Question

• editing a simple text-file in TWikiShorthand
• nesting some formulas in this text file in e.g. LaTeX
• writing a filter for this text file
  • leaving TWikiShorthand as is
  • cutting out LaTeX and generate pictures (e.g. jpeg) out of it
• piping the processed text file into TWiki, while attaching formulas as pictures

This was my ad hoc idea. Has anybody been working on a similar problem? Has anyone a solution? .

• TWiki version:
• Web server:
• Server OS:
• Web browser:
• Client OS:

-- JochenWitte - 29 Jan 2002

Discussion

If the stuff in the twiki is to remain editable, it seems you really need a LaTeX (or something like it) plugin, which will generate whatever HTML and embedded picture that are needed when downloading the page -- not before storing it. TeX makes everything out of nested boxes. Might it be possible to generate borderless nested HTML tables from the formulas to fake various forms of math layout?

The Wikipedia (which seems to be based on UseModWiki) has a fair amount of trouble with this in the mathematics sections. They use what looks like HTML codes for greek letters and other math symbols, and various browsers have various problems with them. The intelligent mathematician can usually figure out what is intended, but it looks awful.

-- HendrikBoom - 30 Jan 2002

Mmmm.... That's odd, there used to be a twiki plugin by AndreaSterbini that allowed just such LaTeX inclusion, (by using hevea), there is still a reference left to it in TWikiPlugin, and the discussion originated in MathematicsWiki. I wonder what happened to it??...

-- EdgarBrown - 30 Jan 2002

It might be good to investigate MathML, which is an XML-based language supported by some browsers (e.g. MozillaBrowser in special builds). Initially you could look at using MathML on the server side, rendering it into some other format, then migrate to native MathML as browsers support this natively.

-- RichardDonkin - 06 Feb 2002

Update on MathML - this is now supported by binary downloads of the MozillaBrowser. See http://www.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla0.9.9/ for links to get started - I just tried it and it works very well. LaTeX is still much more common than MathML, but the latter is the way forward as it allows for easier composition and processing of formulas (when the tools are finished...)

How about someone writing a MathMLPlugin? There is a Java/Tomcat based project, http://jeuclid.sourceforge.net/, that will render MathML into a GIF image, so it wouldn't be that hard to do a plugin to wrap around this - although installing the Java side of things might be a pain.

-- RichardDonkin - 13 Mar 2002

About the latex plugin: I'm implementing it in the current version of TWiki, see TWikiStoryOfWebTeach and WebTeachProject. I am more interested in latex2html than in hevea or tth, but I think that in a couple of week I'll release a plugin for it.

-- FrancoBagnoli - 14 Mar 2002

I've written a plugin called MathModePlugin that lets you include mathematics in TWiki page just like math-mode in LaTeX. Enclose your math strings in dollar signs, and latex2html is used to render images of the expression, which are then displayed when you view the page. Check it out, and tell me what you think.

-- GraemeLufkin - 04 Apr 2002

Answer

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