[HN Gopher] AsciiMath: An easy-to-write markup language for math...
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       AsciiMath: An easy-to-write markup language for mathematics
        
       Author : amichail
       Score  : 48 points
       Date   : 2023-01-23 17:01 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (asciimath.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (asciimath.org)
        
       | ChuckMcM wrote:
       | This is a sad statement on Internet Standards:
       | 
       |  _While HTML5 now includes MathML as an official recommendation,
       | the remaining browsers do not appear to be implementing it. For
       | widest browser compatibility, the use of MathJax is recommended._
       | 
       | I use MathJax but would love to have a portable version of this.
        
       | smartmic wrote:
       | Reminds me very much of UnicodeMath (https://www.unicode.org/note
       | s/tn28/UTN28-PlainTextMath-v3.1....), in a similar way like J
       | works around APL symbol with Ascii characters.
        
         | avgcorrection wrote:
         | Centering an input language around Unicode is brave and I mean
         | that in a positive sense.
         | 
         | Someone's gotta try to push the status quo forward on Unicode
         | input.
        
       | abdullahkhalids wrote:
       | > sqrt x [?]x
       | 
       | Not at all a fan of using unescaped character sequences to
       | represent non-latin characters. Ultimately, this leads to
       | situations where you have to resort to some hack to write
       | something that coincides with one of these special names.
       | 
       | Not to mention, this restricts extending the language for special
       | use cases. Suddenly, you discover that you have to throw away the
       | entire thing and resort to a math-typographically-complete
       | language like Latex to write what you want to write.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | taeric wrote:
         | In general, I agree with you. However, I'm somewhat torn here,
         | as the point is for ease it typing math. It already has an
         | allowance where what you type is not necessarily the same
         | characters that will get rendered.
         | 
         | Consider the example the page loads with "sum_(i=1)^n
         | i^3=((n(n+1))/2)^2". Some of those parens are dropped entirely.
         | Some are changed into taller versions. The + is not the same as
         | the \plus sign that is rendered.
         | 
         | So, yes, it is a restriction that comes with some tradeoffs. My
         | gut is that this is probably fine for the vast majority of use
         | cases, though. Such that it was probably the right call.
        
         | vore wrote:
         | It looks like if you wanted to write a literal "sqrt" you can
         | just type:                 s q r t
         | 
         | but it is kind of nasty.
        
       | avgcorrection wrote:
       | Seems to approach Tex the more obscure the symbols get.
        
       | bmacho wrote:
       | AsciiMath is my favourite math language and math renderer (over
       | mathjax and katex). It is fast, quick to write, and human
       | readable.
        
       | throwaway81523 wrote:
       | We already have TeX and anyone who writes math is used to it. Why
       | more fragmentaton?
        
         | amichail wrote:
         | Ascii math is easier to read and takes less time and effort to
         | type.
        
       | dang wrote:
       | Related:
       | 
       |  _AsciiMath - An easy-to-write markup language for mathematics_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13962242 - March 2017 (111
       | comments)
        
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       (page generated 2023-01-23 23:00 UTC)