On Tue, Jan 14, 2020 at 10:42 AM Gavin Smith <gavinsmith0...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 13, 2020 at 9:40 PM Raymond Toy <toy.raym...@gmail.com> 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
