Hello Chris,

I propose that you remove the LaTeX component HotEqn from FreeMind
0.9.0, now that there is still time to do it before final release.
HotEqn is poorly integrated into FreeMind: it has no support in HTML
export functions, and it is unlikely to get one. It requires LaTeX
formulas to be appended to nodes, as it were, instead of being placed
in the middle of the long node text. No LaTeX formulas can be placed
into notes with HotEqn. As a further nuisance, HotEqn is licensed
under GNU GPL V3, incompatible with FreeMind's GNU GPL V2+ unless
FreeMind migrates to GNU GPL V3.

A better solution for LaTeX formulas, out of scope of FreeMind 0.9.0,
is to place LaTeX formulas into long nodes and notes, and render them
using a Java component that renders LaTeX formulas into PNG, so they
can be included as images. I have implemented this solution in my
version of FreeMind using the component JMathTeX back in 2008 and
released in May 2009
(https://sites.google.com/site/danpolansky/freemind). Freeplane seems
to use the same solution, whether taken over from my source code or
implemented independently, just that it uses an updated version and
fork of the component: JLaTeXMath. There is now even an external
plugin for FreeMind that provides this sort of support for LaTeX
formulas, so technically-minded users can use FreeMind 0.9.0 with this
plugin right now after they install the plugin; see also
http://github.com/Alxa/LaTeXMath-Freemind-Plugin.

If HotEqn remains in the final release, and if FreeMind starts using
the other solution for LaTeX formulas later, there will be a migration
cost thereafter for the users. It seems to me that the migration cost
is better avoided now, when there is still time.

For the users who like HotEqn, HotEqn could be still made downloadable
somewhere as an external plugin, but it would be outside of scope of
the maximum version of FreeMind.

What do you think of the proposal to remove HotEqn?

Best regards,
Dan

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