Suggestion Latex Feature

Unto

Hi.

This is a very helpful forum, but your latex feature hinders this. It's very tedious to use, and for a particularly symbol/equation heavy question, the asker (like me) is often put off having to spend another 20mins getting the question set up to ask.

And not everyone has a scanner so not everyone can just upload a picture of the question.

Why not implement a new equation editor based on Microsoft 2007? This is very nice and easy and quick to use, it would also include all up to date symbols and mathematic stuff like integral signs and dervivatives ect ect.

Greg Bernhardt

When you develop it, let me know

Unto

Is it not possible to just rip the C++ script from Microsoft Word or something?

Unto

And I just clicked on your blog Greg... Why have you posted one of my questions across it. I remember posting those EXACT same symbols in a question O_o

Greg Bernhardt

Certainly not, on many levels.

No idea what you are talking about. All my blog posts were tests that were posted way before you ever registered.

sylas

That's actually a bug, I think. Latex works by generating images, which are stored on the site. Sometimes it seems to collect images in a strange way. For example, when I look at Greg's blog, I see some of my own formulae repeated there. I've noticed this before. I am pretty sure this is because the image finding seems to pick up images you've recently used yourself. Anyone looking at Greg's blog is likely to see their own formulae apparently appearing there.

The Latex equation feature is one of the great things about this website... and more to the point the code is freely available. MS word code is not. Furthermore, plenty of people will be more familiar with latex than the word equation editors. Me, for example.

Be that as it may, the real constraint here is that the site uses what is readily available.

Cheers -- sylas

sylas

Let's be more specific. Here is a screen shot for me looking at Greg's blog. Furthermore, I have placed the mouse over the first LaTeX image, to show the little pop-up of LaTeX code.


You can see that the code is "latex 1-2-3", which should appear like this:

[tex]latex 1-2-3[/tex]

But the image is of an equation I entered recently. Someone else will get a different image again. I think the reason is that the url for the image is actually http://www.physicsforums.com/latex_i...iew58041-0.png and the word "preview" in their means that somehow the code for blogs is not using a final store url for the generated image. I am guessing it picks up something you have previewed.

For comparison, the url of the latex equation in THIS post is http://www.physicsforums.com/latex_i.../2519903-0.png. There's no "preview" in the URL this time. I suspect something in the blog software is awry.

Can we consider this post another bug report? I won't start a new thread for it.

Cheers -- sylas

Greg Bernhardt

chroot would be better to explain this to, in fact if you could send him a PM, thanks!

sylas

I've sent the PM -- sylas

mugaliens

Having dealt with text-based equations since the mid-1980s, I would say keep driving towards the text-based efforts in Fortran and other mid-90's programming languages.

Redbelly98

This is an unfortunate, but known, bug in PF Latex:

See if refreshing your browser window clears it up, as it seems to be a cache issue. See post #4 here:
http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=273819

Unto

So there is nothing we can do to make the latex feature more accessible? Maybe it should open up a window to show thumbnails for every symbol and mathematical function, then we can just click and type as we please without worrying about the synergy of what we do.

Greg Bernhardt

We already have that. The option is part of the message editor.

jtbell

That option seems to have disappeared. I don't see it anywhere. Didn't it use to be under a "sigma" button?

I never used it because I've gotten accustomed to typing my own LaTeX, but I do remember that option being there for a while.

Greg Bernhardt

It's only in the science forums.

diazona

Y'know, I would argue just the opposite, that the LaTeX capability is a godsend because it makes it so easy to type equations. If the forum had a MS-like equation editor instead, I'd be the one having to spend 20 minutes trying to type math. (Yes this is based on experience) And I'm sure I'm not the only one. The point is, it all depends on what you're used to.

Besides, there are the technical requirements. LaTeX is just plain text, it's easy - in fact I programmed it into my own blog in about 20 minutes.

Unto

Can you show me how to do this?