Should chat have TeX support?

Question

OK, so chat is now available... but; it has been suggested that for Mathematics we should have TeX support.

The current TeX processing has some non-trivial client impact. Before I even attempt trying to hack this in, is this something that the community would want / use?

(this would only apply to maths rooms, and would presumably only apply to posts written with what is, for other sites, the fixed-font indent - i.e 4 spaces)

Answer 1

There are four bookmarks which are located on this installation page:

1. start ChatJax installs MathJax and starts a loop that renders $\LaTeX$ as needed. This is intended for use in chat, where the contents of the page are not static. Reloading the page will stop the loop, so the bookmark needs to be run again.

2. render MathJax installs MathJax and renders $\LaTeX$ once per execution. This is intended for use on web pages where the contents of the page are static.

3. rendering off disables MathJax while editing. This is useful when rendering is slow while editing questions and answers.

4. rendering on enables MathJax after being disabled by rendering off.

To get the bookmarks mentioned above, go to this installation page.

There is a section at the bottom of the installation page to install ChatJax on a browser that cannot add bookmarks using drag-and-drop or a contextual menu. This is how I installed ChatJax on my iPhone.

If you are still having trouble installing on an iOS device, see this answer on Ask Different.

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On April 30, 2017, the MathJax CDN will be shutting down.

The bookmarks listed above will need to be reinstalled. I have updated the bookmarks to use the CDN at cdnjs.cloudflare.com. Make sure you reload this installation page so that the new bookmarks are not hidden behind a stale cache.

Answer 2

Revision 3. This one actually has a working loop, and uses jQuery instead of directly injecting a script element.

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Unfortunately, it seems that new chat messages no longer trigger the ajaxComplete event, so my hack has to be replaced with a different one. This one runs MathJax on a 1-second cycle.

Bookmarklet:

javascript:(function()%7Bif(window.MathJax===undefined)%7BjQuery.getScript(%22http://cdn.mathjax.org/mathjax/latest/MathJax.js?config=TeX-AMS_HTML%22,function()%7BMathJax.Hub.Config(%7B%22HTML-CSS%22:%7BpreferredFont:%22TeX%22,availableFonts:%5B%22STIX%22,%22TeX%22%5D,linebreaks:%7Bautomatic:true%7D,EqnChunk:MathJax.Hub.Browser.isMobile?10:50%7D,tex2jax:%7BinlineMath:%5B%5B%22$%22,%22$%22%5D,%5B%22%5C%5C%5C%5C(%22,%22%5C%5C%5C%5C)%22%5D%5D,displayMath:%5B%5B%22$$%22,%22$$%22%5D,%5B%22%5C%5C%5B%22,%22%5C%5C%5D%22%5D%5D,processEscapes:true,ignoreClass:%22tex2jax_ignore%7Cdno%22%7D,TeX:%7BnoUndefined:%7Battributes:%7Bmathcolor:%22red%22,mathbackground:%22#FFEEEE%22,mathsize:%2290%25%22%7D%7D%7D,messageStyle:%22none%22%7D);MathJax.Hub.Startup.onload();theLoop=function()%7BMathJax.Hub.Queue(%5B%22Typeset%22,MathJax.Hub%5D);window.setTimeout(theLoop,1e3)%7D;theLoop()%7D)%7Delse%7BMathJax.Hub.Queue(%5B%22Typeset%22,MathJax.Hub%5D)%7D%7D)()

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Source code:

(function () {
    if (window.MathJax === undefined) {
        jQuery.getScript('http://cdn.mathjax.org/mathjax/latest/MathJax.js?config=TeX-AMS_HTML', function () {
            MathJax.Hub.Config({
                "HTML-CSS": {
                    preferredFont: "TeX",
                    availableFonts: ["STIX", "TeX"],
                    linebreaks: {
                        automatic: true
                    },
                    EqnChunk: (MathJax.Hub.Browser.isMobile ? 10 : 50)
                },
                tex2jax: {
                    inlineMath: [
                        ["$", "$"],
                        ["\\\\(", "\\\\)"]
                    ],
                    displayMath: [
                        ["$$", "$$"],
                        ["\\[", "\\]"]
                    ],
                    processEscapes: true,
                    ignoreClass: "tex2jax_ignore|dno"
                },
                TeX: {
                    noUndefined: {
                        attributes: {
                            mathcolor: "red",
                            mathbackground: "#FFEEEE",
                            mathsize: "90%"
                        }
                    }
                },
                messageStyle: "none"
            });

            MathJax.Hub.Startup.onload();

            theLoop = function () {
                MathJax.Hub.Queue(['Typeset', MathJax.Hub]);
                window.setTimeout(theLoop, 1000);
            };
            theLoop();
        });
    } else {
        MathJax.Hub.Queue(['Typeset', MathJax.Hub]);
    }

})();

Answer 3

There is ChatJax++ now, a user script that enables MathJax in SE chat in a smart way, i.e. it requires no user interaction and renders new messages automatically.

Answer 4

For those of us who struggle to get ChatJax running on an iPad, you need to fake it into a bookmarklet that you can copy and paste into the Safari URL line, then save as a bookmark. Make an .html file on your desktop that you will save, put in Dropbox, and open with Safari on your iPad.

That .html file should have a textbox in it that you can copy here (go into edit mode):

ChatJax Bookmarklet
COPY AND PASTE ROBJOHN'S SCRIPT HERE

Answer 5

With MathJax 2.x the way to load it dynamically has changed and the documentation says that one should use a new method.

It seems to me that it ought to be possible to turn this into a Greasemonkey script that runs automatically when receiving new input.