Chemical structure diagrams seems like something there ought to be a specialized free program to generate. If we standardized on such a program, the article source should contain whatever input file to that program was used and we can use its output (in PNG, or EPS rendered in PNG) in the articles themselves. I don't think HTML is adequate for the task. We'll need something similar for mathematical equations as well at some point (though complex HTML with special characters is a possible alternative there).
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I was trying to show a triple bond on the http://www.wikipedia.com/wiki/Acetylene page. How is in normally shown using ascii text to html markup?
There might be something in extended (ISO) character set that would work, but I'm not terribly familiar with those so far.
A broader question revolves around support for images on Wikipedia--many of us could probably draw diagrams that would enrich the content of pages, like the chemistry-related pages, dramatically. We could develop them and release them under GDFL terms, and it would seem a shame to limit their availability and redistribution to off-Wiki linking.
I mean, after all, dead-tree encyclopedias and even some dictionaries have illustrations. It's an interesting challenge, working within the confines of a primarily-text medium (Lynx is my primary browser, after all), but at some point, the *pedias should support pictures.0