Re: Math in texinfo files?

[Gavin Smith]

On Mon, Jan 13, 2020 at 9:40 PM Raymond Toy <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> I'm currently trying to write nice equations in some texinfo files.  I've 
> been using MathJax to generate the formulas for the html version of the doc.  
> However, since the TeX version of the doc doesn't use LaTeX, I have to either 
> have different formulas for the html version and TeX version.  Sometimes I 
> can use the same if I remember how to write a plain-TeX version that will 
> work in MathJax.  But LaTeX with AMSTeX is so much easier to get equations 
> arranged nicely.
>
> Any way to get that?  I'm assuming not since the TeX version really is just 
> plain-TeX.

Not really. Maybe some day Texinfo will have a LaTeX back-end but that
would only work for outputting to LaTeX, not for other formats.

The main difference as far as I am aware is that there is no such
command as \frac in plain TeX. Maybe you could get around this with
something like

@tex
\gdef\frac#1#2{{#1}\over{#2}}%
@end tex

(I haven't tested this). Of course, as you use more and more LaTeX
features, this approach becomes increasingly impossible.

> (Does any one really use plain TeX anymore?)

I have to use it to maintain Texinfo ;-) and of course anybody
developing LaTeX or its packages has to understand it (although AFAIK
LaTeX is not based on "plain TeX" per se), or any other "higher-level"
format like ConTeXt.