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## Re: Math in texinfo files?

 From: Raymond Toy Subject: Re: Math in texinfo files? Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2020 13:03:58 -0800

On Tue, Jan 14, 2020 at 10:42 AM Gavin Smith <address@hidden> wrote:
On Mon, Jan 13, 2020 at 9:40 PM Raymond Toy <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> I'm currently trying to write nice equations in some texinfo files.  I've been using MathJax to generate the formulas for the html version of the doc.  However, since the TeX version of the doc doesn't use LaTeX, I have to either have different formulas for the html version and TeX version.  Sometimes I can use the same if I remember how to write a plain-TeX version that will work in MathJax.  But LaTeX with AMSTeX is so much easier to get equations arranged nicely.
>
> Any way to get that?  I'm assuming not since the TeX version really is just plain-TeX.

Not really. Maybe some day Texinfo will have a LaTeX back-end but that
would only work for outputting to LaTeX, not for other formats.

The main difference as far as I am aware is that there is no such
command as \frac in plain TeX. Maybe you could get around this with
something like

@tex
\gdef\frac#1#2{{#1}\over{#2}}%
@end tex

Yeah, instead of defining this, I just converted the formula to use \over for both TeX and LaTeX.  This works.

(I haven't tested this). Of course, as you use more and more LaTeX
features, this approach becomes increasingly impossible.

Although I haven't had to use it yet, but amstex makes formatting math much easier for complicated cases.  I guess if I want not to duplicate formulas, I'll have to learn plain TeX to do math and use it for both.  Googling for math stuff almost always points to LaTeX and/or AMSTeX solutions, not plain TeX.

> (Does any one really use plain TeX anymore?)

I have to use it to maintain Texinfo ;-) and of course anybody
developing LaTeX or its packages has to understand it (although AFAIK
LaTeX is not based on "plain TeX" per se), or any other "higher-level"
format like ConTeXt.

--
Ray