For the Moderator

Replies

• 

  silverscorpion

  Hmm.. Looks good! Might be a good idea! 😀
• 

  Gurjeet Singh

  Thanks for sharing this 😀
  nice idea 😀
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  Kaustubh Katdare

  The Redeemer

  Hi The_Big_k ,
  
  We can have something like this on our forum. Check out the following Physics forum link.
  
  #-Link-Snipped-#
  
  goiit.com also has Latex enabled into their forums.

  Thanks for the suggestion. There is however a little problem with the usage - we don't have a powerful WYSIWYG editor that directly supports it. Users will have to remember the commands. We do support subscripts and superscripts though.
  
  Image uploading facility was recently enabled for all the users with minimum 10 posts on the forum. I think it's easier to capture the screenshots of images and upload them on forum than remembering and typing out the commands.
  
  That's just my thought though. If many CEans want this, we'll mark this for inclusion in our next update. Looking forward to your responses.
• 

  The Redeemer

  The_big_K
  
  Uploading images is a good alternative but still I feel that integrating Latex into the forum will make posting more fun and easy. As for the learning of the commands , they are not that difficult , or we may create a special tutorial/reference section with the most commonly used Latex commands which users can use as a quick reference. And then for the people who are uncomfortable with Latex image uploading will always be there. As the time will pass the more frequent CEians will become proficient with Latex and the posts will become flooded with it. The occasional users will then notice the beauty of using Latex and will try to pick up on it.
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  Deepika Bansal

  I too agree with Redeemer.
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  Kaustubh Katdare

  Alrighty, let me look into it 😀
• 

  Arnav Joshi

  The_Big_K

  Thanks for the suggestion. There is however a little problem with the usage - we don't have a powerful WYSIWYG editor that directly supports it. Users will have to remember the commands. We do support subscripts and superscripts though.
  
  Image uploading facility was recently enabled for all the users with minimum 10 posts on the forum. I think it's easier to capture the screenshots of images and upload them on forum than remembering and typing out the commands.

  I found out an online WYSIWYG editor for Latex. The site has one advantage that whatever equation you type in editor , an image is generated below it. The image URL can be pasted on this forum so as to get the equation on this forum. User won't even have to copy image to own computer.
  Online Equation Editor - standalone
  
  A fellow on #-Link-Snipped-# was capturing equations from camera and uploading. This tool would help people like him. I didn't notice a latex editor on CE forums (at the time I posted the thread) , hence thought of sharing , in the case that some people weren't aware of such tools. Maybe we could have something similar on CE , till then we could use such online editors .
  
  Here is a sample image from that editor :-
  
  
  image url - https://latex.codecogs.com/gif.latex?\sum_{n = 1}^{\infty} \int_{-\pi}^{\pi}cos(mx)sin(nx)dx
• 

  Kaustubh Katdare

  Integrating that editor with our current system is going to be a tough job. It's not very frequently required on CE. A better way would be to type the equation in Word document, take a screenshot and upload using our file uploader.
• 

  Arnav Joshi

  The_Big_K

  Integrating that editor with our current system is going to be a tough job. It's not very frequently required on CE. A better way would be to type the equation in Word document, take a screenshot and upload using our file uploader.

  No problem if it can't be integrated on CE. People could use such online tools and paste the image URL on this forum. It would reduce the hassle of taking a screenshot and then uploading. Further more it is WYSIWYG so people won't have to remember commands. And as soon as each symbol is selected a small image is rendered below it , one just has to copy that image's URL. 👍 . I mean I don't know if people are already making use of such stuff on this site , but if some aren't aware of these free tools they could start using them now. There could be other such tools also, one just has to search for online LaTeX editor.
• 

  Kaustubh Katdare

  There were few requests to integrate LaTeX editor with CE earlier as well and we did try. The whole thing actually makes our upgrades complicated (which we perform frequently). I suggest following alternatives -
  
  1. Write the equation on paper, click a photo of it and upload it using our image editor. It's quick and more personal 😀
  
  2. Use MS Word - It's an excellent editor and better than we we can offer through an online editor. Once you've written your formula in word, grab a screenshot and upload it on CE.
• 

  Arnav Joshi

  I agree that it is quite complicated. Most of the forums which do have them are unable to render the formula sometimes. After their forum gets upgraded the LaTeX code is seen instead of the equation image. I have seen this happening on physicsforums in their old posts.
  
  But I wasn't saying that CE should integrate that editor as such. I think it is a free open source tool especially designed so that people of different forums could make use of it. A member could bookmark such an editor , open it in separate window , do the typing there and just paste the image URL here(via the image upload option). I personally found such an algorithm simpler as one doesn't have to leave the confines of an internet browser.
  

  The_Big_K

  I suggest following alternatives -
  1. Write the equation on paper, click a photo of it and upload it using our image editor. It's quick and more personal 😀

  I wish I could but my handwriting would make a doctor proud, not an engineer. 😁