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Vanilla 1.1.10 is a product of Lussumo. More Information: Documentation, Community Support.
Added a budget of links from the FAQ to the Eunuch-Code Data-Bank.
For some odd reason, the TOC generator is not picking up the first heading — ???
I'm not sure why the TOC isn't picking up the first heading (does it on other pages), but from a page layout point of view, the TOC should come after the title. In this case, the first heading (Frequently Asked Questions) should be viewed as the title and thus not something that occurs in the TOC.
Can't be bothered to slurp back through the history to see who complained about the lack of mathlap and its friends, but it's installed now.
does it on other pages
No, it doesn't, which is why Urs writes a # Contents # header for it to eat.
Looking at the HowTo where the first header is included in the table of contents, I suspect that the TOC command does not include top level headers. Some experimentation needed here, I deem.
I think that it doesn't include a # header if there is only one such header on the page. If there are multiple # headers, then it includes all of them (eg SEAR), but probably if there is only one # header it assumes that to be a page title and thus not necessary to include in the contents.
Maybe it has something to do with Russell's ParaTocs …
OK, so we included a contents header why? Ah, because the contents won't show up at all if there is no header before them!
So is this an argument for making our headers start with ## instead of #, with a header # Contents to be ignored?
So contents are included with:
# Contents
* tic
{: toc}
I've gotten tables of contents without a header before them.
I'm thoroughy confused then. Do you know an example?
See differential logic.
Thanks, Jon. That doesn't match my experiments at the Sandbox; I'm officially confounded.
Use the source, Luke:
# If there is only one big header, then assume
# it is the master
if s.section_children.size == 1
s = s.section_children.first
end
The WebTeX link on the itex reference card is broken and I couldn't find a WebArchive copy — is there a replacement link?
Two things:
The FAQ contains guidance saying that if you have a question about something on the nlab, you should put a query block on that page. I think this guidance is outtdated, and David Roberts seems to agree. The FAQ should probably updated to say something more appropriate here.
This came up in a MathOverflow meta discussion about revising a MathOverflow help page which was even more out of date. That help page has a funny little proviso in it, which says:
MathOverflow is not the appropriate place to ask somebody to write an expository article for you. If you want somebody to write an article about some subject, you should make a stub on Wikipedia, make a query block on nLab, or make a request on PlanetMath.
Now, I’m not really sure, but it’s possible that all 3 of those suggestions are a bit disingenuous – if you really want somebody to write an article for you, I’m not sure there’s anywhere on the internet where ye can ask and receive like this. But anyway, what I want to ask here is:
Should the MathOverflow help page suggest that somebody looking for an exposition of a math topic somehow bring this up on the nlab / nforum rather than MathOverflow?
If so, what is the best way to suggest somebody make such a request on nlab / nforum?
Thanks for the alert. I didn’t even remember that this FAQ exists.
Regarding the item “Where do I ask a question?” (here): I have now removed most of what it said (it had more suggestions, which were all long outdated) and just left a pointer to the Forum.
I am not sure that we need to be more specific about the kind of question. If somebody really wants to ask that someone else writes an exposition for them, let them try, why not.
Fragen kostet nichts. as they said in the country I was born in. (Not sure if they still say it, asking questions is becoming increasingly discouraged there.)
Myself, in #16 I didn’t even remember that there is a page “FAQ”, and I haven’t been reminded of it since.
It’s not linked to from the HomePage and seems not to have been maintained much.
So, yes, as far as I am concerned: If there is anything worthwhile here not said at HowTo then best to add it there.
Deleted nonsense about iTeX, LaTeX, and MathML:
iTeX is a pure converter whereas LaTeX is a mixture of a converter and renderer (technically, latex is the rules for converting the input into pure TeX which is then rendered by tex, but since the conversion is also handled by tex, it can cheat and use information about the rendered output to reinterpret the input). Therefore getting the two to do exactly the same is never going to happen.
On the other hand, the aim is to keep iTeX as close as possible to standard LaTeX whilst keeping in mind that iTeX produces MathML.
Deleted the following material, which is no longer true (modern MathJax uses MathML and does not use images by default).
Many web sites “support” LaTeX by running it through a script which converts LaTeX equations to image files for display. While this produces acceptable results for many users, it is not true “support” for mathematics. Images can sometimes be hard to see, and the user cannot easily resize them or change their color or font, nor can software easily read them aloud to a blind user. In contrast, MathML is a markup language, like HTML, specifically designed to carry information not only about the display of mathematics, but its content and meaning. A suitable client application can resize MathML along with the rest of the page, change its color or font, or even read it aloud, making MathML a much more accessible way to display mathematics. See, for instance, this comment.
<div>
<p>Deleted the following material, which is no longer relevant:</p>
<h3 id="markdown1">How do I put math inside HTML?</h3>
<p>By default, the itex syntax <code>$...$</code> is disabled inside raw HTML. However, you can re-enable it by giving the HTML parameter <code>markdown="1"</code>. Thus</p>
<pre><code><table markdown="1"><tr><td>I can has $m^a_t \hbar$!!</td></tr></table>
</code></pre>
<p>produces</p>
<table>
<p><tr><td>I can has <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><msup><mi>m</mi> <mi>a</mi></msup><msub><mo stretchy="false">)</mo> <mi>t</mi></msub><mi>ℏ</mi></mrow><annotation encoding="application/x-tex">(m^a)_t \hbar</annotation></semantics></math>!!</td></tr></p>
</table>
<p>(Well, that <em>used</em> to work, but it seems to have broken along the way!)</p>
<p>At least for tables, you can also use the <a href="http://michelf.com/projects/php-markdown/extra/#table">PHP Markdown Extra</a> syntax inside which <code>$...$</code> works without a problem.</p>
<p><a href="https://ncatlab.org/nlab/revision/diff/FAQ/80">diff</a>, <a href="https://ncatlab.org/nlab/revision/FAQ/80">v80</a>, <a href="https://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/FAQ">current</a></p>
</div>
Deleted the following material, which is no longer relevant:
See this discussion.
Deleted the following material, which is no longer relevant:
Some users have personal areas of the n-Lab where they can have password protected pages and do work without fitting it into the rest of n-Lab. If you would like to have such an area, ask the steering committee.
Deleted the following section relocated to HowTo:
You can use HTML/XML/SGML character entity references. If the character you want has a mnemonic HTML name, like é for é, you can use that. Otherwise, you can use an SGML numerical code, like 㒫 for 㒫, that corresponds directly to Unicode. To look up the numbers for SGML characters, try the Unicode Character Names Index. Toby has a complete list of HTML and XML character entity references (or try the Unicode Databank pages listed below) with individual pages where you can check browser compliance (originally for when you couldn't take even things like ↔ for granted, but even now ‎ and   may be lacking). While you can use this technique for mathematical symbols too, it's best to do those in iTeX as explained above.
Moving the following section to HowTo:
You should, of course, include a link or URL to the page or pages that you wish to cite. You should also give the information about which version of the page you are citing, since pages change over time. The version number can be found as follows: look at the bottom of the page where it says “Back in time ( revisions)”; the current version number is .
You can link directly to the version you want to cite by using a url such as
http://ncatlab.org/nlab/revision/PageName/VERSIONNUMBER
We recommend that if you only include one URL, it be of the form show/PageName which will point to whatever version of the page is current when it is accessed. This is because pages generally improve over time, and whoever is following your reference ought to be taken to the best, up-to-date version of the page. Anyone who cares about finding the exact version of the page that you cited can figure out how to find it in the history.
On the other hand, if you can give two URLs (this would be cumbersome in a printed paper, but is possible with links on a web page), then it may be helpful to give the appropriate revision link as well as the show one.
All nLab pages now include a “Cite” link at the bottom of the page which produces a BibTeX entry in accord with the suggestions above.
Moving the following sections to HowTo, with new section titles:
The n-Lab has a spam filter that checks your IP against a blacklist. The blacklists used are maintained by spamcop.net and spamhaus.org. IPs are added to these lists if they are detected doing things usually associated with computers infected with viruses. There are instructions on the webpages for finding out if your IP has been added to these lists and what to do to remove your IP from them. Three things to point out are:
Sometimes something doesn’t work quite right with the software and it bails out. If you think that you were doing something that should work, please log the error message at the n-Forum. The more information that you log, the easier it is for us to debug. Useful information is: your IP, the time and date, and the URL that you were trying to access.
There is actually more information contained in the HTML source of the error message (“view source”): some errors can be down to malformed input when editing a page and that can help you fix it yourself.
Moving to HowTo with a new section title:
There are numerous ways you can help out and get acquainted with the community even if you don’t (yet) feel comfortable writing math publically on a wiki.
You can do lab elf duty, such as correcting typos and spelling errors, fixing links, creating links, creating redirects (there are many pages that still need redirects created for alternate and plural forms of the title), organizing pages, and so on.
You can ask questions (see previous question), and join discussions, at the nForum, and comment at the nCafe.
You can try writing small additions to existing pages, for instance a paragraph or two that helps explain something that puzzled you initially. If you aren’t entirely positive that what you wrote was correct, when you announce your edit at Latest Changes on the nForum, you can mention that you’re unsure and someone will usually reassure you or give a correction.
If you don't sign your edits, then they are attributed to the AnonymousCoward. We prefer that you sign your edits, but anonymous help is better than none at all, so that option is available to you.
Moving to HowTo with a new section title:
Instiki’s search uses regular expressions. That means you can do all sorts of fancy searches, but it also means that pages with special characters in their names are hard to search for. For instance, if you search for (n,r)-category you will come up with nothing, because Instiki interprets the parentheses as a regular expression grouping construct. To search for actual parentheses, you need to backslash them: search instead for \(n,r\)-category.
Deleting the following material, which is already present at HowTo:
Instiki’s philosophy is that the “Preview” button is the one labeled “Save”. If you don’t like the result, just click “Edit” again. Multiple edits by the same person within a 30 minute interval are collapsed into a single “edit” in the revision history.
One merit of this approach is that in the case when your preview was correct and doesn’t require re-editing, it saves you an extra click. Another is that it prevents you from ever forgetting to make the extra click.
Deleting the following material, which is no longer relevant. (List items indented by 3 spaces seem to work correctly now.)
There are several bugs (or “edge cases”) in the handling of lists by Maruku (the formatting filter used by Instiki). These include:
Yes, let’s delete this page.
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