LaTeX Effortless LaTeX Rendering in Editor: A Workaround for Accidental Pop-Ups

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A bug causing accidental LaTeX rendering in the editor has been identified, with users able to trigger it by hovering over related threads containing LaTeX. A workaround involves using the "undo" and "redo" functions in the WYSIWYG editor, but it only works if a draft has been saved prior to the rendering issue. Users must type something after quoting a post to enable the undo option, and the workaround is limited to one use per pop-up. The problem has been consistently reproducible in Firefox, and the workaround is ineffective in the plain text editor. This discussion highlights the need for better handling of LaTeX rendering in online editors.
Ibix
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This is a bug people have complained about before, but I've just found a way to make it happen on demand. I was typing a response in this thread and accidentally hovered over the first "related thread", which is titled "Is Second rank tensor always tensor product of two vectors?". The OP in that thread turned out to have a lot of LaTeX, and when the pop-up with the beginning of the post appeared the LaTeX in the edit box rendered itself as well.

Incidentally, I also discovered a possible workaround for us users. At least in this case, pressing "undo" and then "redo" in the editor reverted it to LaTeX source. I guess you'd have to undo to the point where you were when the unwanted rendering happened, so this might not work if you don't notice the rendering soon after it happens.
 
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I can't reproduce the problem with the steps you described. Firefox. I tried both the regular and the pseudo-WYSIWYG editor option.
 
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I could reproduce both the problem and the workaround, but the latter doesn't work if no draft has been saved before the rendering problem occurred.
 
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mfb said:
I can't reproduce the problem with the steps you described. Firefox. I tried both the regular and the pseudo-WYSIWYG editor option.
It only works in the WYSIWYG editor, and it only works once per popup (presumably it remembers the rendered popup) - so if you tried with the plain text editor then the WYSIWYG you won't have got it. Try refreshing the page, switch to WYSIWYG, enter some LaTeX and hover over the related thread again.
 
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I did some further testing, and it turns out that it has nothing to do with saving a draft. After quoting a post, I have to type something (even a letter will do) to enable the undo option. Then, if the LaTeX renders in the editor, I can simply click on the Undo option. A quick video of the process is available here.
 
Ibix said:
It only works in the WYSIWYG editor, and it only works once per popup (presumably it remembers the rendered popup) - so if you tried with the plain text editor then the WYSIWYG you won't have got it. Try refreshing the page, switch to WYSIWYG, enter some LaTeX and hover over the related thread again.
With these steps I can reproduce the bug, too.
 

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