option file?

[dpo]

The script documentation says that I can specify a file with MathJax options when installing (https://github.com/thisiscam/math-with-slack/blob/master/math-with-slack.py#L67). However, the README only shows an example where the config is given explicitly on the command line. I wasn't successful specifiying a file. What is the exact syntax and what should that file contain?

For instance, if I create a file with the content of the URL given in the documentation (http://docs.mathjax.org/en/latest/options/input/tex.html), I get no TeX rendering at all. In the README, three backslashes are used to specify delimiters. In the file, there are only two.

Could you please clarify?

Thanks.

[thisiscam]

Hi,

At the time of your issue, this mathjax-tex-options only accepted inline options string not file path --- that was an oversight caused by unintentional git merges. Thanks for bringing it up, and It should be fixed now. Once you updated, a working example on my end:

$ python math-with-slack.py --mathjax-tex-options=test_config.js 

where test_config.js contains (I grabbed from http://docs.mathjax.org/en/latest/options/input/tex.htm):

{
    packages: ['base'],        // extensions to use
    inlineMath: [              // start/end delimiter pairs for in-line math
      ['\\(', '\\)']
    ],
    displayMath: [             // start/end delimiter pairs for display math
      ['$$', '$$'],
      ['\\[', '\\]']
    ],
    processEscapes: true,      // use \$ to produce a literal dollar sign
    processEnvironments: true, // process \begin{xxx}...\end{xxx} outside math mode
    processRefs: true,         // process \ref{...} outside of math mode
    digits: /^(?:[0-9]+(?:\{,\}[0-9]{3})*(?:\.[0-9]*)?|\.[0-9]+)/,
                               // pattern for recognizing numbers
    tags: 'none',              // or 'ams' or 'all'
    tagSide: 'right',          // side for \tag macros
    tagIndent: '0.8em',        // amount to indent tags
    useLabelIds: true,         // use label name rather than tag for ids
    multlineWidth: '85%',      // width of multline environment
    maxMacros: 1000,           // maximum number of macro substitutions per expression
    maxBuffer: 5 * 1024,       // maximum size for the internal TeX string (5K)
 }

This options file should contain a javascript dictionary. The dict should have the same structure as the dict under the "tex" option at: http://docs.mathjax.org/en/latest/options/input/tex.html. Note that I believe this dict can only contain pre-ES6 syntax (so no JS lambdas etc).

In general, I have considered this flag as a power user feature, so I haven't paid too much attention to its usability. Let me know what you think?

[dpo]

Amazing, thank you so much! This makes it much easier to share configs and update Slack with a given config file.

[thisiscam]

I've used the inline option to share the config, so that I can just send people the command without any additional config files. But admittedly, the inline option requires escaping every slash, which makes it unreadable.

I will close this for now, though I'm open to suggestions for a more usable interface. So feel free to open a new one if you (or anyone) have ideas.