Can we get the improvement on maths equation support(ep_mathjax plugin) in etherpad-lite?

[akshat-g]

I am writing a research paper using etherpad-lite for collaboration with my fellow authors. I am familiar with most of the code base of etherpad-lite and used most of its plugins.
I found ep_mathjax plugin which provides equation facility to be not of much use for writing my research paper. ep_mathjax forms images from the latex and paste it on the editor. However we can only put equations at the starting of the line. I mean we cannot provide inline equation in the text like google docs. But may be Google docs might be using different approach for collaboration and not like etherpad where we use magic-dom ids to represent each line on the editor.

Can we here get the better approach to incorporate equations in the etherpad editor so it looks more natural? Right now Image integration for equations does not look to be much neat.

There are two features which I think should be there -

1. Inline equation support
2. Resizing of equation image

Also I was bugged that is image the only solution for equation? Also right now that * which is inserted for every image is also a problem. Sometimes that * mark becomes visible in the text editor.

Thanks

[JohnMcLear]

Thanks for filing this in the right place @akshat-g

It's on my todo list but as it's enhancement request it's very close to the bottom.

The two ways to make me focus time / effort on it are to either a) do more open source contributions of your own or b) fund my work.

[akshat-g]

@JohnMcLear - I have been tweaking around a lot with etherpad code base but have not still committed anything. I will surely look into the ways to enhance ep-mathjax plugin? Regarding your second option of funding your work, how can I go about it?

Also just one advice, Having used many plugins I have come to understand a general trend in most of the plugins of adding line-descriptor and insert * in place of the image. I want this mathjax plugin to be completely different from this pattern. Is there any way I can give Google docs like functionality for equations in etherpad?

Thanks

[JohnMcLear]

RE funding, you can email me for details.

The * is required. We're not trying to replicate Google Docs.

[akshat-g]

ok. So I guess we would have to stick to image functionality for equation support only.

[fanjin-z]

Any update on this thread? I think inline equation support would be very useful.

[JohnMcLear]

It's one of those where it's useful to have but just not within scope of my time to spend on this project Vs core parts of Etherpad ;\