itex Blosxom plugin

The itex plugin for Blosxom converts inline LaTeX-based expressions to MathML using Jacques Distler’s itex2MML filter. The plugin is based on his Movable Type plugin, included in the itex2MML distribution, and is designed to work well with the Markdown and MultiMarkdown plugins. See the itex command summary for a list of valid commands.

Example:

$$ e^x = \sum_{n=0}^\infty \frac{x^n}{n!} $$

renders as

e^{x} = \sum_{n = 0}^{∞} \frac{x^{n}}{n!} .

Download

The latest version is itex 2008–01–12.

Installation

The itex plugin requires the itex2MML binary. To compile it, first obtain the itex2MML source code, extract it, change to the itex-src directory, and run make. Then place the itex2MML binary where you would like it to stay (e.g., /usr/local/bin or ~/bin).

Next, place the itex plugin in your Blosxom plugins directory and make sure the $itex2mml variable points to the itex2MML binary.

Configuration

If you only want itex2MML to process certain entries, then install the meta plugin, set $use_meta to 1 and include meta-math: itex in the entry header. Otherwise, set $use_meta to 0 to process all entries. To enable numbering of \[..\]-style equations, set $num_equations to 1.

Usage Notes

If you plan to use itex along with Markdown (highly recommended), you will need to make sure the itex runs before Markdown. You can ensure this using Blosxom’s numeric plugin load ordering by prepending numbers to the itex and Markdown plugin filnames such that itex runs first (e.g., 50itex and 51Markdown).
Special care is required to include a literal $, \[, or \] in an entry. You cannot simply escape them. If the entry does not contain any math, the best option is to disable the plugin by enabling the use of metadata (by setting $use_meta to 1) and omitting the meta-math: itex tag for the entry. If the entry contains mathematics, you will need to use numeric character references: $ for $ and \[ for \[.