Front Row Crew Forum

Apreche

For those of you who are not aware, Google Charts has been around for awhile. It basically lets you put a bunch of data in a URL, and Google automatically generates and serves out an image of a chart for you. It makes nice graphs and charts of various shapes and sizes.

Recently, Google Charts got a big upgrade. Most notably for us, it now supports formulas. I know people here want to do threads with equations and math. Well, you can start right now by using Google charts directly. For example, if you want to do the quadratic equation, you just take your URL-encoded LaTeX and stick it at the end of the chart URL like so.

http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=tx&chl=x = \frac{-b \pm \sqrt {b^2-4ac}}{2a}

Put that URL as the src in an img tag and you get.

$x = \frac{-b \pm \sqrt {b^2-4ac}}{2a}$

I know people have wanted this functionality in the forums, so I'm going to add it for you this weekend. I just need to know how you want it to work. Do you want it to work like this?

<math>mathgoeshere</math>
<latex>mathgoeshere</latex>

If so, which one?

If not that way, then how?

lackofcheese

Either will do; go with the "math" tag because it's one character less. It's good to see this happen, though similar functionality was already available from other sites.

Apreche

lackofcheese said:
Either will do; go with the "math" tag because it's one character less. It's good to see this happen, though similar functionality was already available from other sites.

All the other ones I found required that I run various servers/engines locally. The Google solution requires almost no code whatsoever on my side. It just goes in the same place as the <video> tag.

lackofcheese

This site has been doing it for a while, e.g.:
http://latex.codecogs.com/gif.latex?x = \frac{-b \pm \sqrt {b^2-4ac}}{2a}
$x = \frac{-b \pm \sqrt {b^2-4ac}}{2a}$
I've posted equations from there on the forum before.

Apreche

lackofcheese said:
This sitehas been doing it for a while, e.g.:

Ok, does that look like the kind of site you trust enough to build code on top of as opposed to Google? Also, I didn't know they existed, and Google's rendering is nicer.

lackofcheese

Apreche said:

lackofcheese said:
This sitehas been doing it for a while, e.g.:
Ok, does that look like the kind of site you trust enough to build code on top of as opposed to Google?

They've been around for a long while, and are quite a prominent site in LaTeX-related searcehs, so I'd say they're reliable. In any case, I wasn't recommending them over Google, merely pointing out that kind of service is nothing new.

Also, I didn't know they existed, and Google's rendering is nicer.

Well, there's a few criteria on which to choose such a service. Google's is probably the best bet, though.

lackofcheese

Direct comparison:
$x=\frac{-b\pm b^2-4ac}{2a}$ (CodeCogs gif)
$x=\frac{-b\pm b^2-4ac}{2a}$ (CodeCogs png)
$x=\frac{-b\pm b^2-4ac}{2a}$ (Google Charts)
Personally, I'd say CodeCogs has the better rendering.

Timo

I vote for the tag since you can do more than just math.

EDIT: Doh!

Walker

Timo said:
I vote for the <latex></latex> tag since you can do more than just math.

...

I vote for <latex> since it's just that, LaTeX. Nice to see you doing this Scott.

EDIT: GÃ¼nter, BOOOO!

lackofcheese

Owns male genitalia. said:
I vote for <latex> since it's just that, LaTeX. Nice to see you doing this Scott.

EDIT: GÃƒÂƒÃ‚Â¼nter, BOOOO!

Fine, <latex> it is, but it's $\textup{\LaTeX}></img>, but that's only if you use CodeCogs. If you use Google Charts, it should be <tex>, because Google Chart's engine is <img src=$ , but that's only if you use CodeCogs. If you use Google Charts, it should be <tex>, because Google Chart's engine is $\TeX$ , not

lackofcheese

Challenge: Do this in Google Chart:
$\begin{align*}y &= (x+1)^2 \\&= x^2+2x+1\end{align*}$
If it can't be done, then CodeCogs is clearly superior.

WindUpBird

lackofcheese said:
Challenge: Do this in Google Chart:

Oooh. That's nifty.

Apreche

The tag is <tex>.

Testing

x=3+4
x = \frac{-b \pm \sqrt {b^2-4ac}}{2a}
\Large\mathbb{Q}+\lim_{x\to3}\frac{1}{x}

Apreche

Ok, so it works. However, there is one thing to be aware of. When you push the preview button in the forum, it will look wrong. However, when you save it will be correct. This is because of some extra escaping the preview does.

Also, I'm not that good at TeX, so please try some really complicated formulas. If they don't work, send me the formula because I probably just need to fix the regular expression. If the formula shows up, but isn't what you wanted, then either your TeX is wrong, or Google has a bug that needs fixing.

Sonic

ooh, new features...
x=o+m+g

lackofcheese

y^2=2\\ y=\pm \sqrt{2}
The biggest problem with TeX rather than LaTeX is the lack of equation alignment, shown below with CodeCogs' engine:
$\begin{align*} y^2&=2\\ y&=\pm \sqrt{2} \end{align*}$

jmerm

Lets give this a shot:

{x^{x^{x^x_x}_{x^x_x}}_{x^{x^x_x}_{x^x_x}}}
\sqrt{1+\sqrt{1+\sqrt{1+\sqrt{1+\sqrt{1+\sqrt{1+\sqrt{1+\sqrt{1+\sqrt{1+\sqrt{1+\sqrt{1+\sqrt{1+\sqrt{1+\sqrt{1+\sqrt{1+...}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}
\frac{1}{1+\frac{1}{2+\frac{1}{3+\frac{1}{4+\frac{1}{5+\frac{1}{6+\frac{1}{7+\frac{1}{8+\frac{1}{9+...}}}}}}}}}

Edit: looks good.

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