# Consider setting use_math to true by default

@hamelsmu This is very minor but wanted to ask…

Having use_math: true in _config.yml. by default would be “one less thing” for people to need to remember to do in order to get started posting their work.

(As I just forgot to do, when setting up a new version of my blog.)

Is there a reason to keep math support disabled by default? Such as, is there a significant performance hit such that users who don’t want math support would be inconvenienced by having it enabled by default?

1 Like

I second this proposal.

1 Like

I copied this default setting from fast_template https://github.com/fastai/fast_template/blob/master/_config.yml#L18

Perhaps it might be good to ask @jeremy if there is any advantage to having it off by default.

Happy to turn it on, but want to check to be safe as I am still learning about Jekyll

2 Likes

Yes I think it’s best to turn it off, because only a very small proportion of blogs use equations, and it doesn’t make sense for every blog to have the js loaded if not used.

Also, folks that can write LaTeX can probably change a config setting

1 Like

fastpages (as well as nbdev) uses KaTeX. It seems that it does not support equation numbering.

For those needing equation numbering, keep use_math: false in _config.yml and add e.g. in _layouts/notebook.html the following MathJax scripts:

<script type="text/x-mathjax-config"> MathJax.Hub.Config({ TeX: { equationNumbers: { autoNumber: "all" } } }); </script>
<script type="text/x-mathjax-config">
MathJax.Hub.Config({
tex2jax: {
inlineMath: [ ['$','$'], ["\$","\$"] ],
processEscapes: true
}
});
</script>
<script src="https://cdn.mathjax.org/mathjax/latest/MathJax.js?config=TeX-AMS-MML_HTMLorMML" type="text/javascript"></script>


2 Likes