF renderings of SVG diagrams. Firefox will display an "install additional plugins" message, but you should ignore it as when you click it it won't find a suitable plugin. In order to handle the SVG graphics natively, you'll need the bleeding-edge version of Firefox: get it from the Mozilla SVG project page. You get a choice of the libart or cairo rendering backends. Libart is quicker but cairo has more features.

Linux with Mozilla Suite

Mozilla 1.7.8 works, although its MathML rendering isn't ideal (this may be a fonts issue). Older versions of Mozilla don't substitute GIF images for SVG, so make sure you have an up-to-date version.You'll want the maths fonts - follow the instructions given for Firefox, above. If you want native SVG support, download the SVG-enabled version of Mozilla Suite from the build page

Linux with Konqueror

Konqueror 3.3 can't do MathML at all, but it does make a reasonable stab at the SVG diagrams - it uses KSVG to render them, which is included with KDE versions 3.2 or greater. There are still rendering bugs, but the diagrams are viewable.

Linux with Opera

Opera 8 has support for SVG (although sometimes the rendering isn't ideal) but no support for MathML at all.

MacOS with Firefox

Firefox 1.0.4 for Macintosh is fine with the MathML. For SVG rendering, install the Adobe SVG plugin.

MacOS with Camino

Camino 0.8.4 can't do MathML but will work with the Adobe SVG plugin to render SVG.

MacOS with Safari

Safari doesn't support MathML or SVG natively. Version 1.2.4 (Panther) just ignores the MathML, but version 2.0 (Tiger) throws up a selection of XML errors. Both versions work with the Adobe SVG plugin if installed.