Feature request: ASCII Math

[mlopezgva]

Hi!

I'm very surprised the a project name ASCIIDocFX doesn't support ASCIIMath!

MathJax already supports it, and it looks very "asciidoc/markdown" like. Could be a good feature, because it integrates better with AsciiDoc than LaTeX and alike. Using LaTeX for anything is always a PITA... that's why ASCIIDoc or MarkDown exist, in fact. :) so, mathematical expressions should also be easier to type. And looking around, from MathJax thanks to StackEdit, I found AsciiMath.

Just to make a point, see the difference between TeX-like and asciiMath with these examples:

• Cauchy-Schwarz Inequality, this is terrific:
  • TeX: \[ \left( \sum_{k=1}^n a_k b_k \right)^2 \leq \left( \sum_{k=1}^n a_k^2 \right) \left( \sum_{k=1}^n b_k^2 \right) \]
  • asciiMath: (sum_(k=1)^n a_kb_k)^2 <= (sum_(k=1)^n a_k^2) (sum_(k=1)^n b_k^2)

• Lorenz:
  • TeX: \dot{x} = \sigma(y-x) \\ \dot{y} = \rho x - y - xz \\ \dot{z} = -\beta z + xy
  • asciiMath dotx = sigma(y-x) \doty = rho x-y - xz \dotz = -beta z + xy
• Probability:
  • TeX: \[P(E) = {n \choose k} p^k (1-p)^{ n-k } \]
  • asciiMath: P(E) = ((n),(k)) p^k (1-p)^(n-k)

• And, of course, the quadratic formula:
  • TeX: -b \pm \sqrt{b^2 - 4ac} \over 2a
  • asciiMath x=-b+- sqrt(b^2-4ac)/2a

Some more examples comparing the same formulas in Markdown Plus help:

1) 2) 3) 4) 5)

Núm.	LaTeX	length	ASCII Math	length
1	\dfrac{ \tfrac{1}{2}[1-(\tfrac{1}{2})^n] }{ 1-\tfrac{1}{2} } = s_n	66	(1/2[1-(1/2)^n])/(1-(1/2))=8_n	30
2	\oint_C x^3\, dx + 4y^2\, dy	28	oint_Cx^3 dx+4y^2 dy	21
3	2 = \left( \frac{\left(3-x\right) \times 2}{3-x} \right)	57	2=(((3-x)xx2)/(3-x))	20
4	\sum_{m=1}^\infty\sum_{n=1}^\infty\frac{m^2\,n} {3^m\left(m\,3^n+n\,3^m\right)}	80	sum_(m=1)^oosum_(n=1)^oo(m^2 n)/(3^m(m3^n+n3^m)	48

And the last one is so big (169 characters), I must put it as a code block...

phi_n(\kappa) =
 \frac{1}{4\pi^2\kappa^2} \int_0^\infty
 \frac{\sin(\kappa R)}{\kappa R}
 \frac{\partial}{\partial R}
 \left[R^2\frac{\partial D_n(R)}{\partial R}\right]\,dR

And, ASCIImath version:

phi_n(kappa) = 1/(4pi^2 kappa^2)
 int_0^oo (sin(kappa R))/(kappa R)
 del/(del R)
[R^2 (del D_n (R))/(del R)] del R

Its not so long (112 characters, including spaces, I could've put it in a single line:

phi_n(kappa) = 1/(4pi^2 kappa^2) int_0^oo (sin(kappa R))/(kappa R) del/(del R) [R^2 (del D_n (R))/(del R)] del R

See the difference? And there's another one: I had only peeked at the docs to see the token of the oint. Everything else I was able to type it without help, it's "natural" (something LaTeX is definitely not ;)).

[rahmanusta]

Hello @mlopezgva thanks for the detailed explanation. AsciidocFX supports AsciiMath syntax. But the documentation wasn't updated :)

[mlopezgva]

Oh... OK. Thank you.

Feel free to use some of my examples to update the docs. :-D

[rafa2000]

Yes but the display is too big compared with the sorrounding text. Any way to fix that? The same problem, of getting a too large display for math, happens when rendering LaTeX. If trying to fix it by using [svg] output, instead of [png], erases de output.

[rahmanusta]

You can play with width/ height.