Mathjax 2.5 alpha

Question

We have deployed the latest Mathjax 2.5 alpha on Math.SE. As with any beta release please post an answer to this question if you find any issues. We will be monitoring this thread closely along with the authors of Mathjax to ensure this release goes smoothly.

This particular release has a new feature that we need your help testing. Here's a direct quote from Davide Cervone & Peter Krautzberger from the MathJax team:

We are hoping to get feedback on one specific new feature: the "Fast preview" rendering mode.

This is an opt-in test.

You can activate the Fast Preview mode via the MathJax menu:

$$X^2 ---------------------------- X^2$$

right/cmd click an equation such as the one above => 
    click Math Settings => 
    click Math Renderer => 
    check "Fast Preview".  (Not "Fast HTML"; see below.)

This mode works as follows:

1. the new Fast HTML output creates a fast-but-rough preview
2. the HTML-CSS output runs and replaces the preview (or the SVG if you've switched manually)

[Note that the "Fast HTML" entry in the renderer list is the output format used by the fast preview temporarily before the output is replaced by the higher-quality output that MathJax normally produces. If you select "Fast HTML" in the renderer list, that will keep the fast output permanently, rather than replacing it with the better version. You can use that to see what the faster output look like. We are working on improving the quality of this output, but those improvements won't come until after v2.5 is released. We hope Fast HTML will be able to replace HTML-CSS in the future.]

There are a couple of variables we are hoping to tweak thanks to your feedback. Our main questions are:

a) Would you prefer the second run to show equations incrementally?

Right now, the second run will finish rendering all equations before replacing the Fast-HTML previews. This reduces jitter and speeds up the second run. It can be configured to show equations one-by-one or in chunks (e.g., 50, then 100 more, then 200 more).

b) how responsive is your browser during the second run?

Right now, the second run is optimized to keep your browser very responsive; this prolongs the second run slightly and can be tweaked in either direction.

These are questions of balancing the two runs and we hope your feedback here will allow us to strike the right balance.

Thanks again for your help!

Answer 1

Not sure if this is new in 2.5, but: I'm seeing a lack of spacing before the aligned symbol in the aligned environment. Tested in Firefox 33 and 35 and Safari 8 on OS X 10.10.

Here is a sample: $$\begin{aligned} u_t-u_{xx} &= p(x,t) \\ u(x,0) &= 0 \end{aligned}$$

Compare with the same code, wrapped in the similar align environment: $$\begin{align} u_t-u_{xx} &= p(x,t) \\ u(x,0) &= 0 \end{align}$$

Screenshot:

Answer 2

Double vertical bars \| \|, typically used as the norm notation, render slanted by the Fast HTML renderer. For example, $\|R(f)-R(g)\|\le \|f-g\|$ becomes

I understand the fonts are rough but this looks like a wrong character altogether.

Single vertical bars are not affected.

Answer 3

Numbered equations have numbers on the left in the Fast HTML output:

unlike the HTML-CSS output:

Also, the number is very close to the equation itself, despite there being plenty of room on the line. Seen here.