New Mu extension

[GiovanniSalmeri]

I have published a new experimental extension Mu, which allows to write mathematical expressions with AsciiMath. Previously this was done with the Math extension, which now uses only the TeX/LaTeX syntax. A quick overview of the advantages and drawbacks of Mu (AsciiMath) vs Math (TeX/LaTeX):

• Advantage: AsciiMath is much easier to write and read in comparison to TeX/LaTeX
• Advantage: AsciiMath blends gracefully with Markdown, since it has been devised (before Markdown!) with the same principles in mind
• Advantage: Mu is much faster than Math (all is processed server-side, unless a KaTeX rendering is selected: see below)
• Possible advantage: probably AsciiMath is better for accessibility (Mu adds an "annotation" with the original expression to all rendered math)
• Drawback: AsciiMath is not widely known or used (alas)
• Drawback: AsciiMath does not cover all the possible math (but probably all the math at an undergraduate level)

Why the name Mu? "Mu" is the name of the Greek letter μ, which is he first of the (Greek) word "mathematics". I wanted a name as short as possible, so that shortcuts would be unobtrusive and easy to spell: [mu x=(-b+-sqrt(b^2-4ac))/(2a)] seems fine to me!

An option MuPreferKaTeX allows to use the KaTeX rendering instead of the (native) MathML rendering: the quality is slightly better, but this requires also the extension Math (and obviously the rendering is less fast).

Any comments appreciated!

[GiovanniSalmeri]

I have updated the extension. Now it has a very simple mechanism for numbering and cross-referencing expressions. Add a label as a second argument in order to number an expression, for example [mu ax^2+bx+c=0 #quad]; if you use the code syntax, write ```mu {#quad}. To refer to the expression, write [#quad]. A bit of CSS magic makes it clearer which expression is being referred to when the link is followed.