Recognising $ as begin/end delimiter for in-line latex

[andrewkirk]

A minor, but recurring, obstacle with LaTeX on physicsforums is that it does not recognise either of the usual delimiters for in-line math, which are the single dollar symbol and the \( ... \) combination. The latex engines I use on my computers, which are MiKTeX on Windows, MacTex on Mac and (something else, I forget which) on Linux, use those symbols. Conversely, the physicsforums delimiters of double-# and itex or tex inside square brackets are not recognised by my Tex engines and, as far as I can tell, are not part of standard LaTeX.

If I am writing anything complicated, it's much easier to draft it up on my own computer's TeX editor and then copy it to a post. Currently however, I need to do a last step of changing every single-$ symbol to a double-#, which is complicated by the existence of double dollars for display math.

I was wondering whether it would be difficult to get the physicsforums engine to recognise a delimiter for in-line math that is also recognised by most LaTeX engines, such as $ or \(.

Alternatively, has anybody written a plugin or script that converts standard latex to physicforums latex? It would need to first convert all double-$ to something else like %%, then convert all single-$ symbols to double-#, then convert all %% back to double-$. Ideally there would be a reverse converter too, so that if one wants to do major surgery on a maths piece on physicsforums, they could convert it to standard latex, do the surgery offline then convert it back.

thanks

Andrew

 

[jtbell]

I was wondering whether it would be difficult to get the physicsforums engine to recognise a delimiter for in-line math that is also recognised by most LaTeX engines, such as $ or \(.

I think the main problem with the single $ is that it's also used as a currency symbol, especially in the US. However, it seems to me that \( and \) would be a reasonable alternative. In fact the MathJax documentation uses them as an example in the section on configuring the tex2jax processor:

https://docs.mathjax.org/en/v2.5-latest/options/tex2jax.html

@Greg Bernhardt is the one who's responsible for this stuff, so let's see what he says.

 

[mfb]

Alternatively, has anybody written a plugin or script that converts standard latex to physicforums latex? It would need to first convert all double-$ to something else like %%, then convert all single-$ symbols to double-#, then convert all %% back to double-$. Ideally there would be a reverse converter too, so that if one wants to do major surgery on a maths piece on physicsforums, they could convert it to standard latex, do the surgery offline then convert it back.

Replace ([^$])$([^$]) by $1##$2 using regex, and you don't have to mask double dollar signs. Every proper text editor can do that.

 

[anorlunda]

I'm having difficulty finding what the PF delimiters are for latex. Every time I try, I get the latex source instead of the rendering.

 

[mfb]

Double # for inline tex, double $ for individual formulas. This $\sqrt{a^2+b^2}$ is inline, and this is not: $$\sqrt{a^2+b^2}$$
Quote my post to see the source code.

Alternatively, use [itex]formula[/itex] and [tex]formula[/tex]

It will show the source code if there is a parsing error, usually from unrecognized control sequences or mismatched brackets.

 

[jtbell]

For general information about LaTex here, see

https://www.physicsforums.com/help/latexhelp/

It's in the INFO menu at the top of any page, under "Help/How-To", item "LaTeX Primer".