mimetex and mediawiki

email at:

crestfall AT gmail.com

We run Uncyclopedia on a server that doesn't have latex, so I had to hack up the mediawiki a little ugly. It's a dirty hack, but it works. It doesn't cache though, so try not to do this if you use math alot, or you get alot of hits.

How to use MIMEtex as a replacement for LaTeX if you are running MediaWiki on a server without LaTeX:

1. Download mimetex.

2. Follow the directions, and install it in your cgi bin. If you don't have cgi, you're screwed.

3. Test it, and write down the URL.

4. If you are running mediaWiki 1.4 something, visit the includes directory, and open math.php. Locate this function:

function renderMath( $tex ) {
global $wgUser;
$math = new MathRenderer( $tex );
$math->setOutputMode( $wgUser->getOption('math'));
return $math->render();
}

5. Comment out the return statement, using a # (at the start of the line) and change it to:

return "<img class='tex' src=\"http://yoursite/cgi-bin/mimetex.cgi?$tex\" alt=\"MathImage\">";

6. Enable TEX rendering in your localsettings.php. It's $wgUseTeX = false; becomes $wgUseTeX = true;

7. Have fun.