Re: Mathjax and stmaryrd

[Christian Moe <mail@christianmoe.com>]

On 12/26/10 6:52 PM, Stefano Sabatini wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm editing an org file, and I need to use stmaryrd package for
> the embedded mathematics.
>
> So I'm setting this:
> #+LATEX_HEADER: \usepackage{stmaryrd}
> #+LATEX_HEADER: \usepackage{amsmath}
>
> which works just fine for the PDF/LaTeX rendering, but it's not
> working with Mathjax/HTML rendering.
>

According to the MathJax documentation, the AMSmath package is 
supported by an extension, but you may have to configure your MathJax 
installation to enable it.

http://www.mathjax.org/resources/docs/?tex.html

I don't think there's any way for Org-mode to tell MathJax to do this. 
If I understand the documentation, though, without configuration you 
can still make MathJax enable AMSmath by using a math *environment* 
defined by AMSmath, like \begin{smallmatrix} or \begin{subarray}. 
Haven't tried it.

> So I have two questions:
> * is it possible to make the Mathjax engine recognize and render
>    stmaryrd symbols? (And in general: is it possible to enable a
>    latex package?)

FWIW, I believe the general answer is no. MathJax is not a LaTeX 
installation. MathJax is implemented in JavaScript to render a subset 
of LaTeX commands (math commands, not general typesetting) with HTML 
and CSS. This subset does not include \input or \usepackage to load 
LaTeX packages (.sty files). It does include \newcommand, so if a 
macro you need can be defined with the macros already supported, that 
might work. Otherwise a MathJax extension would need to be written, 
and enabled in the MathJax configuration. If special fonts are needed 
that are not provided with MathJax (that might be the case for 
stmaryrd), you'd need to provide those too.

I'd get in touch with the MathJax developers if you need support for a 
specific package.

Yours,
Christian