cocoaforge

Hello,

I would like to know how du plugin "latex" for adium works. And how i could use it.

Tanks

(Sorry for the english, I speak french)

Quentin

To make something in Adium get parsed as LaTeX, put it inside double-dollar-signs:

$$LaTeX$$

This requires that you have Equation Service installed: http://www.esm.psu.edu/mac-tex/EquationService/ .

Also, note that once something has been parsed in the Adium message window, you can click on it to make it revert to text.

There might be more setup involved, but I don't remember for sure... you probably have to log out and back in again after installing, if it doesn't work just to install.

You need to have LaTeX installed of course

Related Question: What do all of the plugins do and how do you use them?

There are dozens of plugins inside Adium, their purpose is to provide functionality, each a separate part, as seen in the list (Get Info -> Plugins)

The other person can't see the results of your Latex equation though, right? (Unless they use Latex as well.)

FredAkbar wrote:The other person can't see the results of your Latex equation though, right? (Unless they use Latex as well.)

Nope... IIRC it sends as a PDF, could be wrong though.

bgannin wrote:

FredAkbar wrote:The other person can't see the results of your Latex equation though, right? (Unless they use Latex as well.)

Nope... IIRC it sends as a PDF, could be wrong though.

In your build it probably does, Brian. Text only in releases... it tries to send over directIM (and usually fails) in development builds.

Incidentally, LaTeX is a math- and science-oriented typesetting language. For example, $$x^2$$ turns into a nicely-formatted x with exponent 2. It's REALLY handy for math-types (like me). However, you both need the Equation Service (above) AND a working LaTeX installation, which is nontrivial to install. It's tricky but worth it.

Just a question: why $$text$$?

Why not /latex{text}?

Because $$ ... $$ is the LaTeX standard for indicating that the stuff is to be formatted. It's second nature for me to use $$ ... $$ around math.

really?


Wasn't it $text$ instead?

I guess that's because then "I payed $20 but the price was $15" will become formatted in LaTeX

Heh, you have a good point about $ vs. $$. Both can be used in LaTeX, but in general, $ x^2 $ is inline formatting and $$ x^2 $$ is display-style (on a separate line, centered) mode. Yeah, we don't do that right, but single dollar-signs would be tricky to parse correctly.

Ok, perfect!

Tanks.

Quentin