[BlindMath] mathpix cli

Wed Jul 12 08:34:02 UTC 2023

Hi all,

I have heard about Markdown a lot now. I am a LaTeX user as various of my
collaborators are. But what would according to your experience be a good
source to get an idea of what Markdown is, and how it relates to the LaTeX
language?

Many thanks,
Bert

On Wed, 12 Jul 2023 at 02:52, Vincent Martin via BlindMath <
blindmath at nfbnet.org> wrote:

> Amen!
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: BlindMath <blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Jonathan
> Godfrey
> via BlindMath
> Sent: Tuesday, July 11, 2023 5:21 PM
> To: Rich Caloggero <rjc at mit.edu>; Blind Math list for those interested in
> mathematics <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: Jonathan Godfrey <A.J.Godfrey at massey.ac.nz>
> Subject: Re: [BlindMath] mathpix cli
>
> Rich and all,
>
> You will not find any arguments from me that markdown is an extremely
> useful
> tool.
> I use markdown practically every working day of my life. All of my teaching
> materials are written in markdown so that they are shared in HTML which is
> the most convenient format for the sighted students to use. The result is
> that I proof-read all of my own work now, because it is finally possible to
> do so.
>
> I have not created an MS Word document or a LaTeX document for anyone
> else's
> use since before 2017. I must of course continue to use these file formats
> and processes but more often than not, they are pushed through pandoc to
> give me a cleaner consumer experience.
>
>
> I do question the need to develop yet another flavour of markdown though.
> I should point out that most of my markdown work uses a dedicated flavour
> of
> markdown (R markdown) but it is converted to regular markdown on its way to
> being HTML. The *.md file exists.
> The creators of R markdown needed to bring R to markdown without putting
> effort into processing markdown; they levered off pandoc from day 1.
>
> I also expect my students to use R markdown because it is smart
> professional
> practice. The side effect is that I have not paid anyone to read submitted
> assignment work or exams since 2021. (It took a while to change the
> university, but lockdowns were very helpful for killing off pen and paper
> exams)
>
> In order to show my students why they should use markdown, I demonstrate
> use
> of markdown, and I give them access to the raw content for everything they
> see.
> One of the key reasons I like to use R markdown is that I show how painless
> making a mistake can be. If I don't like something or my data changes, I
> just re-process all the work with the press of a button (batch file
> usually)
> and everything gets nicely updated, for me and the students.
>
> Gone are the headaches of copy and paste followed by wasted time spent on
> formatting. I'm working smarter and watching others who do not want to
> embrace modern practice work harder. In 2024, I will have the heaviest
> teaching load of the staff in my department. Why? Because I'm not
> relinquishing things that work well for me, and risking being given
> something that doesn't work so easily. When the next shuffle of work comes
> when a staff member retires/resigns, I will not be the one the team leader
> looks to for a  solution.
>
> Jonathan
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rich Caloggero <rjc at mit.edu>
> Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2023 2:01 AM
> To: Jonathan Godfrey <A.J.Godfrey at massey.ac.nz>; Blind Math list for those
> interested in mathematics <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
> Subject: Re: [BlindMath] mathpix cli
>
> curious to know what your objection to markdown code is in general. I **do
> not** want to start a flame war over this; just a curiocity.
>
>
> I've not studied MathPix Markdown, but I think the original markdown (as a
> quick way of writing HTML) is hugely helpful at least to me.  It's not only
> much easier to type, but because it's so compact, it's easy to edit and
> proofread via screen reader!
>
>
>
> On 7/11/2023 5:33 AM, Jonathan Godfrey wrote:
> > Is the mmd extension not also used for mermaid code? <sigh>
> >
> > Seems unfortunate these people used yet another mark down/up variant.
> >
> > I'm sure they won't be the last.
> >
> > Jonathan
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: BlindMath <blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Rastislav
> > Kish via BlindMath
> > Sent: Tuesday, July 11, 2023 9:29 PM
> > To: blindmath at nfbnet.org
> > Cc: Rastislav Kish <rastislav.kish at protonmail.com>
> > Subject: Re: [BlindMath] mathpix cli
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > the way Mathpix' PDF endpoint works is it converts the uploaded file to
> .mmd format i.e. the mathpix markdown, and renders it afterwards to docx,
> html, etc.
> >
> > There seem unfortunately to be no options to control the conversion now,
> unlike the text endpoint, which can even produce asciimath.
> >
> >
> > But you should try to contact the support in this regard, as it's
> > certainly an accessibility issue.
> >
> > I think the text endpoint does support converting into MathML, so they
> > should already have the tech stack, it should be just a matter of
> > implementation.
> >
> >
> > Best regards
> >
> >
> > Rastislav
> >
> >
> > Dňa 10. 7. 2023 o 23:01 Rich Caloggero via BlindMath napísal(a):
> >> Using mathpix CLI, when I submit a pdf and attempt to convert it to
> >> html, I get backa file which has no MathML in it; it appears to use
> >> SVG images. It also seems to use mathjax, but there are no script
> >> elements which load mathjax.
> >>
> >>
> >> I tried adding one by hand, but didn't seem to do anything.
> >>
> >>
> >> Looking at the CLI options, there doesn't seem to be any options to
> >> choose output format.
> >>
> >>
> >> When a colleague used the desktop app to convert, the output did seem
> >> to contain mathML, and it was indeed readable via NVDA+mathcat.
> >>
> >>
> >> What am I missing?
> >>
> >>
> >> Interestingly, I can use the webapp to upload and convert a pdf to
> >> HTML, and if I use the "generate speech" option in the settings, then
> >> it does seem to produce something which is sort of readable, but it
> >> is not mathML; it is a bunch of math blocks containing various output
> >> flavors, but all of them hidden except for svg. The svg container has
> >> aria-label="words representing the math expression as MathSpeak".
> >>
> >>
> >> What am I missing? Am I supposed to hand code mathjax configuration?
> >> Why doesn't the CLI allow me to choose this at conversion time?
> >>
> >>
> >> I must be missing something obvious!
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >>
> >> Rich Caloggero
> >> Accessibility Specialist
> >> Disability and Access Services
> >> Massachusetts Institute of Technology
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >> BlindMath at nfbnet.org
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> >> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> BlindMath:
> >> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindmath_nfbnet.org/rastislav.kish
> >> %40protonmail.com BlindMath Gems can be found at
> >> <http://www.blindscience.org/blindmath-gems-home>
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > assey.ac.nz BlindMath Gems can be found at
> > <http://www.blindscience.org/blindmath-gems-home>
> >
> >
> --
> Rich Caloggero
> Accessibility Specialist
> Disability and Access Services
> Massachusetts Institute of Technology
>
>
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