It'd be useful at times to be able to write mathematical notation in posts. Math plays a big role in cartography and graphics, even if we don't always use deal with the math directly. Sometimes the math does become a direct issue and it would be nice to have some support when it does.

There's a Javascript library called MathJax which can add math notation rendering easily. It looks for LaTeX math notation in the page and converts it to nicely typeset math. It provides a fallback system with checks for mathematical fonts, uses CSS font download to provide them if they aren't, and has image based fonts as a backup, and it can use MathML for layout if the browser supports it or uses HTML and CSS otherwise.

I've tried it out quickly with Greasemonkey, and it seems to work just fine with the Guild's site.

For instance $\sum^n_{k=1}k=\frac{n(n+1)}{2}$

2. This is one of those times when I'm left scratching my head by something you said Hai-Etlik

I suppose I could go find this MathJax and see if it fills me in. I am however left thinking if you typed in the formula above then what do you need with the add on? Unless this is one of those GIS things I haven't tried yet?

3. Originally Posted by Jaxilon
This is one of those times when I'm left scratching my head by something you said Hai-Etlik

I suppose I could go find this MathJax and see if it fills me in. I am however left thinking if you typed in the formula above then what do you need with the add on? Unless this is one of those GIS things I haven't tried yet?
It would turn the messy looking LaTeX notation I wrote into mathematical notation. http://tauday.com/ is a good example of MathJax in action. Try it with Javascript on and off.

4. Looks like it's working to me

5. Originally Posted by Arcana
Looks like it's working to me

-Rob A>

6. Ok, strange..
In Firefox 10.0.2 I keep getting a popup that states:

MathJax no longer loads a default configuration file; you must specify such files explicitly. This page seems to use the older default config/MathJax.js file, and so needs to be updated. This is explained further at

http://www.mathjax.org/help/configuration
That's not a big deal but for whatever reason the whole website is all goofy looking. It's as if it's in some generic form and I can't navigate it at all. I am able to use the website fine in Safari, which is what I am doing now.

Anyone else having any issues? Basically, I'm being forced to use another browser right now and I prefer not to.

7. Hmmm 10.0.2 here and it looks fine !

8. 10.0.2 on Win7 and all is fine here.

-Rob A>

9. That's weird, it looks like that's supposed to happen if the config parameter isn't given, but it's right there

HTML Code:
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://cdn.mathjax.org/mathjax/latest/MathJax.js?config=TeX-AMS-MML_HTMLorMML"></script>

10. [Problem solved see *EDIT at bottom if interested.]
Well, this morning everything looks like it should instead of the "generic" non-layout I had last night. However, on every page in the lower left corner I do get a white pop-up box that is blank.

edit: On closer inspection the words are just white and very pale yellow and still read:
MathJax no longer loads a default configuration file; you must specify such files explicitly. This page seems to use the older default config/MathJax.js file, and so needs to be updated. This is explained further at

This seems like a server side message so I'm not sure why I am seeing it. As some of you may know I recently rebuilt my machine with a new version of Win7 home premium. I believe the last patch I ran a few days ago was something for Adobe. I'm thinking maybe I'm just missing something on my machine except that when I looked up the message it said it's not my problem.

*EDIT: I got it – I realized I should try tossing my cookies, hehe. So I hit Ctrl-F5 and then a script error message popped up. I attempted to continue and a little box down in the left corner was trying to load Mathjax. It never got past 0% and eventually the popup came back. I just closed it and then closed and reopened the browser again and it seems to be fine. I am reminded that I did get a message the other day while doing a restart that a script was hung. Perhaps that was the script and it was just botched.

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