$\LaTeX$ syntax

The following section describes how to add equations written using $\LaTeX$ to your documentation. There are some differences between Julia 0.4 and 0.5 that need to be taken into account when reading this section of the manual. These differences are outlined in the next two sections.

Julia 0.4

Inline equations

Surround inline equations and mathematical symbols in $ characters, i.e.

Here's some inline maths: $\sqrt[n]{1 + x + x^2 + \ldots}$.

which will be displayed as


Here's some inline maths: $\sqrt[n]{1 + x + x^2 + \ldots}$.


Display equations

Use the same single $ characters to wrap the equation, but also add a newline above and below it, i.e.

Here's an equation:

$\frac{n!}{k!(n - k)!} = \binom{n}{k}$

This is the binomial coefficient.

which will be displayed as


Here's an equation:

This is the binomial coefficient.


Escaping characters in docstrings

Since some characters used in $\LaTeX$ syntax are treated differently in docstrings they need to be escaped using a \ character as in the following example:

"""
Here's some inline maths: \$\\sqrt[n]{1 + x + x^2 + \\ldots}\$.

Here's an equation:

\$\\frac{n!}{k!(n - k)!} = \\binom{n}{k}\$

This is the binomial coefficient.
"""
func(x) = # ...

To avoid needing to escape the special characters the doc"" string macro can be used:

doc"""
Here's some inline maths: $\sqrt[n]{1 + x + x^2 + \ldots}$.

Here's an equation:

$\frac{n!}{k!(n - k)!} = \binom{n}{k}$

This is the binomial coefficient.
"""
func(x) = # ...

Julia 0.5

The syntax from above, using $s, will still work in 0.5, but it is recommended, if possible, to use the following double backtick syntax instead since it avoids overloading the meaning of the $ character within docstrings.

Inline equations

Here's some inline maths: ``\sqrt[n]{1 + x + x^2 + \ldots}``.

which will be displayed as


Here's some inline maths: $\sqrt[n]{1 + x + x^2 + \ldots}$.


Display equations

Here's an equation:

```math
\frac{n!}{k!(n - k)!} = \binom{n}{k}
```

This is the binomial coefficient.

which will be displayed as


Here's an equation:

This is the binomial coefficient.


Escaping characters in docstrings

In the same way as in Julia 0.4\ characters in docstrings must be escaped using a \.

MkDocs and MathJax

To get MkDocs to display $\LaTeX$ equations correctly we need to update several of this configuration files described in the Package Guide.

docs/make.jl should add the python-markdown-math dependency to allow for equations to be rendered correctly.

# ...

deploydocs(
    deps = Deps.pip("pygments", "mkdocs", "python-markdown-math"),
    # ...
)

This package should also be installed locally so that you can preview the generated documentation prior to pushing new commits to a repository.

$ pip install python-markdown-math

The docs/mkdocs.yml file must add the python-markdown-math extension, called mdx_math, as well as two MathJax JavaScript files:

# ...
markdown_extensions:
  - mdx_math
  # ...

extra_javascript:
  - https://cdn.mathjax.org/mathjax/latest/MathJax.js?config=TeX-AMS_HTML
  - assets/mathjaxhelper.js
# ...

Final Remarks

Following this guide and adding the necessary changes to the configuration files should enable properly rendered mathematical equations within your documentation both locally and when built and deployed using the Travis built service.