What are the ## latex symbols?

[BruceW]

what are the ## latex symbols??

hi all,
I was wondering, whenever I quote someone's equations, it comes up something like \$\frac{x}{y}\$ with these \$symbols... But I have been using \[itex\]\frac{x}{y}\[/itex\]. So what are these \$ symbols all about? Are they equivalent to [itex] ?

p.s. I've used \[itex] and \## so that the computer doesn't just turn it into latex

 

[jtbell]

Yes, the two are equivalent on PF. Similarly \[tex] amd \$$ are equivalent.

 

[Fredrik]

Yes, they are equivalent to itex tags. It's kind of a shortcut. Similarly, you can type two dollar signs instead of an opening or closing tex tag. Edit: D'oh. I'm always too slow.

 

[BruceW]

ah, thanks dudes. /## is much easier to type than /[tex]
I wonder if I can use
$$\begin{equation} \frac{x}{y} \end{equation}$$
ah, guess not.

 

[Fredrik]

That one works when I copy and paste it.
$$\begin{equation} \frac{x}{y} \end{equation}$$ It also works without any tags at all. (The begin and end are sufficient).
\begin{equation} \frac{x}{y} \end{equation} Maybe MathJax was confused by the /## and /[tex] earlier in your post? Let's try it again.
$$\begin{equation} \frac{x}{y} \end{equation}$$
Yes, that seems to be the problem.

 

[BruceW]

oh cool, thanks.
$$\begin{equation} \label{eq:practice} \frac{x}{y} \end{equation}$$
I also tried to label it, but it did not do any automatic label numbering (of the equation). I guess that would be part of some latex package which is not included for the latex of this site. (or something like that. I'm not so knowledgeable about this kind of stuff). It's no problem really, I was just trying it out to see.

I labeled it $\ref{eq:practice}$