Feature add for issue #74

[JohannesHatke]

Hi, im sorry for being super inactive on this issue.

I cleaned up my fork and implemented almost everything mentioned in issue: #74
The only thing im not sure about is the mention of the preamble options. Thats a feature of apy i havent used and so i was not sure how i should implement that. I added the config options with the apropiate default though.

The '$$'/'$' couldn't be parsed easily with text.replace, so i just manually split the text, into latex/markdown parts.

I hope this is useful after being inactive for so long :)

[lervag]

Hi, im sorry for being super inactive on this issue.

No problem! Late is better than never!

The only thing im not sure about is the mention of the preamble options. Thats a feature of apy i havent used and so i was not sure how i should implement that. I added the config options with the apropiate default though.

My first impression is that what you've implemented should work fine. We might improve it later if we find that necessary.

The '$$'/'$' couldn't be parsed easily with text.replace, so i just manually split the text, into latex/markdown parts.

Sounds like a good approach! 👍🏻

I hope this is useful after being inactive for so long :)

Definitely!

[lervag]

I think the code looks more or less good; I only had minor comments. But I think we should also as a minimum add some documentation that explains what this does. E.g. here:

apy/README.md

Lines 105 to 132 in 28eda7d

	## Configuration
	`apy` loads configuration from `~/.config/apy/apy.json`. The following keys are
	currently recognized:
	- `base_path`: Specify where `apy` should look for your Anki database. This is
	usually something like `/home/your_name/.local/share/Anki2/`.
	- `img_viewers`: Specify a dictionary of image viewer commands. Each key is
	a file extension. The value is a command list, e.g. `['display', 'density',
	'300']` which specifies the command and its options to use for the
	corresponding key (file extension).
	- `img_viewers_default`: Specify the default command to show an image. Must be
	provided as a list of the command and desired options, such as `['feh',
	'-d']`.
	- `markdown_models`: Specify a list of models for which `apy` will use
	a markdown converter.
	- `markdown_pygments_style`: Specify the code highlight scheme to use for
	fenced code blocks in Markdown notes. See the [Pygments
	documentation](https://pygments.org/docs/styles/) for more details.
	- `pngCommands`/`svgCommands`: Set LaTeX commands to generate PNG/SVG files.
	This is inspired by the [Edit LaTeX build
	process](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/937148547) addon to Anki.
	- `presets`: Specify preset combination of model and tags for use with `apy
	add-single`.
	- `profile_name`: Specify which profile to load by default.
	- `query`: Specify default query for `apy list`, `apy review` and `apy tag`.
	- `review_show_cards`: Whether to show list of cards by default during note
	review

I think we need to explain the possible option values, as well as what the effects are.

Finally, if possible we should add some tests. That's a nice to have, though - so if you don't want to go there I can look into that myself.

[JohannesHatke]

Hey, I added some simple tests and found also found and fixed a small bug in the process.

[lervag]

Great, thanks! I'm merging this now. Thanks for the contribution!

[lervag]

Note, by the way, I made some small changes. The most important one is that I want to use consistent casing; I use snake case, not camel case.

[lervag]

Sorry, I have a couple of follow-up questions:

With latex_translate_mode = "off"

This is the original behaviour. It simply ensures that the mathjax borders like \[ ... \] and \( ... \) are properly escaped (if we don't do this, then the resulting html will be [ ... ] and ( ... ). Thus, this is a sensible thing to do in any case, right? I mean, even if you want to do additional translations?

With latex_translate_mode = "mathjax"

This will convert $$ ... $$ to \[ ... \] and $ ... $ to \( ... \). Thus, "mathjax" refers to the resulting type.

With latex_translate_mode = "latex"

This will convert [$$] ... [$$] to \[ ... \] and [$] ... [$] to \( ... \). Thus, "latex" refers to the original type. This is inconsistent with the
earlier naming.

Additional comments

The translation mode only works when translating from Markdown to the field HTML, it does not go the other way. This means it becomes unreliable when you use the apy review or apy edit features.

Conclusion

I think we need something better here:

• The "off" mode should always apply to avoid breaking support for any existing mathjax.
• We should have an option that specifies how to treat $$ and $ in markdown. It should either produce mathjax or classic latex [$$] and [$]. I propose markdown_latex_target = "mathjax" | "classic".
• markdown_latex_target should work both ways. If the value is "classic", then it should translate the field text when we generate Markdown, i.e. [$$] should become $$. And similar, if the value is "mathjax", then we transform \[ ... \] from the field html into $$ ... $$ markdown.

Please let me know what you think!

[lervag]

Ok, I've worked through this now and I think the current version should be much better. Please test and let me know what you think.

The main changes:

• The behaviour is controlled by a global option only. We don't allow to change the behaviour in the markdown files directly, as that will impose much more complexity with regard to keeping the states.
• The option is called markdown_latex_mode and has the values mathjax and latex. mathjax is the default, because most people will want to use that (I think).

[camoz]

Not involved in the PR but I read through this thread. Really cool that it works both ways now!

What you wrote in the 2 previous comments makes much sense IMO.

Thank you for putting effort into this even though (afaik) you don't use the feature yourself.

[lervag]

Thanks for the kind words!