Add AsciiMath support

[pacien]

MathJax already supports AsciiMath (http://docs.mathjax.org/en/latest/asciimath.html). It would be cool to add an option to enable it, in addition to LaTeX expressions (in the same time or with other delimiters).

[MauroG]

thumb up!

[redstoneleo]

yes, I found LaTeX is hard to write and learn ,while ASCIIMath allow us to use a simple calculator-style syntax to write math formulas on webpages, so it makes sense to add this feature!!!

[ghost]

pls add asciimath

[mlopezgva]

I have just tried the homesite demo, and looks very "asciidoc/markdown" like. Could be a good feature.

MathJax is good, but asciiMath is simple and covers many common scenarios, I would suggest to allow both, using the Extensions tab in the Options.

Just to make a point, see the difference between TeX 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

[mlopezgva]

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

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 oneliner:

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 he "name" of the 'oint'. Everything else I was able to type without help, it's "natural" (something LaTeX is definetly not ;)).

[ghost]

Possible convert AsciiMath to MathML, or not?

[mlopezgva]

AFAIK stackedit already usses MathJax, which supports ASCIIMath.. I would like to know how to alter the configuration of the mathjax plugin (it's already in the config section) to switch to asciimath.

[j-maas]

Unfortunately, StackEdit appears to no longer use MathJax, instead favoring KaTeX.

There is a preprocessor which is referenced from the official doc that converts ASCIIMath to LaTeX, such that it would still be fed through KaTeX.

Maybe that would be a viable option: Adding a StackEdit flag for enabling ASCIIMath and then, when extracting the LaTeX to pass it to KaTeX, intercepting with the prepocessor conditionally according to the flag.