mathematics markup in steemit?
Looking at the mathematic, physics, and math tags on steemit, it looks like anybody trying to write equations is embedding latex diagrams, which is pretty clumsy compared to a markup scheme like MathJax-Latex (a wordpress plugin ; examples here: http://peeterjoot.com/category/math-and-physics-play/ ) or the built-in markup for equations available on https://math.stackexchange.com/ or https://www.physicsforums.com/
Has anybody tried implementing a latex based mathjax markup scheme for steemit? How extensible is steemit markup? Are there alternate UIs than steemit.com itself that would allow for more general markup?
I had the same problem. I searched for the solution and I stumble upon your post. I was planning to post introductory course on general relativity and quantum field theory, sadly equations dont exist here. One has to resort to images.
By the way, I love physics too.
Conceptually, the platform is good for this, but without some latex support in the markdown, I'm not going to try using it. I feel forced to stick to existing non-steemit platforms for anything mathematical.
The solution I use is a workaround solution. I use QuickLaTeX.com to convert LaTeX into images in my math posts here. (I am not familiar with MathJaX but I have heard of it.)
You can't use LaTeX here but you can use images!
Mathjax ( https://www.mathjax.org/ ) encodes the equations without images, so you can rescale your browser page and the equations will always be readable. As a specific example, take a look at a page that uses mathjax, such as:
http://peeterjoot.com/2016/01/05/energy-momentum-tensor-for-a-scalar-field/
No amount of control-plus-minus in your browser will make the equations fuzzy. Compare that to a page that uses latex generated images, like:
https://steemit.com/mathematics/@dkmathstats/right-angle-triangles-and-the-soh-cah-toa-acronym
On this page, control+ a few times makes the c^2 = a^2 + b^2 really fuzzy.
Many mathjax engines, such as the one that is used on stackexchange, physicsforums and the wordpress plugin mentioned) have latex equation parsers, so you can write your equations just as you would normally when doing latex -> pdf, but they can be rendered nicely in html.
Hm. I would have to look into MathJax in more detail.
Currently, I am using RMarkdown to write my posts and LaTeX offline. The text from R Markdown would be transferred into the Steemit text window before posting. Any math LaTeX would be done with QuickLaTeX.com.
The following steemit post:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@cryptovest/missing-markdown-functionalities-on-steemit-footnotes-and-mathjax-latex
also discusses this issue. Looks like there was a feature request for mathjax in steemit:
https://github.com/steemit/condenser/issues/7
I wonder how stackexchange dealt with the security issues that led this feature request to be closed?
I wonder how hard it would be to fork the UI:
https://github.com/steemit/condenser
and try implementing this?