Mathematics tools

I have now tested latex on my (Windows) IIS server. No doubt you benefit from the better quality of the images rather than using the mimetex filter.

After searching this forum for help and playing around with the database and sql statements I finally just hacked the tex filter to get it to work.

This is how I got it to work:

Install MikTex.  $$\surd$$

(I picked up version 2.5 basic and the program installed itself in "C:\Program Files\MiKTeX 2.5").

Install Ghostscript.  $$\surd$$

(I chose GPL Ghostscript 8.56. I also installed GSview 4.8 but I'm not sure if I need this).

Install ImageMagick.  $$\surd$$

(I chose the binary for Windows: ImageMagick-6.3.3-5-Q16-windows-dll.exe).

I rebooted the server and opened Control panel -> System -> Advanced -> Environment variables -> System variables -> Path and checked that the binaries were known by the server: "C:\Program Files\ImageMagick-6.3.3-Q16;C:\Program Files\MiKTeX 2.5\miktex\bin;...". $$\surd$$

Both latex.exe and dvips.exe are in the MikTex path and convert.exe is in the ImageMagick path.

Now Moodle has to know that a new tex filter is to be used. I tried hard to alter the filter settings and to invoke sql statements to get things rigth but often resulted in putting the server to it's knees (and manually shut down latex.exe using 50% of the servers cpu).

For me the safe way was to hack the Moodle -> filter -> tex -> defaultsetting.php. Make a copy first. One never knows...  $$\surd$$

Change the following in line 10-12:

if (!isset($CFG->filter_tex_latexpreamble) or $force) {

set_config( 'filter_tex_latexpreamble', " \\usepackage[latin1]{inputenc}\n \\usepackage{amsmath}\n \\usepackage{amsfonts}\n \\RequirePackage{amsmath,amssymb,latexsym}\n");

}

with this:

if (!isset($CFG->filter_tex_latexpreamble) or $force) {

set_config( 'filter_tex_latexpreamble', " \\usepackage[latin1]{inputenc}\n \\usepackage{amsmath}\n \\usepackage{amsfonts}\n \\usepackage{amssymb}\n \\RequirePackage{amsmath,amssymb,latexsym}\n");

}  $$\surd$$

Change the following in line 38-49:

elseif (PHP_OS=='WINNT' or PHP_OS=='WIN32' or PHP_OS=='Windows') {

// note: you need Ghostscript installed (standard), miktex (standard)

// and ImageMagick (install at c:\ImageMagick)

set_config( 'filter_tex_pathlatex',"\"c:\\texmf\\miktex\\bin\\latex.exe\" " );

set_config( 'filter_tex_pathdvips',"\"c:\\texmf\\miktex\\bin\\dvips.exe\" " );

set_config( 'filter_tex_pathconvert',"\"c:\\imagemagick\\convert.exe\" " );

}

else {

set_config( 'filter_tex_pathlatex','' );

set_config( 'filter_tex_pathdvips','' );

set_config( 'filter_tex_pathconvert','' );

}

With this:

elseif (PHP_OS=='WINNT' or PHP_OS=='WIN32' or PHP_OS=='Windows') {

// note: you need Ghostscript installed (standard), miktex (standard)

// and ImageMagick (install at c:\ImageMagick)

set_config( 'filter_tex_pathlatex','latex' );

set_config( 'filter_tex_pathdvips','dvips' );

set_config( 'filter_tex_pathconvert','convert' );

}

else {

set_config( 'filter_tex_pathlatex','latex' );

set_config( 'filter_tex_pathdvips','dvips' );

set_config( 'filter_tex_pathconvert','convert' );

}  $$\surd$$

The blue text is the new settings.

Log on to Moodle and go to the Admin menu -> Modules -> Filters -> Tex Notations Setting and press the button 'Reset to defaults'.  $$\surd$$

Hopefully this works for you too.

Best regards

Morten