Issue with Latex Equations: I have a screen recording of the problem

[zenterix]

My posts all include many equations written in Latex. It seems to me like there are a few bugs related to usage of Latex specifically when just starting a new thread.

I've made a short 2 minute screen recording to show the issue I face every single time I want to start a new thread, and the way I get around it.

Since it doesn't seem possible to attach the video here, I have saved it to Google Drive https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ed7_oD8j66R62h6g0LYvqaBgizgY5Xj0/view?usp=sharing.

I think it's pretty clear what's happening there, though I would be shocked if this is happening to everyone because it's such an annoying bug that I would imagine it would have had to be brought up and solved by now.

 

[Ibix]

It's a known issue, I'm afraid. MathJax only loads on pages where there's already LaTeX. That means that new threads, and the first reply on a page to use LaTeX, don't get their maths rendered in preview. Yes, that is annoying.

 

[zenterix]

It's a known issue, I'm afraid. MathJax only loads on pages where there's already LaTeX. That means that new threads, and the first reply on a page to use LaTeX, don't get their maths rendered in preview. Yes, that is annoying.

Is it the case that someone has looked into it and there is no easy solution, or is it just an issue on the backburner?

If the latter, is it possible for a regular user to look into it and possibly create a pull request?

 

[Ibix]

Don't know - I'm just a regular user in this context. @Greg Bernhardt?

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Over the holiday I can look into loading the main MathJax script when the preview button is clicked.

 

[Ibix]

That would be great if it's possible, Greg, thanks.

 

[PeroK]

Is it the case that someone has looked into it and there is no easy solution, or is it just an issue on the backburner?

If the latter, is it possible for a regular user to look into it and possibly create a pull request?

What I do is: copy the text so I don't lose it; hit the browser screen refresh; then hit the PF preview.

 

[Ibix]

What I do is: copy the text so I don't lose it; hit the browser screen refresh; then hit the PF preview.

Well whaddaya know... Thanks. Doesn't seem to work quite right in the Post new thread screen, though. I just tried it and got the rendered LaTeX in the editor, which was not what I wanted.

 

[PeroK]

Well whaddaya know... Thanks. Doesn't seem to work quite right in the Post new thread screen, though. I just tried it and got the rendered LaTeX in the editor, which was not what I wanted.

This needs to be fixed.

 

[Ygggdrasil]

It's a known issue, I'm afraid. MathJax only loads on pages where there's already LaTeX. That means that new threads, and the first reply on a page to use LaTeX, don't get their maths rendered in preview. Yes, that is annoying.

Is it possible to include LaTeX on every page of the forum (e.g. in the footer of the page) so that MathJax always loads or would this cause performance issues?

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Is it possible to include LaTeX on every page of the forum (e.g. in the footer of the page) so that MathJax always loads or would this cause performance issues?

Performance is the factor. The library is quite large and the fact is most threads don't have equations.

 

[Wrichik Basu]

Another alternative (I had probably suggested this before) is to show a button in pages in which MathJax is not already loaded. Clicking the button should load the MathJax resource for that page.

 

[DrGreg]

Would it be possible for a script to search the page for any of the four tags for tex/itex and, if found, load MathJax? Would the search be quite fast?

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Would it be possible for a script to search the page for any of the four tags for tex/itex and, if found, load MathJax? Would the search be quite fast?

That is how it works currently, the preview function complicates that a little.