In the last few days I've updated the Math extension's experimental MathJax
support to where it can actually be enabled by individual users. If all
goes well with review I'd love to get this deployed soon so the math-heads
can turn it on and check for lingering incompatibilities...
MathJax [
http://www.mathjax.org/] is a client-side JavaScript library for
parsing TeX or MathML code and rendering it in just about any modern
browser -- it even works back to IE 6! -- using webfonts and HTML/CSS,
MathML, or SVG as available.
Here's a sample page on a test wiki, copied from en.wikipedia:
http://leuksman.com/mw/index.php/Alpha_compositing
This update to the extension builds on Nageh's work setting up an earlier
version of MathJax as a user script, plus some help from the MathJax devs
on their mailing list. Thanks guys!
Big advantages of this over our current server-side math rendering:
* font size & baseline match up with surrounding text for inline equations!
* subpixel antialiasing or high-dpi displays allow math to render more
sharply at default size
* scalable -- you can zoom in your browser and things stay sharp
* printable -- printed output also stays sharp (some browsers have font
issues with some modes; to be experimented with)
* in-browser zoom & copy-paste helpers
And of course:
* a strong open-source community maintaining it, who are happy to help us
with integration and any needed fixes
* it's not ocaml ;)
The additions to Math extension add a third 'MathJax' rendering mode which
users can opt in to at Special:Preferences. This replaces the older HTML
and MathML rendering modes that we already disabled in 1.19.
In the future when we've worked out the kinks, we can turn that into the
default, and continue to use it as a fallback renderer for non-JavaScript
browsers. (A nicer math edit/preview tool would be awesome too, especially
for confirming that things work in both renderers in the future!)
Revs that'll need to be reviewed & deployed:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:Code/MediaWiki/tag/mathjax
WikiProject:Mathematics talk page section:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Mathematics#mathJa…
-- brion