Not the expected output

[quark67]

On section 2.1.3 of the manual (at http://mirrors.ctan.org/macros/generic/markdown/markdown.html#latex), I use the provided code:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{markdown}
\begin{document}

\begin{markdown}
$\sqrt{-1}$ *equals* $i$
\end{markdown}

\begin{markdown}[texMathDollars]
$\sqrt{-1}$ *equals* $i$
\end{markdown}

\end{document}

Expected output (according to the manual):

(yes, this is the display in my browser, see below, at the end!)

Real output:

But the real expected output is (if I understand correctly):

What is wrong? If I misunderstand anything, please add some information in the manual, thanks.

Why is this manual in HTML form? The output of pdfLaTeX (and other engines) is PDF, so PDF is probably a better format for the manual. With PDF output, there is no problem: the PDF is always the same. Here, the Safari browser wrongly display the mathml code (which is strange, because the page https://webkit.org/demos/mathml/MathMLDemo.xhtml is correctly displayed).

In the web inspector:

Comparison on the webkit page:

Perhaps because <msqrt> is the right tag for square root, and <mroot> is for cubic root etc. And embedding in is wrong? See the usage of <mroot> here: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/MathML/Element/mroot, and the usage of <msqrt> here: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/MathML/Element/msqrt.

Conclusion: the PDF format is more safe.

But, more important: how to obtain the right output with LaTeX?

[Witiko]

Thank for the detailed report.

Why is this manual in HTML form? The output of pdfLaTeX (and other engines) is PDF, so PDF is probably a better format for the manual. [...] Conclusion: the PDF format is more safe.

The choice of the formats was deliberate. There are two parts to the documentation:

1. The technical documentation is a heavy-duty document with detailed information for developers and advanced users.
2. The user manual is a website with lots of examples for ordinary users.

For each part of the documentation, a different format was chosen:

1. The technical documentation is in the PDF format. The PDF format is robust and more appropriate for long documents such as the technical documentation.
2. The user manual is in the HTML format. The HTML format allows for a responsive design that is easier to display on a wide variety of devices. Furthermore, the HTML format makes it easier to persistently link specific sections of the user manual.

I am sorry that the math is displayed incorrectly in your browser. I will be happy to fix it.

But, more important: how to obtain the right output with LaTeX?

The syntax \begin{markdown}[texMathDollars] is only available in Markdown 3 that is currently only available in TeX Live 2024 pretest. Here is a corresponding syntax for Markdown 2 that I suspect you are using:

\begin{markdown*}{texMathDollars}
$\sqrt{-1}$ *equals* $i$
\end{markdown*}

[quark67]

The syntax \begin{markdown}[texMathDollars] is only available in Markdown 3 that is currently only available in TeX Live 2024 pretest. Here is a corresponding syntax for Markdown 2 that I suspect you are using:

\begin{markdown*}{texMathDollars}
$\sqrt{-1}$ *equals* $i$
\end{markdown*}

Yes! It works! Thanks.

[Witiko]

@quark67 In #422, I removed <mroot>...</mroot> from the user manual. Here is the updated user manual. If you could verify that the square root is correctly displayed in Safari, I would appreciate it.

[quark67]

Yes, thanks, it's correct yet!

Great!