The package is really nice, I recommend it. Package writers should
install it, but users of their help pages don't need it unless they're
working offline. Even then, because of the way MathJax works, they get
something that's fairly readable, e.g.
"The probability density function of a normal distribution is given by
\[f(x) = \frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi} \sigma}
e^{-\frac{1}{2}\left(\frac{x-\mu}{\sigma}\right)^2},\] where \(\mu\)
denotes the mean of the distribution and \(\sigma\) its standard deviation."
For a user who is online, or who has the mathjaxr package installed,
this would be displayed with the equation as a display equation, and mu
and sigma displayed properly inline. To obtain that output I used this
input in an Rd file:
"The probability density function of a normal distribution is given by
\mjdeqn{f(x) = \frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi} \sigma}
e^{-\frac{1}{2}\left(\frac{x-\mu}{\sigma}\right)^2},}{f(x) = 1/(sqrt(2
pi) sigma) e^-((x - mu)^2/(2 sigma^2)),} where \mjeqn{\mu}{mu} denotes
the mean of the distribution and \mjeqn{\sigma}{sigma} its standard
deviation."
A frill that might be possible to add would be a test for a remote
connection, and a fallback to the ascii display if it's not there. It
already has a display-time test for the presence of the MathJax files
locally.
Maybe once all the kinks are worked out this could be incorporated into
the R distribution. However, it's not really needed there, since it
works so well as a contributed package already.
Duncan Murdoch
On 05/05/2020 9:11 a.m., Viechtbauer, Wolfgang (SP) wrote:
Hi All,
After some tinkering, and with support from Duncan, I put together a package
that allows for easy inclusion of MathJax equations in Rd files. The package
has been submitted to CRAN, but those who want to try this out already can get
it here:
https://github.com/wviechtb/mathjaxr
or in other words:
install.packages("remotes")
remotes::install_github("wviechtb/mathjaxr")
Package authors can then use the \loadmathjax macro to enable its use and the
\mjeqn{latex}{ascii} and \mjdeqn{latex}{ascii} macros for including inline and
displayed equations.
Feedback and suggestions more than welcome!
Best,
Wolfgang
-----Original Message-----
From: Ravi Varadhan [mailto:ravi.varad...@jhu.edu]
Sent: Thursday, 30 April, 2020 15:58
To: Viechtbauer, Wolfgang (SP); r-devel
Subject: Re: [Rd] Use of MathJax (or something similar) in .Rd files
Thank you. This is a very useful idea!
Best,
Ravi
________________________________________
From: R-devel <r-devel-boun...@r-project.org> on behalf of Viechtbauer,
Wolfgang (SP) <wolfgang.viechtba...@maastrichtuniversity.nl>
Sent: Thursday, April 30, 2020 6:59:02 AM
To: r-devel
Subject: Re: [Rd] Use of MathJax (or something similar) in .Rd files
Thanks Gabor and Duncan! It works. For those interested, I added this to the
beginning of the \details{} section:
\if{html}{\out{
<script id="MathJax-script" async
src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/mathjax@3/es5/tex-mml-chtml.js";>
</script>
}}
And then I can use:
\if{html}{\out{\(B_{x(a,b)} = \int_0^x t^{a-1} (1-t)^{b-1} dt\)}}
or
\if{html}{\out{\[B_{x(a,b)} = \int_0^x t^{a-1} (1-t)^{b-1} dt\]}}
to render the equation (inline or as 'displaymath'). I'll try to add MathJax
locally next.
Best,
Wolfgang
-----Original Message-----
From: Duncan Murdoch [mailto:murdoch.dun...@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, 30 April, 2020 12:22
To: Viechtbauer, Wolfgang (SP); r-devel
Subject: Re: [Rd] Use of MathJax (or something similar) in .Rd files
On 30/04/2020 6:15 a.m., Viechtbauer, Wolfgang (SP) wrote:
Interesting. I gave this a try, but couldn't make this work. One would
have to infuse something like
<script id="MathJax-script" async
src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/mathjax@3/es5/tex-mml-chtml.js";>
</script>
or
<script id="MathJax-script" async
src="<url-to-your-site>/mathjax/tex-chtml.js">
</script>
into the .html file, but just adding this to the .Rd file (directly or
wrapped with \if{html}{}) doesn't do that (it just gets printed). If
somebody has already successfully done this, I would be interested in
hearing how.
You'd need to wrap that code in \out (inside the conditional, i.e.
something like
\if{html}{\out{<script id="MathJax-script" async
src="<url-to-your-site>/mathjax/tex-chtml.js"></script>}}
Duncan Murdoch
Best,
Wolfgang
-----Original Message-----
From: Gábor Csárdi [mailto:csardi.ga...@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, 30 April, 2020 11:51
To: Viechtbauer, Wolfgang (SP)
Cc: r-devel
Subject: Re: [Rd] Use of MathJax (or something similar) in .Rd files
You can probably already do this using the \if{html} conditional, and
either including the matchjax js files in the package, or getting them
>from a CDN.
Gabor
On Thu, Apr 30, 2020 at 9:13 AM Viechtbauer, Wolfgang (SP)
<wolfgang.viechtba...@maastrichtuniversity.nl> wrote:
Hello All,
I am wondering if there has ever been any discussion/consideration
given
to incorporating MathJax (or something similar) into R for rendering
equations in .Rd files. I know that equations are rendered beautifully
in
the pdf manuals, but I suspect the majority of users primarily look at
the
html help files when using R. While I am comfortable reading something
like
"B_x(a,b) = integral_0^x t^(a-1) (1-t)^(b-1) dt", it would definitely be
nicer if this was shown as a 'proper' equation.
Best,
Wolfgang
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