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What if Brilliant allowed users to read others' Latex codes?

Update: You can now view Latex codes by hovering over the equation. Read Seeing actual $$\LaTeX$$ for more details!

There's always all kinds of useful details on how to Latex to the best effect. We usually have to keep looking up Latex guides for those details. Very often, we see how others do something with Latex that we don't know how to do ourselves. What if Brilliant allowed users to view others' Latex codes, so that we can see for ourselves how they handled those useful details? Of course, we wouldn't be allowed to edit others' Latex codes, but what is the harm of seeing how it's done? Then we all can learn that much faster.

Note by Michael Mendrin
3 years, 5 months ago

MarkdownAppears as
*italics* or _italics_ italics
**bold** or __bold__ bold
- bulleted- list
• bulleted
• list
1. numbered2. list
1. numbered
2. list
Note: you must add a full line of space before and after lists for them to show up correctly
paragraph 1paragraph 2

paragraph 1

paragraph 2

[example link](https://brilliant.org)example link
> This is a quote
This is a quote
    # I indented these lines
# 4 spaces, and now they show
# up as a code block.

print "hello world"
# I indented these lines
# 4 spaces, and now they show
# up as a code block.

print "hello world"
MathAppears as
Remember to wrap math in $$...$$ or $...$ to ensure proper formatting.
2 \times 3 $$2 \times 3$$
2^{34} $$2^{34}$$
a_{i-1} $$a_{i-1}$$
\frac{2}{3} $$\frac{2}{3}$$
\sqrt{2} $$\sqrt{2}$$
\sum_{i=1}^3 $$\sum_{i=1}^3$$
\sin \theta $$\sin \theta$$
\boxed{123} $$\boxed{123}$$

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Sounds great!

It would be a boon for latex-beginners :)

- 3 years, 5 months ago

Yeah, like me.

- 3 years, 5 months ago

Haha. Even I thought of it when I joined the site, and started learning formatting. Ofcourse, one can't always ask a user, how did u do that? Rather, it would be quite nice to directly see what he/she typed .

I guess this post will get hundreds of reshares.

- 3 years, 5 months ago

Same pinch. HAHA.... BTW what rank did you grab in JEE Adv.?

- 3 years, 5 months ago

Hi Michael, thanks for the suggestion. This is on our (long) queue of wishlist features that we'd eventually like to build. We're not certain when we'll get to it, but our staff want it too.

Staff - 3 years, 5 months ago

Looking forward to it. I hope Brilliant will always have reason to keep busy.

- 3 years, 5 months ago

A very similar idea to how AoPS Forums can display the code if you click the $${\LaTeX}$$.

- 3 years, 5 months ago

I would like to suggest one more feature. Users should be able to post messages on other users' homepage. This would allow users to communicate with each other as well as will prevent the possibility of informing solutions through messages since messages of everybody would be visible to everybody.

- 3 years, 5 months ago

Its something which even I have been thinking.. I wish the staff allows it. It would be really helpful!

- 3 years, 5 months ago

Update: This is now available. See this note for more details!

Staff - 3 years ago

Just like AoPS. But doesn't matter much for me since I haven't posted anything yet :D

- 3 years, 1 month ago

I use mathmagic.

- 3 years, 3 months ago

I dont know why they disabled the MathJax menu. To my knowledge brilliant uses MathJax. There is right click and the view Latex code on many sites.

- 3 years, 5 months ago

@Megh Parikh in most parts of the site, we don't use MathJax for the actual rendering, because for many people it is too slow. We render the LaTeX on our servers and send it to the browser/app as an image. This makes the rendering of the page much faster (but also makes it a little tricky to show the original LaTeX markup...)

Staff - 3 years, 2 months ago

Instead, why not try online Latex code generators? Attached at the bottom is the site where I first learnt Latex. I find this site useful since you can see the codes as well as the results from the codes.

On a separate note, I personally don't think this is a good idea. Long solutions tendto be too messy to be read in raw Latex. But, if the feature is collapsible, then it wouldn't appear too messy so I don't see any harm in adding extra features to those who might want it.

URL: http://www.codecogs.com/latex/eqneditor.php

- 3 years, 5 months ago

You can go to mathquill.com on your computer (does not work well with mobiles) No need to learn any latex

- 3 years, 5 months ago

Yeah! That's a very nice idea!

- 3 years, 5 months ago

A constructive idea. I believe this would work great besides Brilliant's Latex help.

- 3 years, 5 months ago