Why are MathJax images not displaying on my webpage?

[Nebuchadnezza]

In this thread https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=490052

About 1/3rd of the latex is now corrupt. Could anyone have a look at it? It worked before the change.

 

[Studiot]

Thank you, vela for offering a glimmer of hope.

The (error) messages in my browser clearly indicate that the browser is being redirected to MathJax .org to obtain some file but is unable to succeed.

I do not know if this is because of some security setting in my browser or some other reason and have already started another thread about this.

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=499913

Another thing is also clear, a significant number of other users are also experienceing difficulties.

In these circumstances can someone post the required settings for the benefit of all in difficulty?

 

[tiny-tim]

Hail mighty Nebuchadnezza!

In this thread https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=490052

About 1/3rd of the latex is now corrupt. Could anyone have a look at it? It worked before the change.

You keep putting unnecessary {} into your latex.

Mathjax apparently doesn't like that, though the old system put up with it!

For example, your …

$$I \, = \, \int {\frac{1}{{x\ln x}} dx$$

$$I \, = \, \int\limits_{\frac{\pi }{6}}^{\frac{\pi }{3}} {\sin {{\left( x \right)}^2} dx$$

should be …

I \, = \, \int \frac{1}{{x\ln x}} dx

I \, = \, \int{\frac{\pi }{6}}^{\frac{\pi }{3}} \sin \left( x \right)^2 dx​

giving …

$$I \, = \, \int \frac{1}{{x\ln x}} dx$$

$$I \, = \, \int_{\frac{\pi }{6}}^{\frac{\pi }{3}} \sin \left( x \right)^2 dx$$

​

 

[Nebuchadnezza]

Well firstly thanks for the help. For the second I can't edit my posts and change it, secondly it worked beforehand.

I think it should continue to work. When i am lazy I just copy/paste from MathType which likes putting in extra parentheses.

Therfore it seems I manually have to edit out every extra parenthesis. Which is to say very tedious when you are working with allot of code =)

Hopefully this gets fixed soon

 

[Jonathan Scott]

The Web Fonts thing gave me a bit of a scare when I first hit it.

I'm using Chrome 13 (dev) with Windows Vista and the first I knew about the change recently was when my laptop locked up for two or three minutes with a message in the bottom left corner about loading TeX fonts. There was no mouse pointer and pressing any key just caused a "beep" so I thought Chrome had crashed Windows and I was going to need to reboot. However, I left it for a few more minutes and when I came back it had recovered.

The results look good to me, better than the images.

 

[Fredrik]

I didn't check all the broken integrals, but the ones I did check don't just have unnecessary {} pairs. They don't have a matching number of { and } symbols. For example,

I \, = \, \int {\frac{1}{{x\ln x}} dx

has four { and three }. I tried it in a LaTeX document, and it doesn't work there. If it worked here before, that was due to a bug.

If this is a still active thread, or one that you like to link to often, then I suppose you can use the reply button to ask a mentor to change it for you. (But I suspect that they wouldn't like it if everyone does that).

 

[Mute]

You should use a better browser.

I'm using Chrome and on my laptop with Windows 7 on it the browser (actually, the whole computer) still freezes for 10-20 seconds while the javascript math code loads. It seems to only need to do this once per browser session, and all the math displays fine, but it is somewhat annoying.

Strangely, my older laptop with windows xp on it doesn't freeze.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

STIX Fonts release 1.0 should work correctly with Internet Explorer 8 in standards mode. Web site developers who wish to support IE8 should set the document mode by specifying the mode meta tag; see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288472(VS.85).aspx#tools for more information. There are known problems with using these fonts not in IE8 standards mode or with earlier versions of IE.​

I tried that last night but it broke IE9. I have now added a conditional. Can anyone report if IE8 is better now?

 

[Borek]

I have occasional problem with MathJax under Opera Now and then when reloading PF Opera stops displaying message "Completed request to cdn.mathjax.org", sometimes it gets a step further and displays a message "Completed request to api.vigilink.com". LaTeX is not rendered, when I press escape I get a messgae from MathJax:

MathJax no longer loads a default configuration file; you must specify such files explicitly. This page seems to use the older default config/MathJax.js file, and so needs to be updated. This is explained further at

http://www.mathjax.org/help/configuration

This doesn't happen always, and I guess it is possible that the MathJax error message is misleading.

Chrome and FF work OK though.

Edit: reset helped.

Edit 2: I just realized I didn't test Chrome nor FF as extensively as Opera, so it is quite possible statement that they work OK is too far fetched - for most of the time Opera works OK as well.

 

[yenchin]

The Web Fonts thing gave me a bit of a scare when I first hit it.

I'm using Chrome 13 (dev) with Windows Vista and the first I knew about the change recently was when my laptop locked up for two or three minutes with a message in the bottom left corner about loading TeX fonts. There was no mouse pointer and pressing any key just caused a "beep" so I thought Chrome had crashed Windows and I was going to need to reboot. However, I left it for a few more minutes and when I came back it had recovered.

The results look good to me, better than the images.

I have the same problem with Chrome with Vista [on two computers]. Everything just hanged for a minute or so and I couldn't do anything.

 

[Studiot]

I tried that last night but it broke IE9. I have now added a conditional. Can anyone report if IE8 is better now?

Well I tried relaxing all the security onIE8, but it has made no discernable difference.

 

[tiny-tim]

I have a similar problem with Safari 4.1.3 … nothing happens for some time, then an error message appears, something like "Safari is no longer responding because of a script, do you wish to stop the script?".

I click "Stop", and the problem stops (but the latex doesn't load).

This only happens occasionally, and for no apparent reason.

 

[Fredrik]

Well I tried relaxing all the security onIE8, but it has made no discernable difference.

Can you upgrade to IE9? I know that some people aren't allowed to do this by their IT departments (e.g. DaleSpam), but if no one is stopping you... And FF4 is an even better option in my opinion.

Obviously, Greg will do what he can to get it to work with IE8, but if you want it to work for you before he finds the solution...

 

[diazona]

I have a similar problem with Safari 4.1.3 … nothing happens for some time, then an error message appears, something like "Safari is no longer responding because of a script, do you wish to stop the script?".

I click "Stop", and the problem stops (but the latex doesn't load).

This only happens occasionally, and for no apparent reason.

I've occasionally had the same thing happen on Firefox. It's been rare enough - maybe once or twice in total on PF - that I haven't considered it a serious problem; I just stop the script, reload the page, and things are fine.

 

[Studiot]

Can you upgrade to IE9?

Thank you for the interest.

IE9 and above are not available for Windows XP.

And, of course it is not possible to put Vista or 7 onto a Dell GX270.

There are more copies of IE8 installed in the world than any other browser, or I think any other two browsers put together.


Yes I tested Chrome and Fox tonight on a different XP computer and both worked, albeit slowly. IE8 didn't render the Tex on that pc though.

 

[Borek]

There are more copies of IE8 installed in the world than any other browser, or I think any other two browsers put together.

Logs of my sites don't support the second part - 18.6% of my visitors use IE8, 21.4% use FireFox 3.x or 4.x.

 

[Studiot]

Logs of my sites don't support the second part - 18.6% of my visitors use IE8, 21.4% use FireFox 3.x or 4.x.

I'm not at all suprised. But that's a bit like asking the % of 2 wheel drive vehicles at a Landrover convention. Fox, et all are specialist niche browsers.

Most of my customers fall into two groups.

Those that can just about turn their pc on. I know it's not scientific but I doubt that more than 1 in 20 of these has something other than IE on the pc.

Those that are constrained by their IT department to IE, regardless of their computer skills.

 

[vela]

Thank you, vela for offering a glimmer of hope.

The (error) messages in my browser clearly indicate that the browser is being redirected to MathJax .org to obtain some file but is unable to succeed.

I think I saw the same thing. The error message said "access denied" for some JavaScript file. IE8 worked for a while, then I got that message for a while, and then it started working again. I don't remember doing anything to break it or fix it.

Sometimes it seems like IE8 isn't working, but it actually is. It's just painfully slow.

If you're stuck on XP, switching to Firefox may be your best solution for now.

 

[Studiot]

Thank you Vela for your interest.

One of my concerns is the provenance of MathJax.
If they were really as good as sliced bread then their Latex processor should not cause this with IE8.
On the other hand, I trust PF.
But I am now being asked to hand off script control of my pc to another site I had never even heard of until a couple of weeks ago.
So do I trust Mathjax?
Well I perhaps you have heard of Viewpoint spyware, as installed with and by AOL?
So my answer is I don't yet know.
I do know, however, that my original reason for into getting Latex (via MathType) still works as before.
This was for another teaching site, based in Toronto - Allaboutcircuits.

 

[Borek]

Preparing a site that looks OK in every browser, even if you are using just HTML and CSS is a real PITA. When it needs Java Script it becomes almost impossible.

 

[TurtleMeister]

Thank you Vela for your interest.

One of my concerns is the provenance of MathJax.
If they were really as good as sliced bread then their Latex processor should not cause this with IE8.
On the other hand, I trust PF.
But I am now being asked to hand off script control of my pc to another site I had never even heard of until a couple of weeks ago.
So do I trust Mathjax?
Well I perhaps you have heard of Viewpoint spyware, as installed with and by AOL?
So my answer is I don't yet know.
I do know, however, that my original reason for into getting Latex (via MathType) still works as before.
This was for another teaching site, based in Toronto - Allaboutcircuits.

That's a good point, and one that concerns me also. I use Firefox 4 with NoScript, and I only allow scripts for sites that I trust.

 

[vela]

I tried that last night but it broke IE9. I have now added a conditional. Can anyone report if IE8 is better now?

I just tried IE8, and it's still really slow. It took almost 2 minutes to finish processing this page. Firefox and Safari process the same page in about a second or less.EDIT: It appears IE8 is, simply, inherently slow compared to other browsers when it comes to JavaScript performance. I ran the SunSpider benchmarks to compare IE8 and Firefox 4.0.1, both on XP. IE8 took about 5900 ms to complete the tests while Firefox took only 370 ms. I wonder if MathJax happens to use those JavaScript functions IE8 just really sucks at.

http://www.webkit.org/perf/sunspider-0.9.1/sunspider-0.9.1/driver.html

 

[fluidistic]

Seems like some people like lanedance and Jjaquelin cannot see any latex. (for instance see there https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?p=3317334#post3317334 and there https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=500952).
I guess much more people cannot see latex for some reason. This probably mean latex will be changed once again and this will be sad as it never looked so beautiful to me. :)

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

This probably mean latex will be changed once again and this will be sad as it never looked so beautiful to me. :)

No MathJax is the future. With new developments and the steady pace of browser upgrades we should be able to cover almost all visitors in the near future.

 

[Fredrik]

If javascript is disabled in your browser, you will see the source code instead of an image. This page will tell you if you have javascript enabled, and how to enable it if you don't:

http://www.iatn.net/help/javascript/

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

If javascript is disabled in your browser, you will see the source code instead of an image. This page will tell you if you have javascript enabled, and how to enable it if you don't:

http://www.iatn.net/help/javascript/

I've also requested to the devs that they have some sort of detection and alert the user if JS is off.

 

[diazona]

But I am now being asked to hand off script control of my pc to another site I had never even heard of until a couple of weeks ago.

Not really, the script can't control your computer entirely, it can only do certain things within your web browser. Of course that is something one could be validly concerned about, but it's a bit easier to control than the common computer virus.

In any case, MathJax is no different from all the other external Javascript libraries that most websites use, like jQuery, or YUI (which PF uses). If you haven't been concerned about handing off control of your computer to Yahoo every time you visit PF, then you shouldn't worry about MathJax. (FWIW many people have looked into MathJax closely enough to verify that it doesn't do anything nefarious - it is open-source, after all.)

 

[Studiot]

Thank you Fredrik for that link, most useful.

My IE8 passed with flying colours.

But I still can't see the NewTex.

 

[jhae2.718]

Wouldn't adding something like:

<noscript>
Your browser appears to have
JavaScript functionality disabled.
To view mathematics on Physics Forums,
please enable JavaScript.
</noscript>

work?

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

My IE8 passed with flying colours.

But I still can't see the NewTex.

do any errors pop up? i think if there are js errors there is an icon on the bottom left that triggers?

 

[Studiot]

Greg, you can see the bottom left of the java test page shows "done" in my pic.

I am conscious of storage space so please feel free to delete this attachment when it has served its purpose (or tell me how)

On every PF page, including the 'manage attachments' popup, I get the yellow triangle and either error on page or sometimes done, just as ion the pics I posted in the other thread.

Thanks for looking.

Edit: the error details on this page for instance are:


Webpage error details

User Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; Trident/4.0)
Timestamp: Mon, 23 May 2011 19:12:12 UTC


Message: Access is denied.

Line: 45
Char: 495
Code: 0
URI: http://cdn.mathjax.org/mathjax/latest/config/TeX-AMS-MML_HTMLorMML.js


Message: Expected identifier, string or number
Line: 1
Char: 6
Code: 0
URI: https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?p=3318128&posted=1#post3318128

 

[flyingpig]

Can someone show me a TeX on the forums for a double closed integral?

I tried \ooiint (yeah I know lol) and it didn't work

 

[micromass]

Try \oiint :

$$\oiint$$

Also, save this to you desktop: http://ftp.snt.utwente.nl/pub/software/tex/info/symbols/comprehensive/symbols-a4.pdf

Edit: it seems PF doesn't have the right packages for it. But there are lots of packages that let you do this. See the link above, page 26 onwards...

 

[Fredrik]

Can someone show me a TeX on the forums for a double closed integral?

I tried \ooiint (yeah I know lol) and it didn't work

If I understand the comprehensive LaTeX symbol list correctly, you can use \oiint if you have loaded the wasysym package. PF doesn't seem to include that package (it's not one you need very often), but if you're writing a LaTeX document, you can include it there.

Edit: D'oh.

 

[micromass]

Sorry Frederik