Showing posts with label Blogger. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blogger. Show all posts

November 25, 2011

Just Testing Mathematics Setting with MathJax


I decided it would be a good idea to test out the instructions from my last post, where I explain how to put mathematics in your blog. This is fast becoming addictive, so I am going to have to sit on my hands for a while after this post.

A Cross Product Formula

\[\mathbf{V}_1 \times \mathbf{V}_2 =  \begin{vmatrix}
\mathbf{i} & \mathbf{j} & \mathbf{k} \\
\frac{\partial X}{\partial u} &  \frac{\partial Y}{\partial u} & 0 \\
\frac{\partial X}{\partial v} &  \frac{\partial Y}{\partial v} & 0
\end{vmatrix}  \]
That seemed to work, but I did notice a couple of glitches. So here are a few hints.
  1. After you paste in the HTML, consider typing a couple of characters ("xx" or similar) as a placemarker so that you can be sure where your blog text is being inserted in relation to the script calls (the scripts should be right at the start). It's usually a good idea to lay down a marker like this when switching between “compose” and “HTML” editing modes.
  2. If you want to put a formula in-line just write it with a dollar sign before and after. So
    and therefore $x^2$ cannot be zero
    will come out as:
    and therefore $x^2$ cannot be zero
  3. When TeX inputs are copied from the web, to avoid formatting confusion it is often better to either paste into the HTML edit mode, or paste into a text window and re-copy to lose the formatting before pasting into the compose edit mode.
  4. If at first you don't succeed, look for help among the TeX community. It is large, and many of its members are professional educators.
Just to test the application a little more throughly here are a few random examples lifted from the web. Did I mention I love the web?

Simple equations
\begin{equation}\label{eq1}
\sum_{i=0}^{i=10} \phi_i(3)
\end{equation}

\begin{equation}\label{eq2}
\int_{0}^{10} \phi_i(x)dx = 3
\end{equation}

\[
z \left( 1 \ +\ \sqrt{\omega_{i+1} + \zeta -\frac{x+1}{\Theta +1} y + 1}
\ \right)
\ \ \ =\ \ \ 1
\]

Multi-line equation

\[
\begin{align}
(a+b)^3 &= (a+b)^2(a+b)\\
&=(a^2+2ab+b^2)(a+b)\\
&=(a^3+2a^2b+ab^2) + (a^2b+2ab^2+b^3)\\
&=a^3+3a^2b+3ab^2+b^3
\end{align}
\]

The derivative is defined as

\begin{equation}
\frac{dy}{dx} = \lim_{\Delta x \to 0} \frac{\Delta y}
{\Delta x}
\end{equation}
\begin{equation}
f(x) \to y \quad \mbox{as} \quad x \to
x_{0}
\end{equation}
\begin{equation}
f(x) \mathop {\longrightarrow}
\limits_{x \to x_0} y
\end{equation}

Math with font-size set to 250%
\[
g\frac{d^2u}{dx^2} + L\sin u = 0
\]

While my testing can hardly be called exhaustive, I think I have provided as good a start as anyone could expect in the world of mathematical blogging. Good luck with yours!

May 21, 2009

Trying Again

I believe my typesetting confusion of recent days was due not, as I had feared, to my advancing years and inability to solve technical problems, but rather to a discrepancy between Blogger's preview and the final display of the blog, plus the absence of div tags.

The output of the program in Blogging Python Output: A Challenge should have displayed as
<__main__.MyCls object at 0x024217F0>
Let's see if this survives being saved and published, as so few have before it.

May 20, 2009

Blogging Python Output: A Challenge

I spent half an hour yesterday in a battle with Bogger, trying to get it to render the output of this Python 3 program:
class MyCls:
pass

obj = MyCls()
print(obj)
Unfortunately, despite batting to with HTML entities for less than and the like, and even changing all spaces to non-breaking spaces*, the best I seem to be able to do is:

<__main__.mycls>

It starts out looking OK, but once I preview it, or publish it, Blogger just throws away everything after the first space up to the closing angle. Who can tell me what I am doing wrong? Or is Blogger being unfair.

* don't even think about blogging the actual entity codes: they'll be mangled too.

[The program will run, producing slightly different output, under Python 2. I suspect Blogger will mangle that output too]

February 12, 2009

Blogger UI Mistake?

From the Blogger help database here's a list of keyboard shortcuts:
  • control + b = Bold
  • control + i = Italic
  • control + l = Blockquote (when in HTML-mode only)
  • control + z = Undo
  • control + y = Redo
  • control + shift + a = Link
  • control + shift + p = Preview
  • control + d = Save as Draft
  • control + p = Publish Post
  • control + s = Autosave and keep editing
  • control + g = Indic transliteration
I can't help feeling that it might be a mistake for the two entries I have marked in red to be so close. Especially when there's no "unpublish" button ...

April 17, 2008

Blogger Annoyances #319

Is this just me, or is there some trick I just haven't learned? I was reminded, yet again, when completing the previous post in this blog, that Blogger tagging is way less user-friendly and convenient than del.icio.us and other similar sites.

I wanted to tag the item with "mono", but alas I was foolish enough to tag a previous post with "monopoly". So when I enter "mono" the widget is already suggesting the auto-completion (see image), and when I type a comma, it completes the entry as "monopoly", the existing tag. I try entering an escape character—no good, the comma still completes it as the existing tag, as does a tab.



Eventually I let it complete as "monopoly" and then go back and delete the last four characters from the tag. I really dislike applications that insist they know better than me. Since tab expands the tag to complete as an existing tag, why the heck does a comma have to do the same thing? The real annoyance is: I have this ugly feeling that somewhere out there there's a programmer feeling really smart for having committed this atrocity. Someone, please tell me there's a sensible way to do this before I go mad.

September 27, 2007

Blogger is Buggered?

Well, three posts in a row about Blogger is a little unusual, but I think this is merited.

From time to time I amuse myself by following the "Next Blog" links to get an idea of what was going on in the blog stream. If today's experience is typical then about one blog in three is complete spam, obscured by a pop-up ad window and full of links to pornographic sites. It seems clear that nobody is exercising any kind of critical control over Blogger content, and frankly it's got to the point where I am no longer sure I want to be associated with it.

I've been a web use for a long time, and it saddens me to see a potentially fantastic medium ruined by the swarms of lowest-common-denominator advertiser scum. If this is "what the people want" then they are welcome to it. I really don't think Blogger are doing themselves any favors by letting this situation continue.

September 18, 2007

Blogger Hoses Notification Emails

Just to underline my feeling that Blogger is the poor relation at Google, the confirmation emails that come through to let me know that people have made comments have recently been mangled badly.

Formerly I would get a properly-formatted text email saying something like

ScW has left a new comment on your post "Innovate and Get Sued by Apple?":
...


Now instead I see stuff like:
New comment on  Blogger
Behind the Curve?.
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="----=_Part_28_25742053.1190124918523"

------=_Part_28_25742053.1190124918523
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Doug Napoleone has left a new comment on your post "Blogger Behind the Curve?":
I don't know what's happened, but I am pretty sure I haven't made any change to my email system that might be responsible. Of course, we never have, have we? I suppose it's possible I might be responsible, but I'd much rather blame Blogger. If nobody else is seeing this, however, then perhaps it is me. Am I alone, or have Blogger screwed up by inadequate testing?

Blogger Behind the Curve?

I am sure I wasn't the only one who greeted Blogger's acquisition by Google with enthusiasm. At last, I thought, I will be free of the editor applet, which has become rather tedious to use.

Alas not, though. While much has changed, and the AJAX-based layout editor is a great improvement, we are still left with a content editor that creates horrible HTML and whose toggle buttons easily lose synchronization with the editor's state.

A recent post by Paddy also highlights the fact that there is inadequate support for posting code. I realise this probably isn't a majority interest, but in this day and age you would think the the world's leading web company could do better.