Greasemonkey script for inserting math in gmail

Question

I wish an easy way to communicate mathematical equations with gmail.

There's a javascript script called AsciiMath, which should translate Tex-like equations into standard mathML.

I thought that it would be nice to use this script with GM. I thought that before sending the email, this script would convert all the TeX-like equations in your email to MathML. Thus the reader which is using FF (or IE with MathPlayer installed) would be able to easily read those equations.

Ideally, I wish to somehow keep the original TeX-like equations in a plain-text message, so that it would be readable by plain text email clients, such as mutt.

Obviously the weakest link here is the client software, which most likely doesn't support MathML. Still if my correspondent is using Firefox and some kind of webmail (which is pretty reasonable) - it should work.

My question is, is it possible? Did anyone do that?

Do you see any technical problems with this approach (gmail filtering the MathML, client not parsing it correctly etc.)?

Any smarter ideas?

Ret

Answer 1

GmailTeX does exactly what you want. It is pure javascript so it works in Firefox, Chrome, Opera.

Antietam

Awesome! That guy taught my Calc 2 class. – Voyeur

That webpage now only links to a Chrome extension. I'm not seeing any way to use it with Firefox. – Theorize

Answer 2

What about using texify and converting it just to a html image or a link to that image? This would save some work with parsing and converting the tex math code and wold work fine even with simple mail clients.

Doggoned

Most clients would, by default, block images linked with other websites. And it would make all your correspondence depend on textify. This is possible, if I'll find out most email clients show the alt-text instead of the image by default. Thanks. – Ret

texify.com no longer allows direct hot-linking of images; I use code.google.com/apis/chart/docs/gallery/formulas.html now. – Psalmody

Answer 3

As far as I can figure out, GmailTeX (suggested in the top answer) does not work in Firefox anymore.

I can suggest the browser plugin MathQuill for Gmail (also exists for Chrome), which allows to edit formulas within the Gmail compose window, and converts them into pictures. (Like GmailTeX in concept, but with an interactive editor.)

Disclaimer: I am the author of the plugin.

Amboina

Answer 4

Depending on whom you communicate with the easiest solution is sometimes to email raw tex.

Monocot