leaving potentially inconvenient history behind

2022-02-16 15:54:47 +10:00

18 KiB

Raw Blame History

title: >- Writing and Editing Documentation # katex

Pandoc Markdown

Much documentation is in Pandoc markdown, because easier to write. But html is easier to read, and allows superior control of appearance

To convert Pandoc markdown to its final html form, invoke Pandoc by the bash shell file ./mkdoc.sh, which generates html.

In the windows 10 environment, shell scripts used in this project need to be associated with Git Bash or run from within Git Bash.

If the title in the markdown file is followed by # katex, as in the markdown form of this file, the shell script will tell Pandoc to display any formulae using katex in the html file.

More precisely, if any of the first three lines in the yaml header specifying the title at the start of the markdown file are # katex, the ./mkdoc.sh will tell Pandoc to use katex to display maths formula.

This vast pile of notes is out of control, and writing code and maths in html leads to intolerable overheads.

Hence markdown, the popular markdown conversion program being the open source Pandoc.

Markdown converters are apt to throw a flood of incomprehensible html code into your final document, taking low level html control away from the writer.

Pandoc, however, will allow you to take control. To integrate html and css with markdown using Pandoc is a bit like rolling marbles with your elbows through a cage. One has to work through and around the entry points that Pandoc gives you, while if you were writing in html you could just write what you damn well wanted directly, but having done the work, Pandoc can then ensure it is done for every document in the same style in the same way, and you can change the final form of every document in the same way all at once.

Sphinx is very popular and widely used, and written in the far more accessible language python, but to access the power of html, css, and JavaScript one must write a Sphinx theme, and the creation of a Sphinx theme is less than well documented and appears to be subject to change.

Visual Studio Code theoretically does automatic generation of the html equivalents of markdown files, but I never was able to get it working satisfactorily.

Pandoc has a number of powerful extensions that allow integration of html and markdown, among them markdown native mode divs :::

::: {style="…"}
	…
:::

And native mode spans […]{style="…"}

Which extensions do not work correctly in Visual Studio Code.

These can be used to put an anchor in text, but the easiest and most intelligible way to insert an anchor is as a header.

Pandoc can do a good job of rendering math markdown without invoking katex, and in such cases, one should generate the html

fn=filename
 pandoc --toc --eol=lf	--wrap=preserve --from markdown+ascii_identifiers --to html --metadata=lang:en --verbose --include-in-header=./pandoc_templates/header.pandoc --include-before-body=./pandoc_templates/before.pandoc --include-after-body=./pandoc_templates/after.Pandoc -o $fn.html $fn.md

Since markdown has no concept of a title, Pandoc expects to find the title in a yaml inline, which is most conveniently put at the top, which renders it somewhat legible as a title.

Thus the markdown version of this document starts with:

---
title: >-
	Writing and Editing Documentation
# katex
---

Converting html source to markdown source

In bash

fn=foobar
git mv $fn.html $fn.md && cp $fn.md $fn.html && pandoc -s --to markdown-smart --eol=lf --wrap=preserve --verbose -o $fn.md $fn.html

Math expressions and katex

Pandoc can render most maths markdown without needing katex, for example:

{e}^{i\pi}+1=0

a=b+c

f(x) = x^2

\sin(\pi/6) = 0.5

\int_a^b f(x) dx

\int_a^b \tan(x) dx

\int \sin(x) dx = \cos(x)

\sum a_i

\lfloor{(x+5)÷6}\rfloor = \lceil{(x÷6}\rceil

\lfloor{(x+5)/6}\rfloor = \lceil{(x/6}\rceil

Using Omicron, \bigcirc, not capital O for big \bigcirc. \Omicron will not always compile correctly, but \ln and \log is more likely to compile correctly than ln and log, which it tends to render as symbols multiplied, rather than one symbol.

\ln(1+x)=x-\bigcirc(x^2)

H(a|b|v)

though it is subtly prettier with katex, and some maths expressions will break Pandoc unless one tells it to use katex.

Some maths, Pandoc needs katex:

\sin(\frac{\pi}{6}) = \frac12

\displaystyle\frac{u(x)}{v(x)}

Inline equation \displaystyle\sum\limits_{i=1}^n i^2 = \frac{n(n+1)(2n+1)}{6} text after inline equation

\displaystyle\sum\limits_{i} i^2 = \frac{i(i+1)(2i+1)}6

The square root of 100 is \sqrt{100}=10.
The cubic root of 64 is \sqrt[3]{64}=4

\bigg\lfloor\frac{x+5)}{6}\bigg\rfloor = \bigg\lceil{\frac{x}{6}}\bigg\rceil

So for documents requiring some heavy maths display, we convert from markdown to html with, in the bash script ./mkdoc.sh:

fn=filename
pandoc --katex=./ --toc --eol=lf  --wrap=preserve --from markdown --to html --metadata=lang:en --verbose --include-in-header=./pandoc_templates/header.pandoc --include-before-body=./pandoc_templates/before.pandoc --include-after-body=./pandoc_templates/after.pandoc -o $fn.html $fn.md

The ./ tells pandoc to expect to find the files

./katex.min.css
./katex.min.js

That a file needs katex is flagged for ./mkdoc.sh in the yaml header.

A file that does not need katex has the header:

---
title: >-
	Document title
---

But if it does need katex, it has the header

---
title: >-
	Document title
 # katex
---

So that the bash script file ./mkdoc.sh will tell Pandoc to find the katex scripts.

For it offends me to put unnecessary fat in html files.

overly clever katex tricks

k \approx \frac{m\,l\!n(2)}{n}%uses\, to increase spacing, uses \! to merge letters, uses % for comments

k \approx\frac{m\>\ln(2)}{n}%uses\> for a marginally larger increase in spacing and uses \ln, the escape for the well known function ln

 \exp\bigg(\frac{a+bt}{x}\bigg)=\huge e\normalsize^{\big(\frac{a+bt}{x}\big)}%use the escape for well known functions, use text size sets

k\text{, the number of hashes} \approx \frac{m\ln(2)}{n}% \text{} for render as text

\def\mydef#1{\frac{#1}{1+#1}} \mydef{\mydef{\mydef{\mydef{y}}}}%katex macro

diagrams

The best way to do diagrams is Inkscape and the Visual Studio Code scalable vector graphics extensions.

I decided to place the data directly inline in markdown because interfacing scalable vector graphics files (svg files) to html can get complicated, and interfacing the resulting complicated html to markdown can get more complicated.

Which means that any time I want to edit the svg, I have to extract it into a temporary svg file, edit it in Inkscape and Visual Studio Code, minify it in Visual Studio Code to get rid of all confusing mystery cruft inserted by Inkscape, edit it back into markdown compatible form, and reinsert it in the markdown file.

Which assumes my images, once done, are rarely or never going to change.

Scalable vector graphics are dimensionless, and the <svg> tag's height, width, and ViewBox properties translate the dimensionless quantities into pixels. The graphics default to fixed aspect ratio, and anything outside the viewbox is not drawn. To adjust your image's position within the viewbox, you put everything into a single big group, and apply a translate to that group.

You need to set an Inkscape tools properties from an existing element that you have manually edited as text, as a great deal of functionality is only available by editing vector graphics as text, and attempting to manipulate that functionality from Inkscape, though in theory possible, just creates an uncontrollable mess.

Every so often, a tool's properties get set to something stupid for some stupid reason, and there is no fix available in the Inkscape UI, other than selecting a graphic element, double clicking on the tool, and telling it to take its defaults from the element selected. (which can be an entire group, or the entire high top level group, in which case it will pick up sane and appropriate properties from the first relevant item in the group.)

And how did you set those sane and relevant properties in the first place?

By editing that element as text, very likely in your markdown file.

The enormous advantage of scalable vector graphics is that it handles repetitious items in diagrams beautifully, because you can define an item by reference to another item, thus very large hierarchical structure can be defined by very small source code.

Scalable vector graphics is best edited as text, except that one needs to draw lines and splines graphically, and in the process, all your nicely laid out text gets mangled into soup, and has to be unmangled.

You might decide to keep it around as soup, in an svg file that only Inkscape ever tries to read, but then you are going to have to edit it as text again. And I wound up embedding my vector graphics files in markdown rather than invoking them as separate graphics files because my last step was apt to be editing them as text.

It is convenient to construct and position all the graphical elements in Inkscape, then edit the resulting svg file in Visual Studio Code with the svg extension, watching the resulting graphic in the svg editor's preview pane, then use the svg extension's minify command to get rid of all the excess stuff generated by Inkscape, then edit the svg file to be compatible with Markdown, then edit it into the markdown file, then edit the markdown file in the Visual Studio Code markdown editor, watching the graphic in the markdown preview pane.

<svg
	xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"
	width="29em"  height="12em"
	viewBox="40 60 60 50"
	style="background-color:ivory">
	<g  id="startblocks"
		font-family="'Times New Roman'" font-size="5"
		font-weight="400"
		stroke-width="2"
		style="text-decoration:underline; cursor:pointer;" >
		<line x1="22" y1="70" x2="28" y2="100" stroke="lightgrey"/>
		<rect style="fill:#FFFF00;"
			x="12" y="64" width="36" height="20">
			<animate attributeType="XML" attributeName="y"
				from="64" to="120"
				dur="5s" repeatCount="2" restart="always" />
		</rect>
		<text style="fill:blue;"  x="14" y="74">
			<animate attributeType="XML" attributeName="y"
				from="74" to="130"
				dur="5s" repeatCount="2" restart="always" />
			start animation
		</text>
	</g>
	<rect x="60" y="64" width="20" height="20">
		<animate attributeType="XML" attributeName="y"
			from="64" to="120"
			dur="5s" repeatCount="3" restart="whenNotActive"/>
	</rect>
	<g
		font-family="'Times New Roman'" font-size="5"
		font-weight="400"
		stroke-width="2">
		<path fill="none" stroke="#00f000"
			d="M14.629 101.381c25.856-20.072 50.69-56.814
			54.433-18.37 3.742 38.443 40.484 15.309 40.484 15.309"/>
		<ellipse cx="60" cy="85" rx="12" ry="5" style="fill:red" />
		<text  x="60" y="82" text-anchor="middle"  style="fill:#A050C0;" >
			A simple scalable vector graphic
			<tspan x="60" dy="8">
				directly embedded in markdown.
			</tspan>
		</text>
	</g>
</svg>

<script>
	document.getElementById("startblocks").addEventListener
	(
		"click", evt =>
		{
			document.querySelectorAll("animate").forEach
			(
				element =>
				{
					element.beginElement();
				}
			);
		}
	);
</script>

# tables

 <table border="1" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" width="95%">
      <tbody>
        <tr>
          <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #99CC66;
	text-align:center;">May Scale of monetary hardness </td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td style="text-align:center;"><b> Hardness</b> </td>
          <td> <br/>
          </td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td colspan="2" style=" text-align:center;">Hard</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td class="center"><b>1</b></td>
          <td>Street cash, US dollars</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td class="center"><b>2</b></td>
          <td>Street cash, euro currencies, japan</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td class="center"><b>3</b></td>
          <td>Major crypto currencies, such as Bitcoin and Monaro</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td class="center"><b>4</b></td>
          <td>Street cash, other regions</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td class="center"><b>5</b></td>
          <td>Interbank transfers of various sorts (wires etc),
              bank checks</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td class="center"><b>6</b></td>
          <td>personal checks</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td class="center"><b>7</b>
            </td>
          <td>Consumer-level electronic account transfers (eg
              bPay)</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td class="center"><b>8</b></td>
          <td>Business-account-level retail transfer systems</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td colspan="2" style=" text-align:center;">Soft</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td class="center"><b>9</b></td>
          <td>Paypal and similar 'new money' entities, beenz</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
         <td class="center"><b>10</b></td>
          <td>Credit cards</td>
        </tr>
      </tbody>
    </table>

Tables

Pipe table with header and alignment control

Without counting spaces, but without multiline

Pipe table:

Right	Left	Default	Center
12	12	12	12
123	123	123	the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog
1	1	Carrian Corporation	1

And, with less mucking about, alignments

with alignment, without counting spaces, but without multiline

fruit	price
apple	2.05
pear	1.37
orange	3.09

multiline without bothering with pipes

Counting spaces to align. Only editable in fixed font

This allows multiline, but visual studio code does not like it. Visual Studio Code only supports tables that can be intellibly layed out in visual studio code.

Centered Default Right Left Header Aligned Aligned Aligned

First row 12.0 Example of a row that spans multiple lines.

Second row 5.0 Here's another one. Note the blank line between rows.

The header may be omitted in multiline tables as well as simple tables

Notice the alignment is controlled by the first item in a column

In this table, edited in a fixed font, you are using whitespace and blank lines to lay out the table. It is unintellible in a variable width font.

First row 12.0 Example of a row that spans multiple lines.

Second row 5.0 Here's another one. Note the blank line between rows.

Grid tabless are safer, hard to count spaces

Allows multiline, and alignment, but visual studio does not like it, and you still have to count those spacees

+---------------+---------------+--------------------+ | Fruit | Price | Advantages | +===============+==============:+====================+ | Bananas | $1.34 | - built-in wrapper | | | | - bright color | +---------------+---------------+--------------------+ | Oranges | $2.10 | - cures scurvy | | | | - tasty | +---------------+---------------+--------------------+ | Durian | $22.10 | - king of fruits | +---------------+---------------+--------------------+

Alignments can be specified as with pipe tables, by putting colons at the boundaries of the separator line after the header.

+------------+---------+---------------------+ | Left | Right | Centered | +:===========+========:+:===================:+ | Bananas | $1.34 | - built-in wrapper | | | | - bright color | +------------+---------+---------------------+ | Durian | $22.10 | - king of fruits | +------------+---------+---------------------+

For headerless tables, the colons go on the top line instead:

+--------------:+:--------------+:------------------:+ | Right | Left | Centered | +---------------+---------------+--------------------+

18 KiB Raw Blame History

Pandoc Markdown

Converting html source to markdown source

Math expressions and katex

overly clever katex tricks

diagrams

Tables

Pipe table with header and alignment control

And, with less mucking about, alignments

multiline without bothering with pipes

Second row 5.0 Here's another one. Note the blank line between rows.

The header may be omitted in multiline tables as well as simple tables

Grid tabless are safer, hard to count spaces

For headerless tables, the colons go on the top line instead:

18 KiB

Raw Blame History