Chemical Forums

General Forums => Comments for Staff and Comments from Staff => Topic started by: Kryolith on January 20, 2008, 07:28:32 PM

Title: Using LaTeX in the forum
Post by: Kryolith on January 20, 2008, 07:28:32 PM

Hi,

unfortunately most users don't even use the sub and sup tags to format their chemical formulas. In my humble opinion this should be a form of netiquette in a scientific forum. However there are users, who do use these functions.

Though it is not (yet) possible to implement mathematical formulas, equilibrium arrows, greek symbols etc. directly, one can use mimeTeX (derived from LaTeX) on an external server.

You have to implement the following code:

Code: [Select]

[img]http://www.forkosh.dreamhost.com/mimetex.cgi?...[/img]"..." is a place holder for the LaTeX code that will be displayed.

Example: Boudouard equilibrium

Code: [Select]

[img]http://www.forkosh.dreamhost.com/mimetex.cgi?{CO_2 + C \ \rightleftharpoons \ 2 \ CO \ \quad \Delta H = +172 \ \frac{kJ}{mol}}[/img]renders
(https://www.chemicalforums.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.forkosh.dreamhost.com%2Fmimetex.cgi%3F%3Cbr+%2F%3E%7BCO_2+%2B+C+%5C+%5Crightleftharpoons+%5C+2+%5C+CO+%5C+%5Cquad+%5CDelta+H+%3D+%2B172+%5C+%5Cfrac%7BkJ%7D%7Bmol%7D%7D&hash=e9c3777faff6016db9c089d7241dd41be4b462f9)

Here is a tutorial: http://www.forkosh.com/mimetextutorial.html
More tutorials can be found at http://www.tug.org/begin.html#doc

Happy "TeXing"  :)

Kryolith

Title: Re: Using LaTeX in the forum
Post by: Mitch on January 20, 2008, 07:38:44 PM

That is a nice shortcut way to do LaTex on the forum, thanks. We've tried integrating Latex before, but something wasn't syncing right. Also, Google can't read Latex correctly, so we take an SEO hit from using it.

But, whatever anyone likes is fine by me.

Title: Re: Using LaTeX in the forum
Post by: Kryolith on January 20, 2008, 07:42:21 PM

I assume not many people search for formulas or reaction equations, nevertheless it's a disadvantage of LaTeX.

Title: Re: Using LaTeX in the forum
Post by: Arkcon on January 20, 2008, 09:34:23 PM

Here's a crazy thought, the forum software has a row of emoticons.   Maybe they could be replaced or augmented with double arrows, and other useful chemical symbols, so this forum picks up an even more serious chemistry tone.

Title: Re: Using LaTeX in the forum
Post by: Mitch on January 20, 2008, 11:15:04 PM

Quote from: Arkcon on January 20, 2008, 09:34:23 PM

Here's a crazy thought, the forum software has a row of emoticons.   Maybe they could be replaced or augmented with double arrows, and other useful chemical symbols, so this forum picks up an even more serious chemistry tone.

That is a creative idea. What icons would everyone like?

$$ y = mx + b /$$

Title: Re: Using LaTeX in the forum
Post by: Arkcon on January 21, 2008, 07:59:07 AM

Hmmm... well, for starters:

--->
<---

and maybe delta H, like in Kryolith's example above.  I'd also like:

->
<---

and it's inverse.  Of course, if I had a need to use dozens of them at once, I'd definitely use LaTeX.