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|
<!--
****************************************************************************
* Copyright(c) 2007-2009, John Forkosh Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.
* http://www.forkosh.com mailto: john@forkosh.com
* ==========================================================================
* This file is part of mathTeX, which is free software. You may redistribute
* and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License,
* version 3 or later, as published by the Free Software Foundation.
* MathTeX is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
* WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY, not even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY.
* See the GNU General Public License for specific details.
* By using mathTeX, you warrant that you have read, understood and
* agreed to these terms and conditions, and that you possess the legal
* right and ability to enter into this agreement and to use mathTeX
* in accordance with it.
* Your mathtex.zip distribution should contain the file COPYING,
* an ascii text copy of the GNU General Public License, version 3.
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* or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
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<!-- +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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<script type="text/javascript">
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</head>
<body>
<!-- +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ Banner across top of page containing title and two example mathTeX images
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -->
<br>
<hr size=4>
<center>
<table cellspacing=10>
<tr>
<td align="center">
<a href="#preview"><img id="imageTop1" onclick="eqntext('imageTop1')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?f=b_o+\frac{a_1}{b_1+\frac{a_2}
{b_2+\frac{a_3}{b_3+a_4}}}" alt="" border=0 align=middle></a> </td>
<td align="center" valign="middle">
<center><font color="maroon" size=4><b>
<nobr>m a t h T e X <!-- u s e r s -->
m a n u a l</nobr></b> <br>
<font size=3>( for mathTeX version 1.03 )</font> <br>
<font size=3> <b>Click for:</b>
<a href="http://www.forkosh.com/mathtex.zip">
<font size=4>download mathTeX</font></a> </font>
</font></center> </td>
<td align="center">
<a href="#preview"><img id="imageTop2" onclick="eqntext('imageTop2')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?
\usepackage{mathrsfs}{\mathscr J}^{ij}=\frac12\varepsilon_{ijk}
\left[\begin{array}{cc}\sigma_k&0\\0&\sigma_k\end{array}\right]"
alt="" border=0 align=middle></a> <br>
<a href="#examples">more_examples...</a> </td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
<hr size=4>
<center><b><font color="maroon" size=3>
Copyright <font size=5>©</font> 2007-2009,
<a href="http://www.forkosh.com">John Forkosh Associates, Inc.</a> <br>
email: <a href="mailto:john@forkosh.com">john@forkosh.com</a>
</font></b> <br><br>
<a href="#preview"><img id="timestamp1" onclick="eqntext('timestamp1')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\parstyle\usepackage{color}
\large\color{blue}\begin{center}\today\\\time\end{center}"
alt="" border=0 align=middle></a> </center>
<!-- +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ Table of Contents and QuickStart Summary
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -->
<br>
<p> <font color="blue"> This manual contains more information
than you'll probably need to read. If you follow the
QuickStart instructions below, try installing mathTeX immediately.
If you need more information,
continue reading until you feel comfortable trying to install mathTeX.
Return to the manual as needed.
Prerequisites are: some knowledge of Unix shell, of installing cgi's,
of LaTeX. </font>
<font color="maroon"> <br>
<b>"</b><i>Computers are like Old Testament gods<b>:</b>
lots of rules and no mercy.</i><b>"</b><br>
Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth
(Doubleday 1988, page 18) </font> </p>
<br> <center>
<table border="0">
<tr> <!-- banner -->
<td align="center">
<b><font color="maroon" size=4>
<u> C o n t e n t s </u></font></b></td>
<td> </td>
<td align="center"><b><font color="maroon" size=4>
<u> Q u i c k S t a r t
</u></font></b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"> <!-- table of contents -->
<table cellspacing=0>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">
<font size=4>
<a href="#introduction"> (1) Introduction </a><br>
<a href="#dependencies"> dependencies </a><br>
<a href="#plugins"> plugins </a><br>
<a href="#alternatives"> alternatives </a><br>
<a href="#webservice"> web services </a><br>
<a href="#latexmarkup"> (2) LaTeX markup </a><br>
<a href="#preview"> input form </a><br>
<a href="#examples"> examples </a><br>
<a href="#mathtexmarkup"> (3) MathTeX markup </a><br>
<a href="#directives"> extra directives </a><br>
<a href="#install"> (4) Installation </a><br>
<a href="#messages"> error messages </a><br>
<a href="#switches"> compile switches </a><br>
<a href="#shell"> run from shell </a><br>
<!-- <a href="#weblog"> () mathTeX Forum </a><br> -->
<a href="#gpl"> (5) GPL License </a><br>
<font color="maroon" size=4> <br> <b><u>
Related Pages </u></b></font> <br>
<a href="http://www.forkosh.com/mimetextutorial.html" target="_top">
<font size=4>LaTeX Tutorial</font></a> <br>
<a href="http://www.forkosh.com/mathtexchangelog.html" target="_top">
<font size=4>mathTeX changeLog</font></a> <br>
</font>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
<td> </td>
<td valign="top"> <!-- summary -->
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" hspace="0" vspace="0">
<!-- tr><td colspan="2" align="left" valign="top">
<font color="maroon" size="-1">
<b>"</b><i>Computers are like Old Testament gods<b>:</b>
lots of rules and no mercy.</i><b>"</b><br>
Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth
(Doubleday 1988, page 18) </font> </td></tr -->
<tr><td align="right" valign="top">
<a href="#install">Installation</a>: </td>
<td> <font color="maroon"><b>Note: The current release of mathTeX
only <br> runs under Unix-like operating systems.</b></font> <br>
First, install mathTeX's <a href="#dependencies">dependencies</a>: <br>
<b> </b> a recent <a href="http://www.latex-project.org/ftp.html"
target="_top">TeX distribution</a> with
<a href="http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/dvipng/"
target="_top">dvipng</a>,
<!-- and
<a href="http://www.imagemagick.org" target="_top">ImageMagick</a -->
on <br>
<b> </b> your server. Or see
<a href="http://www.forkosh.com/mimetex.html"
target="_top">mimeTeX</a> if you can't. <br>
Then, download <a href="http://www.forkosh.com/mathtex.zip">
mathtex.zip</a> and type <br>
<b> unzip mathtex.zip</b> <br>
<b> cc mathtex.c \ <br>
–DLATEX=\"$(which latex)\" \ <br>
–DDVIPNG=\"$(which dvipng)\" \ <br>
<!-- –DDVIPS=\"$(which dvips)\" \ <br>
–DCONVERT=\"$(which convert)\" \ <br -->
–o mathtex.cgi</b> <br>
<nobr> (see
<a href="#pathswitches">–D<i>switches</i></a>
for more information). </nobr> <br>
Finally, just <br>
<b> mv mathtex.cgi </b> to your <b>cgi-bin/</b>
directory, <br>
<!-- b> mkdir cgi-bin/mathtex </b>
for mathTeX's cache, <br -->
<b> chmod </b> permissions as necessary, <br>
and you're all done.
</td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td></tr>
<tr><td align="right" valign="top">
<a href="#introduction">Usage</a>: </td>
<td>To see the image <br> <b> </b>
<a href="#preview"><img id="summary1" onclick="eqntext('summary1')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?x=\frac{-b\pm\sqrt{b^2-4ac}}{2a}"
alt="" border=0 align=middle></a> <br>
in your html page, just write the tag <br>
<b> <img src="/cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?<br>
x=\frac{-b\pm\sqrt{b^2-4ac}}{2a}"></b> </td></tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
<!-- +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ INTRODUCTION
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -->
<h2 id="introduction"> (1) Introduction </h2>
<p> <font color="maroon">MathTeX, licensed under the
<a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html" target="_top">gpl</a>,
is a <a href="http://www.w3.org/CGI/" target="_top">cgi</a> program
that lets you easily embed
<a href="http://www-h.eng.cam.ac.uk/help/tpl/textprocessing/latex_maths+pix/latex_maths+pix.html"
target="_top">LaTeX math</a>
in your own html pages, blogs, wikis, etc.</font>
It parses a LaTeX math expression and immediately emits the
corresponding gif (or png) image, rather than the usual
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVI_(file_format)"
target="_top">TeX dvi</a>.
So just place an html <img> tag in your document
wherever you want to see the corresponding LaTeX expression.
For example, </p>
<pre> <b><img src="/cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?f(x)=\int_{-\infty}^xe^{-t^2}dt"
alt="" border=0 align="middle"></b></pre>
<p class="continue"> immediately generates the corresponding gif,
displaying
<a href="#preview"><img id="imageA1" onclick="eqntext('imageA1')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\small
f(x)=\int_{-\infty}^xe^{-t^2}dt" alt="" border=0 align=middle></a>
wherever you put that <img> tag. </p>
<h3> <a name="dependencies"> </a>
mathTeX dependencies<font size=5>...</font> </h3>
<p> MathTeX's uses the
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaTeX" target="_top">latex</a> and
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvipng" target="_top">dvipng</a>
programs, along with all necessary fonts, etc, from your
<a href="http://www.latex-project.org/ftp.html"
target="_top">TeX distribution</a>. Occasionally, you may need to
<a href="http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/dvipng/"
target="_top">download dvipng</a> separately. <br>
If you can't, or don't want to,
install dvipng, then you may optionally specify the
<a href="#dvipsswitch">
–DDVIPS and –DCONVERT</a> switches when
<a href="#compilestep">compiling mathTeX</a>. Then mathTeX uses
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvips" target="_top">dvips</a>
from your TeX distribution,
and <a href="http://www.imagemagick.org/script/convert.php"
target="_top">convert</a> from the
<a href="http://www.imagemagick.org" target="_top">ImageMagick</a>
package, instead of dvipng. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0;"> That is, </p>
<pre class="medium" style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0"
> <b>cc –</b>DLATEX<b>=\"</b><i>path</i><b>/</b><i>to</i><b>/</b>latex</b>\"</b> <b>–</b>DDVIPNG<b>=\"</b><i>path</i><b>/</b><i>to</i><b>/</b>dvipng</b>\"</b> mathtex.c <b>–o</b> mathtex.cgi</pre>
<p class="continue" style="margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;">
compiles mathtex.cgi with dependencies latex and dvipng, whereas, </p>
<pre class="medium" style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0"
> <b>cc –</b>DLATEX<b>=\"</b><i>path</i><b>/</b><i>to</i><b>/</b>latex</b>\"</b> <b>–</b>DDVIPS<b>=\"</b><i>path</i><b>/</b><i>to</i><b>/</b>dvips</b>\"</b> <b>\</b>
<b>–</b>DCONVERT<b>=\"</b><i>path</i><b>/</b><i>to</i><b>/</b>convert</b>\"</b> mathtex.c <b>–o</b> mathtex.cgi</pre>
<p class="continue" style="margin-top:0;">
compiles mathtex.cgi with dependencies latex and dvips and convert. <br>
<b>(</b>Note: dvipng is easily twice as fast
as dvips/convert, and it produces somewhat smaller image files,
with no discernible (to me) loss of quality or other downside.
So I recommend its use if you have it installed or can
install it.<b>)</b> </p>
<p> These dependencies — always latex and either dvipng or
dvips/convert — must all be installed on your server
before you can run mathTeX. Ask your ISP or sysadmin if
you have any questions or problems installing them. Or see
<a href="http://www.forkosh.com/mimetex.html" target="_top">mimeTeX</a>
if you can't install them. </p>
<h4> <a name="convertadvisory"> </a> Advisory for
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvips" target="_top">
dvips</a>/<a href="http://www.imagemagick.org/script/convert.php"
target="_top">convert</a> users:</h4>
<p class="continue" style="margin-top:0.0em;"> If you're using
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvips" target="_top">dvips</a> and
and <a href="http://www.imagemagick.org/script/convert.php"
target="_top">convert</a> (rather than
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvipng" target="_top">dvipng</a>),
then be advised that recent versions of
<a href="http://www.imagemagick.org/script/convert.php"
target="_top">convert</a> seem to exhibit a minor bug whereby
the program's <b>–gamma</b> correction option is ignored
when converting postscript images to any other format.
The default, and unchangeable, gamma renders
acceptable-looking png images, but unacceptably light gif images.
Earlier versions of
<a href="http://www.imagemagick.org/script/convert.php"
target="_top">convert</a> seem to respect the
<b>–gamma</b> option and, moreover, render acceptable
default gif images anyway.
So if you're using
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvips" target="_top">
dvips</a>/<a href="http://www.imagemagick.org/script/convert.php"
target="_top">convert</a> and are seeing very light images,
I'd recommend downloading
<a href="http://www.imagemagick.org/"
target="_top">ImageMagick</a> version 6.2.6 source from
<a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/imagemagick/files/"
target="_top">http://sourceforge.net/projects/imagemagick/files/</a>
and building your own version of
<a href="http://www.imagemagick.org/script/convert.php"
target="_top">convert</a>. That should fix your problem.
Alternatively, an even easier fix is to <!-- you can simply -->
compile mathtex with the <a href="#gifswitch">-DPNG</a> switch,
which renders acceptable-looking default png images regardless of
<a href="http://www.imagemagick.org/script/convert.php"
target="_top">convert</a> version.
</p>
<h3> <a name="plugins"> </a>
mathTeX plugins<font size=5>...</font> </h3>
<p> There's no inherent need to repeatedly write the cumbersome
<img> tag illustrated above. You can write your own <a href=
"http://java.sun.com/j2ee/1.4/docs/tutorial/doc/JSPIntro9.html#wp73314"
target="_top">custom tags</a>,
or write a wrapper script around mathTeX to simplify the
notation. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0"> For example,
the following javascript snippet (based on
<a href="http://www.mathtran.org" target="_top">mathtran</a>'s
<a href="http://www.mathtran.org/js/mathtran_img.js"
target="_top">mathtran_img.js</a>) lets you just write
<b><img alt="mathtex:c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}"></b>
wherever you want to see
<a href="#preview"><img id="imageJS1" onclick="eqntext('imageJS1')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\footnotesize c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}"
alt="" border=0 align=middle></a> </p>
<pre class="medium" style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0"
> <script type="text/javascript">
<!--
// Create a namespace to hold variables and functions
mathtex = new Object();
// Change this to use your server
mathtex.imgSrc = "http://www.<i>yourdomain</i>.com/cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?";
// Transform the whole document: add src to each img with
// alt text starting with "mathtex:", unless img already has a src.
mathtex.init = function () {
if (! document.getElementsByTagName) return;
var objs = document.getElementsByTagName("img");
var len = objs.length;
for (i=0; i<len; i++) {
var img = objs[i];
if (img.alt.substring(0,8) == 'mathtex:')
if (!img.src) {
var tex_src = img.alt.substring(8);
img.src = mathtex.imgSrc + encodeURIComponent(tex_src);
// Append TEX to the class of the IMG.
img.className +=' tex'; }
}
mathtex.hideElementById("mathtex.error"); }
// Utility function
mathtex.hideElementById = function (id) {
var obj = document.getElementById(id);
if (obj) obj.style.display = 'none'; }
// resolve a cross-browser issue (see <a href="http://scottandrew.com/weblog/articles/cbs-events" target="_top">CBS events</a>)
mathtex.addEvent = function (obj, evType, fn, useCapture) {
if (obj.addEventListener) { //For Mozilla.
obj.addEventListener(evType, fn, useCapture);
return true; }
else if (obj.attachEvent) { //For Internet Explorer.
var r = obj.attachEvent("on"+evType, fn);
return r; }
}
// Initialize after entire document is loaded
mathtex.addEvent(window, 'load', mathtex.init, false);
-->
</script></pre>
<p style="margin-bottom:0">
Bulletin boards, wikis, etc, can also incorporate mathTeX images
with short scripts. For example, if you're using
<a href="http://www.phpbb.com" target="_top">phpBB2</a>, then
<a href="http://www.themathforum.com/" target="_top">Jameson</a>
contributed the following <!-- typical --> one-line mod that lets
you write <b>[tex] ... [/tex]</b> for mathTeX images: </p>
<pre class="medium" style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0"
> #--------[open]-----------------------------------------------------
/includes/bbcode.php
#--------[find]-----------------------------------------------------
// Remove our padding from the string..
#--------[before, add]----------------------------------------------
$text = preg_replace('/\[tex\](.*?)\[\/tex\]/ie',
"'<img src=\"/cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?'.rawurlencode('$1').'\" align=\"middle\" />'",
$text);</pre>
<p class="continue" style="margin-top:0">
<!-- --> Similarly, if you're using
<a href="http://www.phpbb.com" target="_top">phpBB3</a>,
then no mod is even needed.
Just click Postings from the Administrator Control Panel,
and add the Custom BBCode <b>[tex]{TEXT}[/tex]</b>
with the HTML replacement
<b><img src="/cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?{TEXT}" align=middle></b>
Now you can also write <b>[tex] ... [/tex]</b>
to obtain mathTeX images of the enclosed expression.
<p> Plugins for several additional packages already exist for my other
math-rendering program,
<a href="http://www.forkosh.com/mimetex.html" target="_top">mimeTeX</a>,
which runs without dependencies, but produces slightly lower
quality images than LaTeX. These plugins also work with mathTeX.
Just substitute <b>mathtex.cgi</b> wherever the instructions say
<b>mimetex.cgi</b>. </p>
<center><table>
<tr> <td align=center> <u> <b>Package</b> </u> </td>
<td> </td>
<td align=center> <u> <b>Plugin</b> </u> </td>
</tr>
<tr> <td align=center>
<a href="http://www.pmwiki.org/" target="_top">
PmWiki</a> </td> <td> </td>
<td align=center>
<a href="http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/MimeTeX"
target="_top">mimeTeX plugin</a> </td> </tr>
<tr> <td align=center>
<!-- a href="http://www.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page" target="_top">
Wikimedia</a> </td -->
<a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki" target="_top">
MediaWiki</a> </td>
<td align=center> </td>
<td align=center>
<!-- a href="http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mimetex_alternative" -->
<a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Mimetex_alternative"
target="_top">"mimeTeX alternative"</a> </td> </tr>
<tr> <td align=center>
<a href="http://www.unitorganizer.com/mathwiki/index.php/Main_Page"
target="_top">MathWiki</a> </td> <td> </td>
<td align=center> <a href=
"http://www.unitorganizer.com/mathwiki/index.php/MimetexParser"
target="_top">"mimeTeX Parser"</a> </td> </tr>
<tr> <td align=center>
<a href="http://forums.punbb.org/" target="_top">PunBB</a> </td>
<td> </td> <td align=center>
<a href="http://www.math-linux.com/spip.php?article44"
target="_top">mimeTeX plugin</a> </td> </tr>
<tr> <td align=center>
<a href="http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/" target="_top">
Movable Type</a> </td> <td> </td>
<td align=center> <a href=
"http://www.unitorganizer.com/myblog/2006/08/creating_equations_in_movable.html"
target="_top">mimeTeX plugin</a> </td> </tr>
<tr> <td align=center>
<a href="http://wordpress.org/" target="_top">WordPress</a> </td>
<td> </td> <td align=center> <a href=
"http://www.anlak.com/?page_id=66" target="_top">
<!-- "http://sixthform.info/steve/wordpress/index.php?p=13&page=2" -->
mimeTeX plugin</a> <!-- (see item 9) --> </td> </tr>
<!--- dead links --->
<!-- tr> <td align=center>
<a href="http://www.phpbb.com" target="_top">phpBB</a> </td>
<td> </td> <td align=center>
<a href=
"http://www.themathforum.com/math/showthread.php?p=621#post621"
target="_top">mimeTeX plugin</a> </td> </tr -->
<!-- tr> <td align=center>
<a href="http://www.mamboserver.com/" target="_top">Mambo</a> </td>
<td> </td> <td align=center>
<a href="http://mamboxchange.com/projects/mimetexbot/"
target="_top">"mimeTeX bot"</a> </td> </tr -->
</table></center>
<p> <b>Please note:</b> If you're writing your own plugin for mathTeX,
please write code using <b>system( )</b>, or any other
shell escape mechanisms, carefully. <b>system( )</b> raises
security issues, either real ones if used carelessly, or just in
the minds of system administrators. Either way, I've received emails
from people unable to use mathTeX because of unnecessary
<b>system( )</b> calls prohibited by security-conscious sysadmins.
MathTeX itself poses minimal risk when used as illustrated above,
but you're responsible for any plugin/wrapper script you write
around it. </p>
<h3> <a name="alternatives"> </a>
mathTeX alternatives<font size=5>...</font> </h3>
<p> Other math-on-the-web solutions are discussed at
<a href="http://www.tug.org/interest.html#web" target="_top">
www.tug.org/interest.html</a>, and in the
<a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=LaTeX2HTML"
target="_top">tex-faq/LaTex2Html</a> and
<a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=mathml"
target="_top">tex-faq/mathml</a>.
Several LaTeX-based solutions
similar to mathTeX that you may want to look at are
<a href="http://www.mayer.dial.pipex.com/tex.htm#latexrender"
target="_top">latexrender</a>,
<a href="http://www.mathtran.org" target="_top">mathtran</a>,
<a href="http://www.fourmilab.ch/webtools/textogif/textogif.html"
target="_top">textogif</a>, and
<a href="http://www.math.uio.no/~martingu/gladtex/"
target="_top">gladTeX</a>.
However, if you can't install a
<a href="http://www.latex-project.org/ftp.html" target="_top">
TeX distribution</a>
<!-- and suitable image conversion utilities like
<a href="http://www.imagemagick.org" target="_top">ImageMagick</a -->
on your server, then you may prefer to look at a stand-alone
math rendering program like
<a href="http://www.forkosh.com/mimetex.html" target="_top">mimeTeX</a>,
which has no dependencies whatsoever, but which produces slightly
lower quality images than LaTeX. </p>
<h3> <a name="webservice"> </a>
mathTeX web services<font size=5>...</font> </h3>
<p> If you have trouble installing mathTeX on your own server, a
mathTeX web service is currently <!-- (but maybe not permanently) -->
available. An <img> tag of the form </p>
<pre><b> <img src="http://www.forkosh.dreamhost.com/mathtex.cgi?c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}"
alt="" border=0 align=middle></b></pre>
<p class="continue"> displays
<a href="#preview"><img id="public1" onclick="eqntext('public1')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\small c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}"
alt="" border=0></a> wherever you put that <img> tag
in your own document. Note that the typical
<b>/cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?</b> has been replaced by
<b>http://www.forkosh.dreamhost.com/mathtex.cgi?</b>
in this <img> tag, using mathTeX on my
server to render your expression for you.
For production use, please install mathTeX on your own server. </p>
<!-- +++++++++++++++++++++++++++
<p> To encourage you to install mathTeX on your own server,
one request out of every 25 submitted to mine is
randomly selected to be rendered with the
"<a href="#adswitches">advertisement</a>" <br>
<a href="#preview"><img id="public2" onclick="eqntext('public2')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\advertisement c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}"
alt="" align="middle" border=0></a> instead of
just
<a href="#preview"><img id="public3" onclick="eqntext('public3')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}"
alt="" border=0></a> <br>
Advertisements are completely disabled when you compile
mathTeX yourself. To enable them you must include the
<a href="#adfrequencyswitch">–DADFREQUENCY</a> switch.
And in this case you'd typically also include the
<a href="#advertisementswitch">–DADVERTISEMENT</a> switch
to define your own advertisement, replacing my default message
illustrated above. </p>
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -->
<p> Installing mathTeX on your own server sets up a <i>de facto</i>
web service, unless you compile it with the
<a href="#refererswitch">–DREFERER=<b>\"</b><i>domain</i><b>\"</b></a>
switch, restricting requests to that specific <i>domain</i>.
Until <a href="http://www.w3.org/Math/" target="_top">mathML</a>
becomes widespread, LaTeX-based web services,
like mathTeX or <a href="#alternatives">alternatives</a>,
may be the best math-on-the-web solutions. If you set one up that's
intended for public access, <!-- then --> email me its url,
and I'll add it to the following list... </p>
<center><table border="1" cellpadding=3 cellspacing=0>
<tr align="center">
<td>url of service</td> <td>test</td> </tr>
<tr align="center">
<td> http://www.forkosh.dreamhost.com/mathtex.cgi </td>
<td> <a href="#preview"> <img id="server1" onclick="eqntext('server1')"
src="http://www.forkosh.dreamhost.com/mathtex.cgi?
c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}" border=0> </a> </td> </tr>
<tr align="center">
<td> http://www.cyberroadie.org/cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi </td>
<td> <!-- a href="#preview">
<img id="server2" onclick="eqntext('server2')"
src="http://www.cyberroadie.org/cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?
c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}" border=0> </a --> unavailable </td> </tr>
<!-- to comment out cyberroadie...
+ <tr align="center">
+ <td> http://www.cyberroadie.org/cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi </td>
+ <td> <++++!-- a href="#preview"> <img id="server2" onclick="eqntext('server2')"
+ src="http://www.cyberroadie.org/cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?
+ c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}" border=0> </a --++++> unavailable </td> </tr>
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -->
<tr align="center">
<td> http://www.problem-solving.be/cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi </td>
<td> <a href="#preview"> <img id="server3" onclick="eqntext('server3')"
src="http://www.problem-solving.be/cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?
c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}" border=0> </a> </td> </tr>
<tr align="center">
<td> http://www.openmaths.org/cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi </td>
<td> <a href="#preview"> <img id="server3" onclick="eqntext('server3')"
src="http://www.openmaths.org/cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?
c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}" border=0> </a> </td> </tr>
</table></center>
<p class="continue"> The "test" column just exercises the link
to its left. Thanks to everyone. </p>
<p> An alternative mathTeX-based public web service you may also want to
consider is <a href="http://mathcache.appspot.com/static/docs.html"
target="_top">Embedding math with replacemath.js</a>,
which allows you to embed math in your html pages without any
<img> tags at all, just by writing LaTeX math markup
between <nobr>$$...$$</nobr> .
Just prepare your html document in the form </p>
<pre><b> <HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE> test page </TITLE> </HEAD>
<BODY>
Put any LaTeX math expression you like between <code>$$</code>...<code>$$</code>,
for example $$y=\frac1{1-x^2}$$ renders <img src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\small y=\frac1{1-x^2}" alt="" border=0 align="absmiddle">
</BODY>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://mathcache.s3.amazonaws.com/replacemath.js"> </script>
<script type="text/javascript">
replaceMath( document.body ); </script>
</HTML></b></pre>
<p class="continue"> That is, near the bottom of your document,
after the <<b>/</b>BODY> tag, place exactly the
two <script> tags shown. Then, anywhere in
your document, any LaTeX math expressions surrounded
by <nobr>$$...$$</nobr> will be rendered
for you by their public web service. </p>
<!-- +++++++++++++++++++++++++++
<p> The drawback to hosting public mathTeX web services is the
compute and disk resources necessary to run LaTeX and cache its
results for many thousands of different images (and I may
be unable to host this one permanently).
One possible incentive might be a method to monetize the effort.
Advertising seems to be the standard internet way to monetize
anything. With those two thoughts in mind, I built a rudimentary
<a href="#adswitches">advertising facility</a> into
mathTeX. <comment , as you can see illustrated above. comment/> </p>
<p> MathTeX web services could also be monetized by direct subscription.
Instead of validating users with its
<a href="#refererswitch">–DREFERER=<b>\"</b><i>domain</i><b>\"</b></a>
switch, a small MySQL database of valid domains would easily support
a mathTeX-based subscription service. You could also provide
free math rendering with advertisements, whereas paid
subscribers receive images without ads. But I haven't programmed
these enhancements into mathTeX's current release. </p>
<p> Whether mathTeX's current
<a href="#adswitches">advertising facility</a>,
or an enhanced subscription facility,
serve any useful purpose remains to be seen.
Perhaps they will just stimulate better ideas
about proliferating LaTeX-based, math-rendering web services.
It would be terrific if
<a href="http://www.tug.org" target="_top">www.tug.org</a>,
or other supported TeX organizations, host some such free services. </p>
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -->
<!-- +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ LATEX MATH MARKUP
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -->
<h2 id="latexmarkup"> (2) LaTeX math markup </h2>
<p> MathTeX uses latex to render images,
and you must already be familiar with LaTeX
math markup to use it. If you're not, many online
<a href="http://www.tug.org/begin.html#doc" target="_top">
LaTeX tutorials</a> are readily available.
You may also want to browse Andrew Roberts'
<a href="http://www.andy-roberts.net/misc/latex/latextutorial9.html"
target="_top">Latex Math I</a> and
<a href="http://www.andy-roberts.net/misc/latex/latextutorial10.html"
target="_top">Latex Math II</a>, or my own
<a href="http://www.forkosh.com/mimetextutorial.html" target="_top">
LaTeX math tutorial</a>.
You can also download and read the
<a href="http://www.ams.org/tex/" target="_top">AMS</a>'s
<a href="ftp://ftp.ams.org/pub/tex/doc/amsmath/short-math-guide.pdf">
Short math guide</a>. </p>
<h3> <a name="preview"> </a>
LaTeX markup<font size=5>...</font> </h3>
<p> Now, to try out mathTeX, just enter any <!-- LaTeX math -->
expression you like in the Query Box below. I've started
you out with a little example already in the box, or
you can Click any of the <a href="#examples">Examples</a> below
to place that corresponding expression in the Query Box.
Then press the Submit button, and mathTeX's rendering should be
displayed in the little window immediately below it. </p>
<center>
<table border="2" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0">
<tr align="center"><td>
<form name="expression" action="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi"
method="get" target="inlineframe">
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="1">
<tr align="left"><td align="center">
<b>First enter your own LaTeX expression,
or Click any example...</b> <br>
<textarea name="formdata" rows="5" cols="72"
>\Large f(x)=\int_{-\infty}^x e^{-t^2}dt</textarea> <br>
</td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td>
<font size="-1"> <input type="button" onClick="cleartext()"
value="Clear Expression">
<input type="submit" value="Submit Expression"> </font>
</td></tr>
</table>
</form> </td></tr> <tr align="left"><td align="center">
<b>Now click Submit to see it rendered below...</b> <br>
<iframe name="inlineframe" align="middle" width="85%" height="110">
<p>iframe's not supported if you see this.</p>
</iframe>
</td></tr>
</table>
</center>
<p class="continue"> You should see
<a href="#preview"><img id="imageB3" onclick="eqntext('imageB3')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\small
f(x)=\int\limits_{-\infty}^x~e^{-t^2}dt"
alt="" border=0 align=middle></a> if you submit the sample expression
already in the box. </p>
<h3> <a name="examples"> </a>
Examples<font size=5>...</font> </h3>
<p> Here are various additional random examples further demonstrating
mathTeX's features and usage. To see how they're done, Click any
one of them to place its corresponding expression in the
<a href="#preview">Query Box</a> above. Then press Submit
to re-render it, or you can edit the expression first to suit
your own purposes.
<!-- You may also want to look at a
<a href="lint1d.html">sample document</a>
prepared using mathTeX to render equations. --> </p>
<table cellspacing=15>
<!-- first example: taylor series for e^x at various font sizes
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -->
<tr>
<td>
<font size=5><a name="example1">(1)</a></font> </td>
<td align="left" colspan=4>
<nobr>
<a href="#preview">
<img id="example1a" onclick="eqntext('example1a')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\usepackage{color}\color{red}\large
e^x=\sum_{n=0}^\infty\frac{x^n}{n!}"
alt="" border=0 align=middle></a>    
<a href="#preview">
<img id="example1b" onclick="eqntext('example1b')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\usepackage{color}\color{blue}\Large
e^x=\sum_{n=0}^\infty\frac{x^n}{n!}"
alt="" border=0 align=middle></a>    
<a href="#preview">
<img id="example1c" onclick="eqntext('example1c')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\Large
e^x=\lim_{n\to\infty} \left(1+\frac xn\right)^n"
alt="" border=0 align=middle></a>
</nobr>
</td>
</tr>
<!-- second example: definition of derivative
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -->
<tr>
<td>
<font size=5>(2)</font> </td>
<td align="left" colspan=4>
<table>
<tr>
<td align="left">
<a href="#preview">
<img id="example2" onclick="eqntext('example2')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\large f^\prime(x)\ =
\lim_{\Delta x\to0}\frac{f(x+\Delta x)-f(x)}{\Delta x}"
alt="" border=0 align=middle></a> </td>
<td>
definition of derivative </td>
</tr>
</table> </td>
</tr>
<!-- third example: demonstrating \left\{ ... \right.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -->
<tr>
<td>
<font size=5>(3)</font> </td>
<td align="left">
<a href="#preview">
<img id="example3" onclick="eqntext('example3')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\LARGE\tilde y=\left\{
{\ddot x\mbox{ if $\widevec x$ odd}
\atop\widehat{\,\bar x+1}\mbox{ if even}}\right."
alt="" border=0 align=middle></a> </td>
<td>
illustrating <b>\left\{...\right<font size=5>.</font></b> <br>
and note the accents </td>
</tr>
<!-- fourth example: demonstrating \overbrace \underbrace
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -->
<tr>
<td>
<font size=5>(4)</font> </td>
<td align="center">
<a href="#preview">
<img id="example4" onclick="eqntext('example4')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\small\overbrace{a,...,a}^{\mbox{k a's}},
\underbrace{b,...,b}_{\mbox{l b's}}\hspace{10}
\large\underbrace{\overbrace{a...a}^{\mbox{k a's}},
\overbrace{b...b}^{\mbox{l b's}}}_{\mbox{k+l elements}}"
alt="" border=0 align=middle></a> </td>
<td>
<b>\overbrace{}^{}</b> and <b>\underbrace{}_{}</b> <br>
(TeXbook page 181, Exercise 18.41) </td>
</tr>
<!-- fifth example: demonstrating \array
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -->
<tr>
<td>
<font size=5>(5)</font> </td>
<td align="left" colspan=4>
<table>
<tr>
<td align="left">
<a href="#preview">
<img id="example5" onclick="eqntext('example5')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\large A\ =\ \left(
\begin{array}{cccc}
a_{11}&a_{12}&\cdots&a_{1n}\\
a_{21}&a_{22}&\cdots&a_{2n}\\
\vdots&\vdots&\ddots&\vdots\\
a_{n1}&a_{n2}&\cdots&a_{nn}\end{array}\right)"
alt="" border=0 align=middle></a> </td>
<td>
<b>\begin{array}</b> </td>
</tr>
</table> </td>
</tr>
<!-- sixth example: demonstrating eqnarray to align equations
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -->
<tr>
<td>
<font size=5>(6)</font> </td>
<td align="center">
<a href="#preview">
<img id="example6" onclick="eqntext('example6')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\large\parstyle\begin{eqnarray*}
x+y+z&=&3\\2y&=&x+z\\2x+y&=&z\end{eqnarray*}"
alt="" border=0 align=middle></a> </td>
<td>
using <b>\begin{eqnarray*}</b> to align equations </td>
</tr>
<!-- end-of-examples
++++++++++++++++++++ -->
</table>
<!-- +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ MATHTEX MARKUP EXTENSIONS
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -->
<h2 id="mathtexmarkup"> (3) MathTeX markup extensions </h2>
<p> To facilitate its use in html <img> tags,
mathTeX recognizes several special <b>\</b><i>directives</i>
<!-- in your math expression --> that modify latex's <!-- underlying -->
behavior. <!-- , and several <b>–</b><i>directives</i> that modify
dvipng's (or convert's) behavior. -->
These <b>\</b><i>directives</i>
<!-- and <b>–</b><i>directives</i> -->
are usually interpreted by mathTeX, and then removed from
your expression before it's submitted to latex for rendering. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0em;"> For example, </p>
<ul style="margin-top:0em;">
<li> <img src=<b>"</b>/cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?<b>\png x^2"</b>>
renders <b>x^2</b> as a png image
<a href="#preview"> <img id="markup1" onclick="eqntext('markup1')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\png x^2" border=0> </a> instead
of the <a href="#gifswitch">default gif</a> format. </li>
<li> <img src=<b>"</b>/cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?<b>\usepackage{color}\color{blue}x^2"</b>>
renders
<a href="#preview"> <img id="markup2" onclick="eqntext('markup2')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\usepackage{color}\color{blue}x^2"
border=0> </a> in blue. In this case, mathTeX removes the familiar
LaTeX <b>\</b>usepackage directive from your math expression, and
places it in the preamble where it belongs. </li>
</ul>
<p> You can have as many special mathTeX <b>\</b><i>directives</i>
<!-- and <b>–</b><i>directives</i> --> in an expression
as you like. They're recognized anywhere at all in an expression,
though these examples show them at the beginning.
To simplify readability, additional examples below are
more tersely illustrated as
<b>"</b><i>query-string</i><b>"</b> rather than as
<img src=<b>"</b>/cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?<i>query-string</i><b>"</b>>.
</p>
<h3> <a name="directives"> </a>
mathTeX directives<font size=5>...</font> </h3>
<dl>
<dt> <a name="styledirective"> </a> <b>\displaystyle</b> or
<b>\textstyle</b> or <b>\parstyle</b> </dt>
<dd> mathTeX's usual <a href="#styleswitch">default</a>
wraps the ?query-string expression
<b>"\int_0^1 f(x)dx"</b> as
<b>\[ \int_0^1 f(x)dx \]</b>, rendering
it in LaTeX's <b>\</b>displaystyle math mode as
<a href="#preview"> <img id="styledir1" onclick="eqntext('styledir1')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\int_0^1f(x)dx" border=0
align="middle"></a>. <br>
But the expression
<b>"\textstyle \int_0^1 f(x)dx"</b> is wrapped
as <b>$ \int_0^1 f(x)dx $</b>,
rendering
<a href="#preview"> <img id="styledir2" onclick="eqntext('styledir2')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\textstyle\int_0^1f(x)dx"
border=0 align="middle"></a> instead.
However, if you compiled mathtex.cgi with the
<a href="#styleswitch">-DTEXTSTYLE</a> option, then
<b>\</b>textstyle is the default, and you can write
<b>\displaystyle</b> in your expressions to override it. <br>
Finally, writing <b>\parstyle</b>
in an expression leaves it completely unwrapped, and rendered
in LaTeX's paragraph mode. When using <b>\parstyle</b>,
write your own <b>\[ \]</b>'s and <b>$ $</b>'s
as needed. For example,
<b>"\parstyle\noindent the answer is $\frac89$"</b>
renders
<a href="#preview"> <img id="styledir3" onclick="eqntext('styledir3')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\parstyle\noindent the anwser is $\frac89$"
border=0 align="middle"></a>.
<!-- The special <b>\parstyle</b> directive is
interpreted and removed by mathTeX, whereas <b>\</b>noindent is
passed on to LaTeX. -->
In this case you could just as easily write a LaTeX
<b>\</b>mbox{ } in math mode. But you may find
<b>\parstyle</b> useful for expressions
using LaTeX's eqnarray environment, or for other purposes. </dd>
<dt> <a name="usepackagedirective"> </a>
<b>\usepackage{</b><i>packagename</i><b>}</b> </dt>
<dd> When mathTeX sees a \usepackage in your expression,
it's removed from the expression and placed in the preamble.
So, for example,
<b>\usepackage{color} \color{blue} x^2+y^2</b>
renders
<a href="#preview"> <img id="pkgdir1" onclick="eqntext('pkgdir1')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\usepackage{color}\color{blue}x^2+y^2"
border=0></a> in blue. You can have up to nine
\usepackages's in an expression. The preamble of mathTeX's
<a href="#usepackageswitch">default</a> wrapper script already
contains \usepackage[latin1]{inputenc}, \usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{amsfonts} and \usepackage{amssymb}. </dd>
<dt> <a name="fontsizedirective"> </a>
<b>\tiny</b> thru <b>\Huge</b> </dt>
<dd> mathTeX moves LaTeX's ten standard size directives
outside the math mode wrapper, so that they can have their
intended effect. For example, the expression
<b>"\Large x^2"</b> is wrapped as
<b>\Large \[ x^2 \]</b>, rendering
<a href="#preview"> <img id="fontdir1" onclick="eqntext('fontdir1')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\Large x^2" border=0></a>.
LaTeX's <a href="#fontsizeswitch"><b>\</b>normalsize default</a>
renders
<a href="#preview"> <img id="fontdir2" onclick="eqntext('fontdir2')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?x^2" border=0></a>. <!-- br>
--> However, if your expression contains
mathTeX's <b>\parstyle</b> directive, then any
LaTeX size directives are left in place, exactly where
you've written them. <!-- br>
LaTeX note:
<b>\tiny</b> thru <b>\Huge</b> select a font size for your _entire_
expression. Use LaTeX's <b>\mbox{ }</b> to resize a part, e.g.,
<b>\Large e^{-\mbox{\small $x^2$}}</b>
selects \Large as the overall font size
but sets x^2 as \small. --> </dd>
<dt> <a name="dpidirective"> </a>
<b>\dpi{</b><i>dots-per-inch</i><b>}</b> </dt>
<dd> mathTeX runs dvipng (or convert) at
<a href="#dpiswitch">default screen resolution</a>
of 120dpi.
The directive <b>\dpi{300}</b> generates a much larger
300dpi image instead. Here are samples of several
dpi's rendered at \scriptsize and \normalsize,
<center><table border="1" cellpadding=3 cellspacing=0>
<tr align="center">
<td>dpi</td> <td>\scriptsize</td> <td>\normalsize</td> </tr>
<tr align="center">
<td> <b>100</b> </td>
<td> <a href="#preview"> <img id="dpi1" onclick="eqntext('dpi1')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\dpi{100}
\scriptsize c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}" border=0> </a> </td>
<td> <a href="#preview"> <img id="dpi2" onclick="eqntext('dpi2')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\dpi{100}
\normalsize c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}" border=0> </a> </td> </tr>
<tr align="center">
<td> <b>120</b> </td>
<td> <a href="#preview"> <img id="dpi3" onclick="eqntext('dpi3')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\dpi{120}
\scriptsize c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}" border=0> </a> </td>
<td> <a href="#preview"> <img id="dpi4" onclick="eqntext('dpi4')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\dpi{120}
\normalsize c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}" border=0> </a> </td> </tr>
<tr align="center">
<td> <b>160</b> </td>
<td> <a href="#preview"> <img id="dpi5" onclick="eqntext('dpi5')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\dpi{160}
\scriptsize c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}" border=0> </a> </td>
<td> <a href="#preview"> <img id="dpi6" onclick="eqntext('dpi6')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\dpi{160}
\normalsize c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}" border=0> </a> </td> </tr>
<tr align="center">
<td> <b>200</b> </td>
<td> <a href="#preview"> <img id="dpi7" onclick="eqntext('dpi7')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\dpi{200}
\scriptsize c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}" border=0> </a> </td>
<td> <a href="#preview"> <img id="dpi8" onclick="eqntext('dpi8')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\dpi{200}
\normalsize c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}" border=0> </a> </td> </tr>
</table></center> </dd>
<dt> <a name="gammadirective"> </a>
<b>\gammacorrection{</b><i>gamma-correction</i><b>}</b> </dt>
<dd> mathTeX runs dvipng with
<a href="#gammaswitch">default gamma</a>=2.5
(or convert with default 0.5).
The directive <b>\gammacorrection{3.5}</b> renders a
darker-than-usual gamma=3.5 image when run with dvipng
(or lighter-than-usual when run with convert).
<!-- See <a href="#gammaswitch">–DGAMMA switch</a>
for some samples. --> <br>
<b>Note:</b> This gamma correction
confusion arises, I believe, as follows. Consider a grayscale from
x=0 for black to x=1 for white.
Then, the canonical formula to apply
gamma correction <img src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?
\gamma" align="bottom"> is <img
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\mbox{x}\mapsto \mbox{x}^{1/\gamma}"
align="bottom">, whereby
<img src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\mbox{\raisebox{.5mm}{$\gamma$}}<1"
align="bottom"> becomes blacker and
<img src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\mbox{\raisebox{.5mm}{$\gamma$}}>1"
align="bottom"> becomes whiter. The convert program
appears to follow this convention, whereas dvipng applies
<img src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\mbox{x}\mapsto \mbox{x}^{\gamma}"
align="bottom"> instead. <br>
Here are some samples (unchanging
grayscale values up and down a column signal the corresponding
program is unavailable) <br>
<center><table border="1" cellpadding=3 cellspacing=0>
<tr align="center">
<td> gamma </td> <td> dvipng </td> <td> dvips/convert </td> </tr>
<!-- tr align="center">
<td> <b>0.125</b> </td>
<td> <a href="#preview"> <img id="gam1a" onclick="eqntext('gam1a')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\dvipng
\gammacorrection{0.125} c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}" border=0> </a> </td>
<td> <a href="#preview"> <img id="gam2a" onclick="eqntext('gam2a')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\dvips
\gammacorrection{0.125} c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}" border=0> </a> </td> </tr -->
<tr align="center">
<td> <b>0.25</b> </td>
<td> <a href="#preview"> <img id="gam1" onclick="eqntext('gam1')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\dvipng
\gammacorrection{0.25} c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}" border=0> </a> </td>
<td> <a href="#preview"> <img id="gam2" onclick="eqntext('gam2')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\dvips
\gammacorrection{0.25} c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}" border=0> </a> </td> </tr>
<tr align="center">
<td> <b>0.50</b> </td>
<td> <a href="#preview"> <img id="gam3" onclick="eqntext('gam3')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\dvipng
\gammacorrection{0.50} c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}" border=0> </a> </td>
<td> <a href="#preview"> <img id="gam4" onclick="eqntext('gam4')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\dvips
\gammacorrection{0.50} c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}" border=0> </a> </td> </tr>
<tr align="center">
<td> <b>1.0</b> </td>
<td> <a href="#preview"> <img id="gam5" onclick="eqntext('gam5')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\dvipng
\gammacorrection{1.0} c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}" border=0> </a> </td>
<td> <a href="#preview"> <img id="gam6" onclick="eqntext('gam6')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\dvips
\gammacorrection{1.0} c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}" border=0> </a> </td> </tr>
<tr align="center">
<td> <b>2.0</b> </td>
<td> <a href="#preview"> <img id="gam7" onclick="eqntext('gam7')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\dvipng
\gammacorrection{2.0} c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}" border=0> </a> </td>
<td> <a href="#preview"> <img id="gam8" onclick="eqntext('gam8')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\dvips
\gammacorrection{2.0} c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}" border=0> </a> </td> </tr>
<tr align="center">
<td> <b>4.0</b> </td>
<td> <a href="#preview"> <img id="gam9" onclick="eqntext('gam9')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\dvipng
\gammacorrection{4.0} c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}" border=0> </a> </td>
<td> <a href="#preview"> <img id="gam10" onclick="eqntext('gam10')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\dvips
\gammacorrection{4.0} c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}" border=0> </a> </td> </tr>
<!-- tr align="center">
<td> <b>8.0</b> </td>
<td> <a href="#preview"> <img id="gam11" onclick="eqntext('gam11')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\dvipng
\gammacorrection{8.0} c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}" border=0> </a> </td>
<td> <a href="#preview"> <img id="gam12" onclick="eqntext('gam12')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\dvips
\gammacorrection{8.0} c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}" border=0> </a> </td> </tr -->
</table></center> </dd>
<dt> <a name="gifdirective"> </a>
<b>\gif</b> or <b>\png</b> </dt>
<dd> mathTeX's <a href="#gifswitch">default</a> renders
expressions as gif images.
If you want a png image instead, write the directive
<b>\png</b> in your expression.
However, if you compiled mathtex.cgi with the
<a href="#gifswitch">–DPNG switch</a>,
then png is the default, and you can write
<b>\gif</b> in your expression to obtain
a gif image. </dd>
<dt> <a name="dvipngdirective"> </a>
<b>\dvips</b> or <b>\dvipng</b> </dt>
<dd> mathTeX uses dvipng when it's available,
or dvips and convert otherwise, to render LaTeX's
dvi output as gif or png images. If all three programs
are available on your server, then expressions containing
<b>\dvips</b> are rendered using dvips/convert
instead of dvipng. Or, when dvips/convert is the default
(see <a href="#switchesdirective">\switches</a> below),
expressions containing <b>\dvipng</b> are
rendered using dvipng instead of dvips/convert. </dd>
<dt> <a name="quietdirective"> </a>
<b>\quiet</b> or <b>\noquiet</b> or <b>\nquiet{<i>n</i>}</b> </dt>
<dd> If any "! LaTeX Error:" is emitted while
processing your expression, mathTeX's
<a href="#quietswitch">default</a> replies
<Enter> to the first three errors, and then
replies "x", halting LaTeX before it produces a .dvi file.
But if your expression contains <b>\quiet</b>,
then mathTeX replies "q" to the first error,
making LaTeX enter batchmode,
whereas if your expression contains <b>\noquiet</b>,
then mathTeX replies "x" to the first error,
halting LaTeX immediately.
If your expression contains <b>\nquiet{<i>n</i>}</b>,
then mathTeX replies <Enter> to the first <i>n</i> errors,
and then replies "x". </dd>
<dt> <a name="cachedirective"> </a>
<b>\cache</b> or <b>\nocache</b> </dt>
<dd> By default, mathTeX saves each new image
in its <a href="#cacheswitch">cache directory</a>,
rather than re-rendering the same image every time
the same expression is submitted. But expressions
containing <b>\nocache</b> are not cached.
Expressions containing <b>\today</b> and/or
<a href="#timedirective">\time</a> are automatically
not cached. Otherwise, include <b>\nocache</b> in your
expression if it contains volatile information that might
affect its appearance between renderings.
(The <b>\cache</b> directive forces the image of that
expression to be cached, but is usually unnecessary
since caching is the default.) </dd>
<dt> <a name="msgleveldirective"> </a>
<b>\msglevel{</b><i>verbosity</i><b>}</b> </dt>
<dd> To help debug problems that matheTeX's
<a href="#messages">error messages</a>
don't resolve, resubmit the same failed expression
with <b>\msglevel{9}</b> added. <br>
After it fails again,
login to a shell on your server, and
<b>cd cgi-bin/mathtex/</b> to
mathTeX's cache directory. Then
<b>ls -alt|less</b> to see the most recent
files. These should include
<i>yourexpression</i><b>.out</b>
(and <i>yourexpression</i><b>.gif</b> if an image was created),
where filename <i>yourexpression</i> is the 32-character
MD5 hash of your failed expression. <br>
Now <b>cd ..</b>
back up to your cgi-bin/ directory, and you should see a new
directory <b>cgi-bin/</b><i>yourexpression</i><b>/</b>
created by mathTeX. <b>cd</b> to it, and follow
the <a href="#commandlineerrors">command-line error</a>
instructions below. When done, you should probably
<b>rm -r cgi-bin/</b><i>yourexpression</i><b>/</b>
which is no longer needed (ditto the .out and .gif files
in mathTeX's cache if you want to clean up completely). </dd>
<dt> <a name="whichdirective"> </a>
<b>\which{</b><i>programname</i><b>}</b> </dt>
<dd> mathTeX must be compiled with several
<a href="#pathswitches">–D<i>switches</i></a>
that specify paths to its <a href="#dependencies">dependencies</a>.
If you can't determine these required paths, mathTeX's
<b>\which{</b><i>programname</i><b>}</b>
may provide some help (also see
<a href="#switchesdirective">\switches</a> below).
For example, <!-- on this machine, -->
<center><table border="1" cellpadding=3 cellspacing=0>
<tr align="center">
<td>directive</td> <td>renders</td> </tr>
<tr align="center">
<td> \which{latex} </td>
<td> <a href="#preview"> <img id="which1" onclick="eqntext('which1')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\which{latex}"
border=0> </a> </td> </tr>
<tr align="center">
<td> \which{dvipng} </td>
<td> <a href="#preview"> <img id="which2" onclick="eqntext('which2')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\which{dvipng}"
border=0> </a> </td> </tr>
<tr align="center">
<td> \which{dvips} </td>
<td> <a href="#preview"> <img id="which3" onclick="eqntext('which3')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\which{dvips}"
border=0> </a> </td> </tr>
<tr align="center">
<td> \which{convert} </td>
<td> <a href="#preview"> <img id="which4" onclick="eqntext('which4')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\which{convert}"
border=0> </a> </td> </tr>
</table></center>
displays known paths to mathTeX's dependencies, as they're
installed on this server.
However, there's a small "Catch-22" (circular logic that
may bite you)<b>:</b> mathTeX must already know these paths
before it runs the programs that display them.
You may be able to temporarily circumvent this
problem by compiling <br>
<pre style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0"
> <b>cc</b> mathtex.c <b>–o</b> mathtex.cgi</pre>
without any required switches at all. When compiled like this,
mathTeX uses <b>which</b> to determine the
required paths. If they're found, then mathTeX will run
and display them<b>;</b>
if not, you'll likely see <a href="#message7">message 7</a>
or <a href="#message9">message 9</a> instead. <!-- br>
--> If mathTeX does run, and displays
the required paths, you should immediately re-compile it with
the required <a href="#pathswitches">–D<i>switches</i></a>.
Execution time can be doubled, or even worse, when mathTeX
has to find these paths itself. <br>
When <b>\which{</b><i>programname</i><b>}</b>
can't find the path, mathTeX displays
<img src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\parstyle\fbox{\footnotesize
which(programname) = not found}" align="middle" border=0> instead.
But mathTeX may also display
<img src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\parstyle\fbox{\footnotesize
locate(programname) = /path/to/programname}" align="middle" border=0>,
signalling that Unix which failed. In this case, mathTeX
searches your server's locate database, if it exists,
and displays that path instead. The "not found" message
signals which and locate both failed. </dd>
<dt> <a name="switchesdirective"> </a>
<b>\switches</b> </dt>
<dd> Submitting the expression <b>\switches</b>
to mathTeX renders <center>
<a href="#preview"><img id="switch1" onclick="eqntext('switch1')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\switches" align="bottom"
border=0></a> <font size="+3"><b>,</b></font> </center>
displaying several (more will be added) of mathTeX's
<a href="#switches">compile-line switches</a>.
"Program image" isn't really a switch: it's the filename
of the running program, usually mathtex.cgi
unless you compiled it differently. <br>
"Paths" displays what mathTeX knows
about the full paths to its
<a href="#dependencies">dependencies</a>. On the
right-hand side of each path is the source of that information.
There are four possible sources, listed in order of reliablility
(most reliable first):
<ul>
<li> <b>(switch)</b> means you compiled mathTeX with a
<a href="#pathswitches">–D<i>switch</i></a> for that path.
You should always compile mathTeX with its
<a href="#dependencies">dependencies</a><b>:</b>
<b>–DLATEX</b>, and either <b>–DDVIPNG</b> or both
<b>–DDVIPS</b> and <b>–DCONVERT</b>.
When that's not possible, read
<a href="#whichdirective">\which{ }</a> above
and temporarily compile mathTeX without them. </li>
<li> <b>(which)</b> means the corresponding
<a href="#pathswitches">–D<i>switch</i></a> was not
supplied, but Unix which found the program. If that's
latex or another of your
<a href="#dependencies">dependencies</a>, then re-compile
mathTeX with a –D<i>switch</i> containing the displayed
information. </li>
<li> <b>(locate)</b> means Unix which failed,
but your server's locate database found the path.
Again, re-compile mathTeX if that's one of your
<a href="#dependencies">dependencies</a>. </li>
<li> <b>(default)</b> means no path information
was found. A default path programmed into mathTeX is
displayed instead. This default is frequently wrong.
In fact, <b>(default)</b> typically means that the
corresponding program isn't installed on your server at all.
In that case, if the program is one of your
<a href="#dependencies">dependencies</a>, you'll likely
see <a href="#message7">message 7</a> or
<a href="#message9">message 9</a> instead of the
\switches output illustrated above. </li>
</ul>
Either dvipng or dvips and convert
can render LaTeX's dvi output as gif or png images.
MathTeX's default choice is based on the reliablity of path
information to these programs<b>:</b> (switch)
is most reliable, followed by (which) or (locate),
rated equally, and finally (default) is least realiable.
If a (switch) path to dvipng is available (i.e., if you compiled
mathTeX with a –DDVIPNG switch), then dvipng is default.
Otherwise, if (switch) paths to both dvips and convert are
available, then they're default. Otherwise, (which) or (locate)
paths are preferred to (default), and dvipng wins a "tie".
</dd>
<dt> <a name="timedirective"> </a>
<b>\time</b> </dt>
<dd> LaTeX's <b>\</b>today is usually sufficient for the
slow-paced world of print. But you may want finer-grained
resolution for the faster-paced online world. mathTeX provides
<b>\time</b> for this purpose, replacing it with
the current hh:mm:ss wherever it occurs. The
<a href="#timestamp1">date/timestamp</a>
at the top of this document is rendered by mathTeX with an
expression like
"\parstyle\begin{center}\today\\\time\end{center}".
You can see the exact expression by clicking on
<a href="#timestamp1">that image</a>.
I'm not reproducing it here because mathTeX doesn't
cache images containing <b>\</b>today or <b>\</b>time.
So use <b>\time</b> sparingly because
every occurrence is re-rendered through LaTeX. </dd>
<dt> <a name="advertisementdirective"> </a>
<b>\advertisement</b> </dt>
<dd> An expression containing <b>\advertisement</b>
is displayed along with your
<a href="#adswitches">mathTeX advertisement</a>
rather than by itself, regardless of
<a href="#adfrequencyswitch">-DADFREQUENCY</a>. For example,
<center><table border="0">
<tr align="center"> <td>
<b><u> c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2} </u></b> </td>
<td> </td> <td>
<b><u> \advertisement c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2} </u></b>
</td> </tr>
<tr align="center"> <td>
<a href="#preview"><img id="addir1" onclick="eqntext('addir1')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}"
alt="" border=0> </a> </td> <td> </td> <td>
<a href="#preview"><img id="addir2" onclick="eqntext('addir2')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\advertisement c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}"
alt="" align="middle" border=0> </a> </td> </tr>
</table></center>
See <a href="#advertisementswitch">Advertisement</a>
to replace the default advertisement, illustrated above,
with your own. </dd>
<dt> <a name="versiondirective"> </a>
<b>\version</b> </dt>
<dd> An expression containing <b>\version</b>
is displayed along with mathTeX's current version number.
For example,
<center><table border="0">
<tr align="center"> <td>
<b><u> \version c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2} </u></b>
</td> </tr>
<tr align="center"> <td>
<a href="#preview"><img id="verdir1" onclick="eqntext('verdir1')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\version c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}"
alt="" align="middle" border=0> </a> </td> </tr>
</table></center> </dd>
<dt> <a name="environmentdirective"> </a>
<b>\environment</b> </dt>
<dd> Submitting the expression <b>\environment</b>
to mathTeX renders <center>
<a href="#preview"><img id="environ1" onclick="eqntext('environ1')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\environment" align="bottom"
border=0></a></center>
displaying the http environment variables known to mathTeX.
This is primarily a programming aid, showing information
available to mathTeX that might facilitate future enhancements. </dd>
</dl>
<!-- +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ INSTALLATION AND TESTING
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -->
<h2 id="install"> (4) Installation and Testing </h2>
<font color="maroon"><b>Note: The current release of mathTeX only runs <br>
on Unix-like operating systems.</b></font> <br>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tr><td colspan=2><hr size="2">
Very quickly ---
First, install mathTeX's
<a href="#dependencies">dependencies</a>: </td></tr>
<tr><td> </td>
<td>a recent </b><a href="http://www.latex-project.org/ftp.html"
target="_top">TeX distribution</a>
with <a href="http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/dvipng/"
target="_top">dvipng</a>,
<!-- and <a href="http://www.imagemagick.org"
target="_top">ImageMagick</a> --> <br>
on your server, or see
<a href="http://www.forkosh.com/mimetex.html"
target="_top">mimeTeX</a> if you can't. </td></tr>
<tr><td colspan=2>
Then, download
<a href="http://www.forkosh.com/mathtex.zip">mathtex.zip</a>
and type </td></tr>
<tr><td> </td>
<td><b>unzip mathtex.zip</b> <br>
<b>cc mathtex.c –DLATEX=\"$(which latex)\" \ <br>
–DDVIPNG=\"$(which dvipng)\" \ <br>
<!-- –DCONVERT=\"$(which convert)\" \ <br -->
–o mathtex.cgi</b> <br>
<nobr>(see
<a href="#pathswitches">–D<i>switches</i></a>
below for more information). </nobr> </td></tr>
<tr><td colspan=2> Finally, </td></tr>
<tr><td> </td>
<td> <b>mv mathtex.cgi</b> to your
<b>cgi-bin/</b> directory, <br>
<!-- b>mkdir cgi-bin/mathtex/</b>
for mathTeX's cache, <br -->
<b>chmod</b> permissions as necessary,
and you're all done. </td></tr>
<tr><td colspan=2>
Read the rest of this section only if you want
more information.<hr size="2"></td>
</tr></table>
<p class="continue"> mathTeX's source code is standard Unix C,
which should compile and run without change on
any posix-compliant Unix platform.
<font color="maroon"><b>The current release of mathTeX only
runs under Unix-like operating systems.</b></font>
<!-- Instructions below are for Unix. Modify them as necessary
for your particular situation (note the -DWINDOWS switch if
applicable). -->
The three steps needed to compile, install and test
mathTeX are: </p>
<h3 style="margin-bottom:0;">
(1) Install LaTeX <!-- and ImageMagick, -->
and download mathTeX<font size=5>...</font> </h3>
<ul style="margin-top:0">
<li> First, make sure you have a recent <br>
<nobr> <b> </b>
<a href="http://www.latex-project.org/ftp.html"
target="_top">TeX distribution</a>
with <a href="http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/dvipng/"
target="_top">dvipng</a>
installed on your server. </nobr> <br>
MathTeX's <a href="#dependencies">dependencies</a> are the
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaTeX"
target="_top">latex</a> and
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvipng"
target="_top">dvipng</a>
programs, along with all necessary fonts, etc, from your
TeX distribution. <br>
<b> </b>
If you prefer to compile mathTeX with the optional
<a href="#dvipsswitch">–DDVIPS and –DCONVERT</a>
switches (<a href="#compilestep">Step 2</a> immediately below),
then <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvips"
target="_top">dvips</a>
from your TeX distribution, and
<a href="http://www.imagemagick.org/script/convert.php"
target="_top">convert</a> from the
<a href="http://www.imagemagick.org" target="_top">ImageMagick</a>
package, are used instead of dvipng. <br>
<b> </b>
These <a href="#dependencies">dependencies</a>
— always latex and either dvipng or dvips/convert —
must all be installed on your server
before you can run mathTeX. Ask your ISP or sysadmin
if you have any questions or problems installing them.
Or see <a href="http://www.forkosh.com/mimetex.html"
target="_top">mimeTeX</a> if you can't install them.
</li>
<li> Then download and unzip
<a href="http://www.forkosh.com/mathtex.zip">
mathtex.zip</a> in any convenient working directory.
Your working directory should now contain
<center> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0>
<tr><td width=100>README</td> <td>mathTeX release notes</td></tr>
<tr><td>COPYING</td> <td>GPL license, version 3, under which
you may use mathTeX</td></tr>
<tr><td>mathtex.c</td> <td>mathTeX source program and all
required functions</td></tr>
<tr><td>mathtex.html</td> <td>this file, the mathTeX user
manual</td></tr>
</table> </center> </li>
</ul>
<h3 style="margin-bottom:0;"> <a name="compilestep"> </a>
(2) Compile mathTeX and test it
from the Unix shell<font size=5>...</font> </h3>
<ul style="margin-top:0">
<li> To compile a mathTeX executable that emits default
gif images generated by dvipng (recommended), just type <br>
<nobr><b>
cc mathtex.c
–DLATEX=\"$(which latex)\" \ </b></nobr><br>
<nobr><b>
–DDVIPNG=\"$(which dvipng)\"
–o mathtex.cgi </b></nobr><br>
Alternatively, to compile a mathTeX executable that emits default
gif images generated by dvips/convert, just type <br>
<nobr><b>
cc mathtex.c
–DLATEX=\"$(which latex)\" \ </b></nobr><br>
<nobr><b>
–DDVIPS=\"$(which dvips)\"
–DCONVERT=\"$(which convert)\" \ </b></nobr><br>
<nobr><b>
–o mathtex.cgi </b></nobr><br>
But note that dvipng is easily twice as fast
as dvips/convert, and it produces somewhat smaller image files. <br>
For default png (instead of gif) images, add the optional
<b>–DPNG</b> switch to either <b>cc</b> command
above. All of mathTeX's optional
<a href="#switches">compile-line switches</a> are discussed
below. <br>
The <a href="#pathswitches">required switches</a>
shown above define paths to mathTeX's
<a href="#dependencies">dependencies</a>, either latex and dvipng,
or latex and dvips/convert.
See <a href="#pathswitches">required switches</a> below
for additional information about these path switches, including
discussion of that <b>$(which</b> <i>program</i><b>)</b>
construction.
<!-- If not explicitly supplied on the compile line,
they default to <br>
<nobr><b>
–DLATEX=\"/usr/share/texmf/bin/latex\" </b></nobr> <br>
<nobr><b>
–DDVIPNG=\"/usr/share/texmf/bin/dvipng\" </b></nobr> <br>
<nobr><b>
–DCONVERT=\"/usr/bin/convert\" </b></nobr> <br> -->
</li>
<!-- li> Windows compile notes: <ul>
<li> If (and only if) you're compiling a Windows executable,
then add <b>–DWINDOWS</b><br>
<nobr> <b>gcc -DWINDOWS
mathtex.c –o mathtex.exe</b></nobr> <br>
The above Unix-like syntax works with
<a href="http://www.mingw.org" target="_top">MinGW</a> and
<a href="http://www.delorie.com/djgpp/" target="_top">djgpp</a>
Windows compilers, but probably not with most others,
where it's only intended as a "template". </li>
</ul> <br> </li -->
<li> Immediately after compiling mathTeX, test it
from the Unix shell by typing <br>
<nobr><b>
./mathtex.cgi "x^2+y^2" –m 9
–o test </b></nobr> <br>
at the command prompt. After the copyright notice,
screen output should look something like
<pre class="medium" style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">
mathTeX> running image: ./mathtex.cgi
mathTeX> input expression: "x^2+y^2"
mathTeX> working directory: 8dfaf8281769c217b7e78b27a4747285/
mathTeX> output image file: test.gif </pre>
Bring up the output file <b>test.gif</b> in your browser,
which should display the rendered image of <b>x^2+y^2</b>.
If it does, you can <b>rm -r</b> that working directory
and proceed to the next (Install) step.
If not, there's some error that <b>_must_</b> be fixed before
proceeding<b>:</b> mathTeX is not going to emit gifs from
your server if it won't run from the command line. <br>
<font color="maroon"> <a name="commandlineerrors"> </a>
<b>To troubleshoot command-line errors...</b></font>
<ul>
<li> First, <b>cd 8dfaf8281769c217b7e78b27a4747285/</b>
to that working directory (whose name is the
32-character MD5 hash of your expression)
shown on the screen output above. </li>
<li> If it's not an empty file, <b>view latex.err</b>
A message something like
<b>latex: command not found</b>
probably means that your
<b>–DLATEX=\"path/to/latex\"</b>
is wrong, or that latex is installed wrong.
Fix that, or any other indicated error, and then
re-compile mathTeX and test it again. </li>
<li> Otherwise, if latex.err is empty, then
<b>view latex.out</b> which
contains runtime messages issued by latex,
including messages reporting unresolved errors.
For example, <b>\usepackage{junk}</b> reports the error
<b>File `junk.sty' not found.</b>
Find and fix any reported errors, and then
re-compile mathTeX and test it again. </li>
<li> If latex.err and latex.out contain no errors,
then latex.dvi should contain the dvi image of
your expression. Check it with <b>xdvi</b> or any
other dvi viewer supplied with your latex distribution.
Then view dvipng.err and dvipng.out for any reported errors
(note that dvipng emits a benign copyright message to dvipng.out).
<!-- Then view dvips.err and dvips.out for any reported errors
(note that dvips emits a benign copyright message to dvips.err),
and check dvips.ps with <b>gv</b> or any other
postscript viewer. Finally, view convert.err and convert.out
for any reported errors. --> </li>
<li> You should have found some error along the way.
Troubleshoot as necessary.
Your most likely (and most obvious) problems are:
<a href="#dependencies">mathTeX's dependencies</a>
are installed incorrectly or not at all, you compiled
mathtex.cgi with the wrong paths (check <b>which</b>'s
output), or you don't have rw permissions in the directory
you're testing from. </li>
</ul> </li>
</ul>
<h3 style="margin-bottom:0;">
(3) Install mathTeX and test it from a browser<font size=5>...</font> </h3>
<ul style="margin-top:0">
<li> Install your compiled mathtex.cgi executable only after
successfully testing it from the Unix shell. Just <br>
<nobr><b>
mv mathtex.cgi</b> to your web server's
<b>cgi-bin/</b> directory, </nobr> <br>
<!-- nobr><b>
mkdir cgi-bin/mathtex/</b>
for mathTeX's cache, </nobr> <br -->
<nobr><b>
chmod</b> permissions as necessary,
and you're all done. </nobr> <br>
<b>cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi</b> must be executable by your web server,
and it must have <b>rw</b> permissions in the <b>cgi-bin/</b>
directory where it's installed. The first time it runs,
mathtex.cgi will <b>mkdir mathtex/</b>, where rendered
images are subsequently cached. Permissions and ownerships
must be set to allow this.
<!-- and the <b>cgi-bin/mathtex/</b> cache directory must be <b>rw</b>
by mathtex.cgi. --> <b>chmod 755</b> typically works,
<!-- for both, --> but ask your ISP or sysadmin if you have
any questions or problems. </li>
<li> Immediately after installation, type a url into your browser's
locator window something like <br>
<b>http://www.</b><i>yourdomain</i><b>.com/cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\message</b> <br>
which should display <a href="#message1">message 1</a><br>
<img src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\message" alt="" border=0
align=middle> <br>
in the upper-left corner of your window. If, instead, you see
<a href="#message0a">Not Found</a> or
<a href="#message0b">Error 500</a> emitted by your server,
then mathTeX isn't running. Check that you installed
it in the correct directory, set its permissions properly, etc. </li>
<li> The preceding test just checked that mathtex.cgi runs from
your server. This current test checks that your –DLATEX, etc,
paths are correct, and that mathtex.cgi has rw permissions in your
cgi-bin/ directory. Type a url into your browser's locator
window something like <br>
<b>http://www.</b><i>yourdomain</i><b>.com/cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?x^2+y^2</b> <br>
which should display
<img src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?x^2+y^2" alt="" border=0
align=middle> in the upper-left corner of your window,
just like clicking this link does, which tests my mathtex.cgi, <br>
<a href="http://www.forkosh.com/cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?x^2+y^2"
target="_top">http://www.forkosh.com/cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?x^2+y^2</a>
<br> If you see the same image from your own
<i>yourdomain</i> link, then you've completed
a successful mathTeX installation. <br>
Otherwise, you'll probably see one of mathTeX's
<a href="#messages">error messages</a> illustrated below.
Read the accompanying description, and try to resolve the
problem accordingly. </li>
</ul>
<h3> <a name="messages"> </a>
Run-time error messages<font size=5>...</font></h3>
<p> Gif images for 15 messages are embedded in mathTeX,
displayable so long as mathtex.cgi can run from your server,
even without latex and without rw permissions
in your cgi-bin/ directory. In addition, your server may display
the first two messages below if mathtex.cgi can't run.
Any embedded mathTeX message can be intentionally displayed
by submitting an expression containing the
special mathTeX directive <b>\message{1}</b> through
<b>\message{15}</b> (an out-of-bounds argument, or
<b>\message</b> with no argument, displays message <b>1</b>).
Otherwise, various errors signal "unintentional" displays of
the corresponding message, e.g., if your –DLATEX switch
specifies the wrong path to latex, then you'll see
<a href="#message7">message 7</a> (unless some earlier
error supercedes it). </p>
<center> <table cellspacing=0 cellpadding=2 width="95%" border=0>
<tr> <td align="center">
<u><b> Message </b></u> </td>
<td align="center">
<u><b> Description </b></u> </td> </tr>
<tr> <td> <a name="message0a"> </a> </td> </tr>
<tr> <!-- maybe tr valign="top" --> <td align="center">
<b>The requested URL was not found.</b> </td>
<td class="paragraph" align="left">
You typed the wrong url, or mathtex.cgi is not
installed where you think it is.
</td> </tr>
<tr> <td> <a name="message0b"> </a> </td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="center">
<b>Internal server error 500</b> </td>
<td class="paragraph" align="left">
If mathtex.cgi's permissions are chmod'ed improperly,
if your account isn't set up to run cgi's, etc,
then mathTeX will not run at all.
You'll probably see this error message emitted by your
server instead.
</td> </tr>
<tr> <td> <a name="message1"> </a> </td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="center">
<img src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\message{1}"
alt="" align="middle" border=0> </td>
<td class="paragraph" align="left">
Immediately after installing mathtex.cgi
to your cgi-bin/ directory, type a url of the form <br>
<nobr> <font size="-1"><b><i>yourdomain</i>.com/cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\message</b></font></nobr> <br>
into your browser. You should see this message.
It means mathtex.cgi ran successfully,
its permissions are set properly, and the account hosting
<i>yourdomain</i> can run cgi's.
</td> </tr>
<tr> <td> <a name="message2"> </a> </td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="center">
</a><img src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\message{2}"
alt="" align="middle" border=0> </td>
<td class="paragraph" align="left">
Traps any otherwise unidentified error condition.
</td> </tr>
<tr> <td> <a name="message3"> </a> </td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="center">
<img src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\message{3}"
alt="" align="middle" border=0> </td>
<td class="paragraph" align="left">
The combination of permissions/ownerships on mathtex.cgi itself,
and on the cgi-bin/ directory where it's installed, prohibit mathTeX
from creating its cache directory mathtex/ underneath
cgi-bin/. Change permissions/ownerships as needed.
</td> </tr>
<tr> <td> <a name="message4"> </a> </td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="center">
<img src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\message{4}"
alt="" align="middle" border=0> </td>
<td class="paragraph" align="left"> Same problem
as <a href="#message3">message 3</a> above,
except this time mathTeX can't create a temporary
work directory under cgi-bin/.
</td> </tr>
<tr> <td> <a name="message5"> </a> </td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="center">
<img src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\message{5}"
alt="" align="middle" border=0> </td>
<td class="paragraph" align="left">
Unanticipated error. MathTeX should be able to
cd to a directory it just created.
</td> </tr>
<tr> <td> <a name="message6"> </a> </td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="center">
<img src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\message{6}"
alt="" align="middle" border=0> </td>
<td class="paragraph" align="left">
Unanticipated error. MathTeX should be able to
open a file (for write) in a directory it just created.
</td> </tr>
<tr> <td> <a name="message7"> </a> </td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="center">
<img src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\message{7}"
alt="" align="middle" border=0> </td>
<td class="paragraph" align="left">
Either latex is not installed,
or your <b>–DLATEX</b> path to it is incorrect.
It's also possible that the shell host on which you compiled
mathTeX has different volumes or mount points than your server
(see <a href="#pathswitches">path switches</a>).
Check with your ISP or sysadmin, or try mathTeX's
<a href="#whichdirective">\which directive</a>.
</td> </tr>
<tr> <td> <a name="message8"> </a> </td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="center">
<img src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\message{8}"
alt="" align="middle" border=0> </td>
<td class="paragraph" align="left">
A simple latex error, like \alfa instead of \alpha,
should not cause this problem (unless your expression
contains <a href="#quietdirective">\noquiet</a>).
It's more likely caused by a missing font or package,
etc. Simplify your expression until it works, and see
if that helps identify the cause. Or add
<a href="#msgleveldirective">\msglevel{9}</a>
to your expression, and check files latex.out and latex.err
for error messages.
</td> </tr>
<tr> <td> <a name="message9"> </a> </td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="center">
<img src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\message{9}"
alt="" align="middle" border=0> </td>
<td class="paragraph" align="left">
Either dvipng is not installed,
or your <b>–DDVIPNG</b> path to it is incorrect.
Also see the remark in <a href="#message7">message 7</a>.
</td> </tr>
<tr> <td> <a name="message10"> </a> </td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="center">
<img src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\message{10}"
alt="" align="middle" border=0> </td>
<td class="paragraph" align="left">
Rerun the same expression with
<a href="#msgleveldirective">\msglevel{9}</a>
added. Then check files latex.out and latex.err,
and dvipng.out and dvipng.err for any clues to
the cause of this error.
</td> </tr>
<tr> <td> <a name="message11"> </a> </td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="center">
<img src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\message{11}"
alt="" align="middle" border=0> </td>
<td class="paragraph" align="left">
Either dvips is not installed,
or your <b>–DDVIPS</b> path to it is incorrect.
Also see the remark in <a href="#message7">message 7</a>.
</td> </tr>
<tr> <td> <a name="message12"> </a> </td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="center">
<img src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\message{12}"
alt="" align="middle" border=0> </td>
<td class="paragraph" align="left">
Rerun the same expression with
<a href="#msgleveldirective">\msglevel{9}</a>
added. Then check files latex.out and latex.err,
and dvips.out and dvips.err for any clues to
the cause of this error.
</td> </tr>
<tr> <td> <a name="message13"> </a> </td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="center">
<img src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\message{13}"
alt="" align="middle" border=0> </td>
<td class="paragraph" align="left">
Either convert is not installed,
or your <b>–DCONVERT</b> path to it is incorrect.
Also see the remark in <a href="#message7">message 7</a>.
</td> </tr>
<tr> <td> <a name="message14"> </a> </td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="center">
<img src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\message{14}"
alt="" align="middle" border=0> </td>
<td class="paragraph" align="left">
Rerun the same expression with
<a href="#msgleveldirective">\msglevel{9}</a>
added. Then check files latex.out and latex.err,
dvips.out and dvips.err, and convert.out and
convert.err for any clues to the cause of this error.
</td> </tr>
<tr> <td> <a name="message15"> </a> </td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="center">
<img src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\message{15}"
alt="" align="middle" border=0> </td>
<td class="paragraph" align="left">
An image file was apparently created successfully,
but is now inaccessible to mathTeX. Rerun the same
expression. If it fails again, rerun it with
<a href="#msgleveldirective">\msglevel{9}</a>
added. Then check all .out and .err files
for any clues to the cause of this error.
</td> </tr>
</table> </center>
<h3> <a name="switches"> </a>
Compile-line switches<font size=5>...</font></h3>
<dl>
<dt> <a name="pathswitches"> </a> <font color="black">
<b>Required switches</b><font size=5>...</font></font> <br> </dt>
<dd style="margin-left:0em;">
MathTeX's required <b>–D</b> switches
specify paths to the programs it needs to render
LaTeX expressions as images. Your Unix <b>PATH</b> environment
variable usually contains the directories where these programs
reside. And in that case, the Unix shell command
<b>which</b> <i>progname</i> emits the
string <i>/path/to/progname</i>. <br>
Then you can manually copy <b>which</b>'s
output to the switch, e.g., if <b>which latex</b>
emits <b>/usr/bin/latex</b>
then just write the switch
<b>–DLATEX=\"/usr/bin/latex\"</b>
Alternatively, you can use the Unix shell's
<b>$( )</b> construction to automatically
pipe <b>which</b>'s output into the switch, e.g.,
<b>–DLATEX=\"$(which latex)\"</b>
automatically places that same path to latex between the
literal <b>\" \"</b> quotes. <br>
If <b>which</b> doesn't work, you must nevertheless
make sure that latex and mathTeX's other
<a href="#dependencies">dependencies</a> are all installed
on your server. Then determine the proper paths to them
yourself (ask your ISP or sysadmin, or try mathTeX's
<a href="#whichdirective">\which directive</a>),
and manually write mathTeX's required <b>–D</b>
switches as described above.<br>
Occasionally, <b>which</b> may seem
to work, but actually doesn't, because your shell account
and internet server are hosted on different machines,
with different volumes mounted and/or different mount
points. When this happens, server volumes are
nfs-mounted by your shell machine, so you can work
on your internet files. Conversely, shell volumes aren't
necessarily mounted by the server, so latex could be
visible from your shell but not from the server.
Check with your ISP or sysadmin about network topology
if you suspect something like this, or mathTeX's
<a href="#whichdirective">\which directive</a>
may help. In any case,
mathTeX's <a href="#dependencies">dependencies</a>,
latex and either dvipng or dvips/convert, must be
available to your server, and you must compile
mathtex.cgi with their paths on your server. </dd>
<dt> <b>–DLATEX=\"/</b><i>path</i><b>/</b><i>to</i><b>/latex\" <br>
–DDVIPNG=\"/</b><i>path</i><b>/</b><i>to</i><b>/dvipng\" </b> </dt>
<dd> mathTeX always requires the <b>–DLATEX</b> switch,
and its recommended default (using
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvipng"
target="_top">dvipng</a> to render
latex's dvi output as gif or png images)
also requires the <b>–DDVIPNG</b> switch.
So your standard <b>cc</b> command to compile mathTeX looks like <br>
<b> cc mathtex.c \ </b> <br>
<b> –DLATEX=\"$(which latex)\" \ </b> <br>
<b> –DDVIPNG=\"$(which dvipng)\" \ </b> <br>
<b> –o mathtex.cgi </b> <br>
</dd>
<dt> <a name="dvipsswitch"> </a>
<b>–DDVIPS=\"/</b><i>path</i><b>/</b><i>to</i><b>/dvips\" <br>
–DCONVERT=\"/</b><i>path</i><b>/</b><i>to</i><b>/convert\" </b> </dt>
<dd> If you can't (or don't want to) use dvipng,
then compile mathTeX with the <b>–DDVIPS</b> and
<b>–DCONVERT</b> switches (instead of –DDVIPNG).
Then
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvips" target="_top">dvips</a>
from your <a href="http://www.latex-project.org/ftp.html"
target="_top">TeX distribution</a>, and
<a href="http://www.imagemagick.org/script/convert.php"
target="_top">convert</a> from the
<a href="http://www.imagemagick.org" target="_top">ImageMagick</a>
package, are used (instead of dvipng) to render latex's dvi output
as gif or png images.
In this case, your <b>cc</b> command to compile mathTeX looks like <br>
<b> cc mathtex.c \ </b> <br>
<b> –DLATEX=\"$(which latex)\" \ </b> <br>
<b> –DDVIPS=\"$(which dvips)\" \ </b> <br>
<b> –DCONVERT=\"$(which convert)\" \ </b> <br>
<b> –o mathtex.cgi </b> <br>
Finally, if all three programs (dvipng and dvips and convert)
are installed on your server, you can compile mathTeX with all
the <b>–D</b> switches. This defaults to dvipng,
but permits users to submit expressions containing the special
<a href="#dvipsdirective">\dvips</a> and
<a href="#dvipsdirective">\dvipng</a> directives, regardless of
mathTeX's default. So a comprehensive <b>cc</b> command looks
like <br>
<b> cc mathtex.c \ </b> <br>
<b> –DLATEX=\"$(which latex)\" \ </b> <br>
<b> –DDVIPNG=\"$(which dvipng)\" \ </b> <br>
<b> –DDVIPS=\"$(which dvips)\" \ </b> <br>
<b> –DCONVERT=\"$(which convert)\" \ </b> <br>
<b> –o mathtex.cgi </b> <br>
along with any other optional switches you choose
from those described below, </dd>
<dt> <a name="optionalswitches"> </a> <font color="black">
<b>Optional switches</b><font size=5>...</font></font> <br> </dt>
<dd style="margin-left:0em;">
In addition to the –DLATEX and –DDVIPNG
switches required on the mathTeX's compile line, as discussed above,
you may also include the following optional <b>–D</b> switches,
whose functionality is discussed below. Whenever a switch takes
a value, its <font color="maroon"><b>default value</b></font>
is illustrated. An
<font color="maroon"><i>italicized value</i></font>
means there is no default. </dd>
<dt> <a name="cacheswitch"> </a> <b>–DCACHE=\"mathtex/\"</b> </dt>
<dd> By default, mathTeX saves each new image it renders
to a file in directory <b>mathtex/</b> (relative
to the cgi-bin/ directory where you installed mathtex.cgi).
Then, every time it's given the same expression, mathTeX
reads that file rather than re-rendering the same image.
You can specify any other cache directory with the
<b>–DCACHE=\"</b><i>path</i><b>/\"</b> switch.
Either way, mathTeX's cache directory must be read/writable by
it, so set permissions (typically chmod 755) as necessary. <br>
mathTeX occasionally disables caching,
e.g., expressions containing <b>\today</b> are
always re-rendered since the date may have changed.
Otherwise, caching is mandatory and cannot be disabled. <br>
Cached image files are named
<i>filename</i><b>.gif</b> or <i>filename</i><b>.png</b>,
where <i>filename</i> is the 32-character MD5 hash of the
LaTeX expression. When caching a new image, mathTeX also
updates the file <i>path</i><b>/mathtex.log</b> containing
a timestamp, filename, LaTeX expression, and http referer
for each new file created. A sample entry looks like
<pre>---------------------------------------------------------------------
2007-10-11:09:00:53am f8ccc8dd93c8eeb1d9c40b353ef781e0.gif
\LARGE x=\frac{-b\pm\sqrt{b^2-4ac}}{2a}
http://www.forkosh.com/mathtex.html
---------------------------------------------------------------------</pre></dd>
<dt> <a name="gifswitch"> </a><b>–DGIF</b>
or <b>–DPNG</b> </dt>
<dd> mathTeX generates gif or png images. Users can specify
which format they want by including a
<a href="#gifdirective"><b>\gif</b> or <b>\png</b></a>
mathTeX directive in submitted
expressions. Otherwise, mathTeX's default is specified at
compile time by a <b>–DGIF</b> or
<b>–DPNG</b> switch. If a submitted expression
contains neither directive, and if mathTeX was compiled with
neither switch, then gif is the default. </dd>
<dt> <a name="styleswitch"> </a> <b>–DDISPLAYSTYLE</b>
or <b>–DTEXTSTYLE</b>
or <b>–DPARSTYLE</b> </dt>
<dd> mathTeX's default wraps user expressions inside
<b>\[ \]</b>, rendering
generated images in LaTeX's <b>\</b>displaystyle math mode.
The <b>–DTEXTSTYLE</b> switch wraps expressions
inside <b>$ $</b>, rendering
generated images in LaTeX's <b>\</b>textstyle math mode.
And the <b>–DPARSTYLE</b> switch
leaves expressions unwrapped, rendering
generated images in LaTeX's default paragraph mode.
Users can override any compiled default with a mathTeX
<a href="#styledirective">style directive</a>. </dd>
<dt> <a name="fontsizeswitch"> </a> <b>–DFONTSIZE=5</b> </dt>
<dd> You can specify <b>–DFONTSIZE=1</b>
thru <b>–DFONTSIZE=10</b> on mathTeX's
compile line, corresponding to default LaTeX font sizes
<b>\</b>tiny thru <b>\</b>Huge. If no switch is supplied,
the default <b>5</b> corresponds to <b>\</b>normalsize.
Users can override any compiled default with a mathTeX
<a href="#fontsizedirective">\tiny...\Huge directive</a>. </dd>
<dt> <a name="dpiswitch"> </a> <b>–DDPI=\"120\"</b> </dt>
<dd> The <b>–DPI</b> switch changes mathTeX's
default <a href="#dpidirective">screen resolution</a>
of <b>\"120\"</b> dots-per-inch, which you enter as a string.
<a href="#dpidirective">Some samples</a>
are illustrated above. </dd>
<dt> <a name="gammaswitch"> </a> <b>–DGAMMA=\"2.5\"</b> </dt>
<dd> The <b>–DGAMMA</b> switch changes mathTeX's
default <a href="#gammadirective">gamma correction</a>
of <b>\"2.5\"</b> (for dvipng), which you enter
as a string. <a href="#gammadirective">Some samples</a>
are illustrated above. </dd>
<dt> <a name="quietswitch"> </a>
<b>–DQUIET</b> or <br>
<b>–DNOQUIET</b> or <br>
<b>–DNQUIET=</b><i>n</i> </dt>
<dd> If any "! LaTeX Error:" is emitted while
processing your expression, mathTeX's default replies
<Enter> to the first three errors, and then
replies "x", halting LaTeX before it produces a .dvi file.
Compiling mathTeX with <b>–DQUIET</b>
replies "q" to the first error, making LaTeX enter batchmode,
whereas compiling with <b>–DNOQUIET</b>
replies "x" to the first error, halting LaTeX immediately.
Compiling mathTeX with <b>–DNQUIET=</b><i>n</i>
replies <Enter> to the first <i>n</i> errors, and then
replies "x".
User expressions may contain <a href="#quietdirective">
<b>\quiet</b>, <b>\noquiet</b> or <b>\nquiet{</b><i>n</i><b>}</b></a>
to override any compiled default. </dd>
<dt> <a name="refererswitch"> </a>
<b>–DREFERER=\"</b><i>domain</i><b>\"</b> or <br>
<b>–DREFERER=\"</b><i>domain1,domain2,etc</i><b>\"</b> </dt>
<dd> If you compile mathTeX without a
<b>–DREFERER=\" \"</b> switch, then anyone on
the internet can use your mathtex.cgi program by writing a url
of the form
<b>http://www.</b><i>yourdomain</i><b>.com/cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?x^2+y^2</b>.
So you're essentially providing mathTeX as a free
<a href="#webservice">web service</a>. I encourage this if
you have the compute and disk resources to spare. </br>
Otherwise, if compiled with
<b>–DREFERER=\"</b><i>domain</i><b>\"</b>, then mathTeX
performs a case-insensitive search of the environment variable
HTTP_REFERER to verify that it contains the authorized
<i>domain</i> as a substring. <br>
Or, if given a comma-separated list
containing several <i>domain</i>'s</i> (second
form of the switch), then HTTP_REFERER must contain either
<i>domain1</i> or <i>domain2</i>, or <i>etc</i>, as a
(case-insensitive) substring. <br>
If HTTP_REFERER doesn't contain a substring
matching any of these <i>domain</i>(s), then mathTeX emits the
error message image (reporting HTTP_REFERER on the first line) <br>
<img src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\invalidreferer\small\sqrt{a^2+b^2}"
alt="" border=0> <br>
instead of the requested image. </dd>
<dt> <a name="killtimeswitch"> </a>
<b>–DKILLTIME=10</b> </dt>
<dd> Some expressions can unintentionally (or not) force LaTeX
to loop endlessly, causing mathTeX to hang. To avoid this problem,
if LaTeX fails to complete within KILLTIME seconds, mathTeX
kills it and emits an error. The built-in code for this purpose
is in mathTeX's timelimit( ) function, which was adapted from
<a href="http://devel.ringlet.net/sysutils/timelimit/"
target="_top">timelimit-1.4</a>.
Compiling mathTeX with <b>–KILLTIME=0</b>
places no timelimit restrictions on LaTeX whatsoever;
probably not a good idea. </dd>
<dt> <a name="timelimitswitch"> </a>
<b>–DTIMELIMIT=\"/</b><i>path</i><b>/</b><i>to</i><b>/timelimit\"
</b> </dt>
<dd> Rather than using mathTeX's built-in timelimit( ) code to
throttle LaTeX (see <a href="#killtimeswitch">–DKILLTIME</a>
immediately above), you may optionally install a standalone
copy of <a href="http://devel.ringlet.net/sysutils/timelimit/"
target="_top">timelimit-1.4</a> and use that instead.
Compiling mathTeX with a switch of the form
<b>–TIMELIMIT=\"$(which timelimit)\"</b>
uses your installed program instead of mathTeX's built-in
timelimit( ) function to throttle LaTeX.
</dd>
<dt> <a name="maxmsglevelswitch"> </a>
<b>–DMAXMSGLEVEL=999999</b> </dt>
<dd> If you're running mathTeX as a
<a href="#webservice">web service</a>,
you should probably compile it with the
<b>–DMAXMSGLEVEL=0</b> switch.
This sets the maximum verbosity allowed in a
<a href="#msgleveldirective">\msglevel{ } directive</a>.
At <b>9</b> and above, the work directory and files
temporarily created by mathTeX to run latex are left in place
as a debugging aid. These remain on your file system
unless manually removed. And remote users can't
access them, anyway. </dd>
<dt> <a name="usepackageswitch"> </a>
<b>–DUSEPACKAGE=\"</b><i>filename</i><b>\"</b> </dt>
<dd> The preamble of mathTeX's default LaTeX wrapper script
already contains \usepackage[latin1]{inputenc}, \usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{amsfonts} and \usepackage{amssymb}. All these packages
are used with every expression submitted to mathTeX for rendering.
And a specific expression may contain one or more
<a href="#usepackagedirective">
<b>\usepackage{ }</b> directive</a>'s
applied to that expression only.
However, if you want additional packages applied to every
expression, edit a file containing lines of the form <br>
<b>"\\</b>usepackage{color}<b>\n"</b> <br>
<b>"\\</b>usepackage{bm}<b>\n"</b> <br>
<b>"</b><i>etc</i><b>\n"</b> <br>
and place a corresponding
<b>–</b>DUSEPACKAGE=\"<i>filename</i><b>\"</b>
switch on mathTeX's compile line.
Every line in the file is enclosed in <b>"</b>quotes<b>"</b>,
contains a <b>\n</b> before the closing quote, and
all other backslashes are written as double-backslashes <b>\\</b>.
And note that, although <b>\</b>usepackage's are illustrated,
you aren't limited to them.
All directives from this file are just placed in mathTeX's preamble.
So you can modify the preamble any way you like. </dd>
<dt> <a name="newcommandswitch"> </a>
<b>–DNEWCOMMAND=\"</b><i>filename</i><b>\"</b> </dt>
<dd> Besides modifying the preamble, you may also
want to modify the LaTeX wrapper script's body,
particularly with (though not limited to)
<b>\</b>newcommand's.
Again, edit a file containing lines of the form <br>
<nobr> <b>"\\</b>newcommand{\\vec}[2]{\\left({#1}_1,\\ldots,{#1}_{#2}\\right)}<b>\n"</b></nobr> <br>
<!-- <b>"\\</b>newcommand{}{}<b>\n"</b> <br> -->
<b>"</b><i>etc</i><b>\n"</b> <br>
and place a corresponding
<b>–</b>DNEWCOMMAND=\"<i>filename</i><b>\"</b>
switch on mathTeX's compile line.
The same editing rules apply: every line in the file is
enclosed in <b>"</b>quotes<b>"</b>,
contains a <b>\n</b> before the closing quote, and all other
backslashes are written as double-backslashes <b>\\</b>. <br>
<b>\</b>renewcommand's in this file are
useful to disable LaTeX commands that might pose security risks
in mathTeX. For example, although Unix's /etc/passwd file
doesn't actually contain passwords, you probably don't want
users submitting expressions like <b>\</b>input{/etc/passwd}.
MathTeX already disables <b>\</b>input with <br>
<nobr> <b>"\\</b>renewcommand{\\input}[1]{\\mbox{[[$\\backslash$input\\{#1\\} illegal]]}}\n"</b></nobr> <br>
which just displays [[<b>\</b>input{file} illegal]]
when the user tries to <b>\</b>input{file}.
You may want to disable other commands as well. </dd>
<dt> <a name="adswitches"> </a> <font color="black">
<b>Advertising switches</b><font size=5>...</font></font> <br> </dt>
<dd style="margin-left:0em;"> The next two switches
set up a mathTeX web service that embeds advertising messages
along with rendered images. See
<a href="#webservice">mathTeX web service</a> above
for further discussion. </dd>
<dt> <a name="adfrequencyswitch"> </a>
<b>–DADFREQUENCY=0</b> </dt>
<dd> If ADFREQUENCY is defined as a positive number <b><i>n</i></b>,
then one request out of every <b><i>n</i></b> submitted to mathTeX
is randomly selected to be displayed along with a pre-defined
"advertisement". For example, if your expression is
<b>\large\int_0^xe^{-x^2}dx</b>, then the default
advertisement displays <br>
<a href="#preview"><img id="adswitch1" onclick="eqntext('adswitch1')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\large\advertisement
\int_0^xe^{-x^2}dx" alt="" align="middle" border=0></a>
instead of just
<a href="#preview"><img id="adswitch2" onclick="eqntext('adswitch2')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\large
\int_0^xe^{-x^2}dx" alt="" align="middle" border=0></a> <br>
See the <b>–DADVERTISEMENT</b> switch immediately below
for instructions to define your own advertisement replacing
my default. </dd>
<dt> <a name="advertisementswitch"> </a>
<b>–DADVERTISEMENT=\"</b><i>filename</i><b>\"</b> </dt>
<dd> To define your own advertisement, replacing my default
illustrated immediately above, edit a file containing lines
of the form <br>
<nobr> <b>"\\</b>begin{center}<b>\n"</b></nobr><br>
<nobr> <b>"\\</b>fbox{$<b>\\</b>mbox{<b>\\</b>footnotesize<b>\\</b>LaTeX{} rendering courtesy of}<b>\n"</b></nobr><br>
<nobr> <b>"\\</b>atop <b>\\</b>mbox{<b>\\</b>scriptsize http://www.forkosh.com/mathtex.html}$}<b>\\\\ \n"</b></nobr><br>
<nobr> <b>"\\</b>vspace*{-4mm}<b>\n"</b></nobr><br>
<nobr> <b>"</b> %%beginmath%% %%expression%% %%endmath%% <b>\n"</b></nobr><br>
<nobr> <b>"\\</b>end{center}<b>\n"</b></nobr><br>
Use the same editing rules as –DUSEPACKAGE and –DNEWCOMMAND
above: every line in the file is enclosed in <b>"</b>quotes<b>"</b>,
contains a <b>\n</b> before the closing quote, and all other
backslashes are written as double-backslashes <b>\\</b>.
Note <b>\\\\</b> at the end of the third line,
which LaTeX sees as <b>\\</b>. The entire example shows how my
default advertisement is defined. <br>
Your advertisement may consist of any valid
LaTeX commands you like. But it must somewhere contain the line <br>
<nobr> <b>"</b> %%beginmath%% %%expression%% %%endmath%% <b>\n"</b></nobr><br>
which is replaced by the user's expression, surrounded by whatever
math mode delimiters it specifies. The document remains in paragraph
mode, allowing <b>$ $</b> and
<b>\[ \]</b> to be placed wherever you like. <br>
Once mathTeX is compiled with your advertisement,
test it by submitting an expression like
<b>\advertisement x^2+y^2</b> containing the special
mathTeX
<a href="#advertisementdirective">\advertisement directive</a>,
which forces that
expression to be rendered with your advertisement. In this case
(and with my default advertisement message) we see <br>
<a href="#preview"><img id="adswitch3" onclick="eqntext('adswitch3')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\advertisement x^2+y^2"
alt="" align="middle" border=0></a> instead of
just
<a href="#preview"><img id="adswitch4" onclick="eqntext('adswitch4')"
src="../cgi-bin/mathtex.cgi?\png x^2+y^2"
alt="" border=0></a> <br>
regardless of your ADFREQUENCY value. </dd>
</dl>
<h3> <a name="shell">
Running mathTeX from the shell<font size=5>...</font></a> </h3>
<p> MathTeX is usually run by your web server as a cgi program,
obtaining its input expression from the query-string of an
html <img> tag. But you can also run mathTeX from your Unix
shell, supplying all input on the command line. For example,
<b>./mathtex.cgi "x^2+y^2" –o equation1</b>
renders an image of <b>x^2+y^2</b> in file <b>equation1.gif</b>.
And with the <b>–m 9</b> switch, it's
also useful for testing. </p>
<p> The complete command-line syntax for mathTeX is </p>
<pre>
./mathtex.cgi "expression" expression in quotes, e.g., "x^2+y^2",
| -f input_file or read (unquoted) expression from input_file
[ -o output_file ] write image to ouput_file instead of cache
[ -m msglevel ] verbosity of debugging message level
[ -c cache_directory ] path to cache directory
"expression" Either place LaTeX expression directly on
the command line, between "quotes", with no -switch
preceding it, or.....
-f input_file .....read (unquoted) expression from input_file.
The input_file may contain the expression on one line
or spread out over many lines. If -o is not also given,
it defaults to the same filename, e.g., -f expression.tex
produces output file expression.tex.gif unless an
explicit -o switch is given.
-o output_file write output gif or png image to this filename,
with .gif or .png extension added to it. If you want the
image file written in a directory other than your pwd,
then specify -o path/output_file instead.
-m msglevel 0-99, controls verbosity/message level for
debugging output. If msglevel>=9 then the temporary
directory containing latex-dvips-convert output is
not removed. This is your major debugging aid.
-c cache_directory If you specify -o output_file then no
cache directory is used (-c is ignored even if you supply it).
But if you don't specify -o output_file then mathTeX writes
the rendered image to a filename in its usual cache directory
path. This switch maintains the standard mathTeX filename
convention, but writes files into the specified cache directory
instead.
Test or Debugging Example:
./mathtex.cgi "\Large\frac1{\sqrt{x^2+y^2}}" -o equation1 -m 9
creates file equation1.gif and saves all the intermediate
work in temp subdirectory 673d88e172f77f0aafabf6d72e5777ba/
which is the MD5 hash of the input expression.
After the copyright notice, screen output from the above command
should look something like
mathTeX> running image: ./mathtex.cgi
mathTeX> input expression: "\Large\frac1{\sqrt{x^2+y^2}}"
mathTeX> working directory: 673d88e172f77f0aafabf6d72e5777ba/
mathTeX> output image file: equation1.gif
Production Example (same as above, but without -m 9):
./mathtex.cgi "\Large\frac1{\sqrt{x^2+y^2}}" -o equation1
creates file equation1.gif containing an image of
the expression (all intermediate work files are removed).
After the copyright notice, screen output from the above command
should look something like
mathTeX> input expression: "\Large\frac1{\sqrt{x^2+y^2}}"
mathTeX> output image file: equation1.gif
Redirect stdout to /dev/null if you don't want to see it.
</pre>
<!-- +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ GPL
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -->
<h2 id="gpl"> (5) GPL License </h2>
<font color="black">
<b>"</b><i>My grandfather once told me there are two kinds of people:<br>
    Those who do the work and those who take the credit.<br>
    He told me to try to be in the first group; there was much
less competition.</i><b>"</b><br>
Indira Gandhi, the late Prime Minister of India</font> <br>
<p> MathTeX's copyright is registered by me with the US Copyright Office,
and I hereby license it to you under the terms and conditions of the
<a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html" target="_top">GPL</a>.
There is no official support of any kind whatsoever,
and you use mathTeX entirely at your own risk, with no guarantee
of any kind, in particular with no warranty of merchantability. </p>
<p> By using mathTeX, you warrant that you have read, understood
and agreed to these terms and conditions, and that you possess
the legal right and ability to enter into this agreement
and to use mathTeX in accordance with it. </p>
<p> Hopefully, the law and ethics regarding computer programs will
evolve to make this kind of obnoxious banter unnecessary.
In the meantime, please forgive me my paranoia. </p>
<p> To protect your own intellectual property, I recommend
<a href="http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/circs/circ1.html"
target="_top">Copyright Basics</a> from The Library of Congress,
in particular <a href="http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ61.html"
target="_top">Circular 61</a>, Copyright Registration for
Computer Programs.
<!-- and similarly,
<a href="http://www.abanet.org/intelprop/comm106/106copy.html"
target="_top">Copyright Basics</a> from The American Bar Association. -->
Very briefly, download
<a href="http://www.copyright.gov/forms/formtxi.pdf">Form TX</a>
and follow the included instructions.
In principle, you automatically own the copyright
to anything you write the moment it's on paper. In practice,
if the matter comes under dispute, the courts look _very_ favorably
on you for demonstrating your intent by registering the copyright.
For example, courts will stop unauthorized use of unregistered
material, but monetary damages are awarded _only_ if you
register the copyright before infringement occurs. </p>
<!-- +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ CONCLUDING REMARKS
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -->
<h2 id="remarks"> Concluding Remarks </h2>
<p> I hope you find mathTeX useful. If so, a contribution to your
country's <a href="http://www.tug.org" target="_top">TeX Users Group</a>,
or to the <a href="http://www.gnu.org" target="_top">GNU</a> project, is
suggested, especially if you're a company that's currently profitable. </p>
<!-- +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ Footer across bottom of page
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -->
<hr size=4>
<table> <tr>
<td align="left" width="70%"> <font size=3 color="maroon"> <b>
<nobr>Copyright <font size=5>©</font> 2007-2009,
<a href="http://www.forkosh.com">John Forkosh Associates, Inc.</a>
</nobr><br>
email: <a href="mailto:john@forkosh.com">john@forkosh.com</a>
</b> </font> </td>
<!-- -->
<td align="left" width="30%">
<img src="../cgi-bin/mimetex.cgi?\blue{\small\rm You're the }
\Large\counter[mathtexcounters.log]
{mathtexcounters.txt:mathtex.html}\\[0]
{\small\rm visitor to this page.}" alt="" border=0 align=bottom> </td>
<!-- -->
</tr> </table>
</body>
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<script type="text/javascript">
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