mimeTeX Crash Course

[Dave]

This is a quick and dirty guide to using mimeTeX on the forums. The aim is to make it a little bit easier for you all to post proper mathematics, and not have to mess around with bracketing and things like that.

 

The first thing to note, is that when you use the math tag to encompass an equation, there cannot be any spaces in the text. Otherwise, your equation will not render properly. Instead, you must use a tilde (~).

 

The second thing is, because mimeTeX is essentially a front-end for TeX, this means that syntaxically, the language is quite complex. This is for a good reason; it is very hard to properly typeset mathematics, and a great amount of detail is needed to know where things go.

 

The basic language is quite simple. There are a vast array of commands, all preceeded by a backslash (\). These print various mathematical symbols. For example, \phi would print [math]\phi[/math], or something like \sin would (rather obviously) print [math]\sin[/math]. Also remember that mimeTeX is case sensitive. This means that \sin is not the same as \Sin. Basically, you type the equation as you would say it.

 

Greek letters are printed by commands; capital greek letters have a capitalised first letter. For example:

 

[math]4$\sigma[/math] - lower case sigma with <math>\sigma</math>

[math]4$\Sigma[/math] - upper case sigma with <math>\Sigma</math>

 

There are six font sizes: 0-5. Use these at the beginning of your statement as follows.

 

normal size: [math]~e^{x^2}[/math] (Produced with 3$e^{x^{2}})

largest: [math]5$~e^{x^2}[/math] (Produced with 5$e^{x^{2}})

 

Some commands, such as sqrt, take an argument. So if you wanted the square root of x^2+7, you'd use <math>\sqrt{x^2+7}</math> - which looks like this: [math]4$\sqrt{x^2+7}[/math].

 

Now for subscript and superscript. This is quite simple - if you want subscript, you use an underscore (_). If you want superscript, you use a hat (^). What you want in the superscript and/or subscript is enclosed by curly brackets ({}). For example, say you wanted x^2. You'd use <math>x^{2}</math>. Strictly speaking, you don't need the curly brackets for simpler expressions, but I always find it more useful to keep them. If you want a subscript and a superscript, this is fine. You just need to put one after the other - it doesn't matter which way around. For example, <math>x_{1}^{2}</math> is exactly the same as <math>x^{2}_{1}</math> (the output of which is [math]x^{2}_{1}[/math]. Some functions, such as \int and \lim put superscripts and subscripts in special places (i.e. below lim, the limits on the integral, etc). For example:

 

[math]5$\Bigint_{a}^{b}~x^{2}~dx=b^{2}-a^{2}[/math] (produced with 5$\Bigint_{a}^{b}~x^{2}~dx=b^{2}-a^{2}).

 

The last thing I'll talk about is fractions. These are created with the frac command. For example:

 

[math]5$\frac{1}{2}[/math] (produced with 5$\frac{1}{2}).

[math]5$\frac{1}{1+\frac{x}{1+x^{-2}}}[/math] (produced with 5$\frac{1}{1+\frac{x}{1+x^{-2}}}).

 

I hope this is of some use; it is by no means a comprehensive guide. I haven't covered brackets, matrices, and a whole bunch of other stuff. If you want a more in-depth look, then have a look at http://www.forkosh.dreamhost.com/mimetexmanual.html, which is the manual for mimeTeX.

 

Please post any other suggestions/mistakes below. Thanks.

[BrainMan]

You wouldn't believe how many of those symbols simply didn't show up for me when I entered the thread. Upon leaving and re-entering, they started to pop up on the screen properly, but it took a good few times. Sin never did show up.

 

Anyone know why?

[blike]

Yea, the CGI-script I've been using is trash. Dave has a nice one he's whipped up that I'm going to install sometime tomorrow. The syntax should be the same, however.

[Dave]

To be fair, I don't like the way it renders (it's messy more than anything else), I don't like the fact that I have to use a tilde if I want a space, and I think it's a bad idea to have it render a lot of things every time a page is loaded. That's what probably caused your equations to not pop-up, BrainMan.

[bloodhound]

usually when i want to print some proper mathematics, i just use mathtype , save it as an image. upload it to my ftp and link it to the post. saves all this syntax nonsense

[Dave]

Trouble is if you're doing a long post, and you want math in specific places etc, can become quite tiresome. The new latex system (when installed) should be pretty good. Hopefully have a few buttons on the reply page to help people with the syntax.

 

You'll get used to TeX eventually, you're gonna have to use it to write your thesis at the end of the day

[Dave]

(please note: mimeTeX is now redundant, we're now using LaTeX, refer to t'other tutorial).