Math rendering

ScaiWave renders math via KaTeX anywhere markdown does — chat bubbles, note preview, and a live in-editor preview while you're typing.

Delimiters#

Four supported delimiters; pick whichever fits:

Where it works#

• Chat bubbles — type math in the composer; renders on send.
• Note preview — same.
• In-editor live preview — while typing math in a note, the rendered equation appears in place. Move the cursor into the range → back to source mode for editing. Move out → back to rendered.

Inline-vs-display disambiguation#

$ is ambiguous with dollar amounts. ScaiWave applies the standard rule:

• $5 isn't math — a digit follows immediately.
• $ 5 isn't math — a space follows immediately.
• $x$ is math — neither.

So It costs $5 to $10 renders as written; the variable $x$ is positive renders the x as math.

Markdown interactions#

A common gotcha with math in markdown: underscores. $x_1$ is math ($x_1$); but markdown wants _1_ to be italic. ScaiWave extracts math from the source before markdown sees it, then re-injects the rendered HTML — so $x_1$ always renders correctly, regardless of whether your renderer would have eaten the underscores.

Copy-paste round-trip#

Right-click any rendered equation → Copy as source. The underlying TeX comes back. KaTeX annotates the rendered output with the original source so this works even after copy-pasting through non-ScaiWave intermediaries.

Error tolerance#

KaTeX is configured with throwOnError: false. A syntax error in your math renders the source as a red error box but doesn't break the surrounding content.

trust: false — \href, \includegraphics, and similar commands that could exfiltrate URLs are disabled. Plain math is fine.

Examples#

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Inline: the Pythagorean theorem $a^2 + b^2 = c^2$.

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

Multi-line:
$$
\begin{aligned}
\nabla \cdot \mathbf{E} &= \frac{\rho}{\varepsilon_0} \\
\nabla \cdot \mathbf{B} &= 0 \\
\nabla \times \mathbf{E} &= -\frac{\partial \mathbf{B}}{\partial t} \\
\nabla \times \mathbf{B} &= \mu_0 \mathbf{J} + \mu_0 \varepsilon_0 \frac{\partial \mathbf{E}}{\partial t}
\end{aligned}
$$

Code-fence interaction#

Math inside fenced code blocks is not rendered. Use a fence when you want the literal source:

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```
This won't render: $E = mc^2$
```

Where to go next#

• Create and organise notes.