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For some time I've looking for a simple editor, for writing mathematics, like the one I'm using right now on StackExchange.

My needs are as follows:

  1. live preview/rendering of what you are typing (you shouldn't press a 'compile' button for seeing the result of your markup)

  2. no control syntax needed like 'include' and other stuff that goes into categories meta/preamble/formatting.

I need something simple, where I can type in a problem without going through a lot of steps. It should be as fast as typing a question here on StackExchange.

Got any ideas?

jub0bs
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Shuzheng
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1 Answers1

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Any “Web 2.0” page should do, if you are able to include MathJax, I for example use a Wikimedia and a Wordpress that way; both offer preview, and if you have any CMS giving you live preview (saw that on an OLAT, though thats e-Learning), you have your live rendering.

Update: There are actually some sites, that use MathJax (and I focused on that, because their life rendering is quite awesome)

  • StackEdit.io a complete Editor for documents in the same MarkUp as on the StackExchange network
  • MathBin following the same Idea as PasteBin just for Math Text

A quite comprehensive list can be found on the MathJax homepage; i just checked a few of them. While the first for example works with $...$ it does not do \(...\) which the second one does. As far as I just checked, they both don't like to number equations but they both seem to load the amsmath extension of MathJax.

I think that is a good starting point, if you just want to type and see, the second might be better; in order to arrange documents and sync for example with your DropBox the first one might be a good idea.

Ronny
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  • So there is nothing like StackExchange, except if I use one of the web tools or program one myself ? However I would like to write LaTeX offline as well. – Shuzheng Dec 06 '13 at 09:09
  • (La)TeX is not meant for live rendering, though MathJax does try something like that in some cases. With your reference to SE, I thought you were searching for an online tool, hence the tipps. I'm not aware of an offline solution to live rendering TeX (or at least math formulae). The closest, as mentioned already above, might be LyX – Ronny Dec 06 '13 at 10:23
  • Now I've tried LyX and I think it is terrible. Could you recommend some online tool to do your math, save it on your local hard drive ? – Shuzheng Dec 07 '13 at 18:36
  • I extended my answer and looked at some examples. :) – Ronny Dec 07 '13 at 20:51