5 ms·

Show HN: LaTeX Search – Quickly Lookup LaTeX Notation

67 points by itsarnavb 7y ago

kinkrtyavimoodh 7y ago
I tried to find nabla (∇) as it is a very common symbol in engineering. Tried 'differential', 'derivative', 'delta', even 'triangle', but didn't get it. Finally tried 'nabla'. Turns out it's just not there :(
- thomasahle 7y ago
  Arrows would be good to have too.
- rovr138 7y ago
  Proportional to is missing too. ‘propto’ ∝
- itsarnavb 7y ago
  Just added it. Thanks. I'll try to import a larger set of symbols soon, to fix the gaps.
itsarnavb 7y ago
Hello HN. I'm new to LaTeX. It was taking me a while to lookup common notation, so I took a lot longer (https://xkcd.com/1205 https://xkcd.com/1205), and built a search for it. I'll be using LaTeX over the next few months, and will be improving this page as I do. The project is also open source. Let me know what you think!
Ives 7y ago
Not all of the Greek letters seem to be in the database: a search for "Psi" doesn't reveal ... \psi ...
- Hydraulix989 7y ago
  Epsilon is also missing.
- itsarnavb 7y ago
  Thanks! Adding them right now!
  - itsarnavb 7y ago
    ...and done! :)
fock 7y ago
not to spoil the fun, but this is a lot better ;) you don't even have to remember all those pesky names http://detexify.kirelabs.org/classify.html http://detexify.kirelabs.org/classify.html
- sangel 7y ago
  ah, this is indeed quite neat. thanks for sharing.
- wenc 7y ago
  I've been using "detexify" since grad school which was a decade ago or so. It's by far the best tool for LaTeX I've ever used. You just have to draw the symbol and it uses pattern recognition algorithms to suggest the closest LaTeX keyword.
- itsarnavb 7y ago
  Yep, I've used it. It's amazing! I'm also adding a link to it on my page, so people can find symbols they don't yet know how to describe with text I felt that 'type and hit enter to copy' would be faster for my workflow, which is why I built this :D
- 19ylram49 7y ago
  Very neat. Thank you!
teddyh 7y ago
Is there a downloadable dump available, in case I or anyone else don’t want to reveal exactly what symbols we’re typing into our (possibly confidential) documents?
- gervase 7y ago
  It seems so: https://github.com/lunaroyster/LaTeX-search https://github.com/lunaroyster/LaTeX-search
- ivan_ah 7y ago
  You can run the app on localhost (see github link in sibling comment). Here is also another useful reference for LaTeX symbols: http://tug.ctan.org/info/symbols/comprehensive/symbols-letter.pdf http://tug.ctan.org/info/symbols/comprehensive/symbols-lette...
tmoertel 7y ago
Neat! An omission: I searched for "hat" and didn't find any results.
- itsarnavb 7y ago
  Thanks! Added hats :D
clircle 7y ago
Well, I'll be that guy. Searched for "rho", but it didn't find "varrho"
19ylram49 7y ago
This is why I dig HN. To the creator: Thank you for creating this!
- itsarnavb 7y ago
  Thanks! :D This made my day
mraza007 7y ago
This is definitely cool Why didn’t I think of this

67 points by itsarnavb 7y ago

I tried to find nabla (∇) as it is a very common symbol in engineering. Tried 'differential', 'derivative', 'delta', even 'triangle', but didn't get it. Finally tried 'nabla'. Turns out it's just not there :(

thomasahle 7y ago
Arrows would be good to have too.
rovr138 7y ago
Proportional to is missing too. ‘propto’ ∝
itsarnavb 7y ago
Just added it. Thanks. I'll try to import a larger set of symbols soon, to fix the gaps.

itsarnavb 7y ago

Hello HN. I'm new to LaTeX. It was taking me a while to lookup common notation, so I took a lot longer (https://xkcd.com/1205 https://xkcd.com/1205), and built a search for it. I'll be using LaTeX over the next few months, and will be improving this page as I do. The project is also open source. Let me know what you think!

Ives 7y ago

Not all of the Greek letters seem to be in the database: a search for "Psi" doesn't reveal ... \psi ...

Hydraulix989 7y ago
Epsilon is also missing.
itsarnavb 7y ago
Thanks! Adding them right now!
- itsarnavb 7y ago
  ...and done! :)

fock 7y ago

not to spoil the fun, but this is a lot better ;) you don't even have to remember all those pesky names http://detexify.kirelabs.org/classify.html http://detexify.kirelabs.org/classify.html

sangel 7y ago
ah, this is indeed quite neat. thanks for sharing.
wenc 7y ago
I've been using "detexify" since grad school which was a decade ago or so. It's by far the best tool for LaTeX I've ever used. You just have to draw the symbol and it uses pattern recognition algorithms to suggest the closest LaTeX keyword.
itsarnavb 7y ago
Yep, I've used it. It's amazing! I'm also adding a link to it on my page, so people can find symbols they don't yet know how to describe with text I felt that 'type and hit enter to copy' would be faster for my workflow, which is why I built this :D
19ylram49 7y ago
Very neat. Thank you!

teddyh 7y ago

Is there a downloadable dump available, in case I or anyone else don’t want to reveal exactly what symbols we’re typing into our (possibly confidential) documents?

gervase 7y ago
It seems so: https://github.com/lunaroyster/LaTeX-search https://github.com/lunaroyster/LaTeX-search
ivan_ah 7y ago
You can run the app on localhost (see github link in sibling comment). Here is also another useful reference for LaTeX symbols: http://tug.ctan.org/info/symbols/comprehensive/symbols-letter.pdf http://tug.ctan.org/info/symbols/comprehensive/symbols-lette...

tmoertel 7y ago

Neat! An omission: I searched for "hat" and didn't find any results.

itsarnavb 7y ago
Thanks! Added hats :D

clircle 7y ago

Well, I'll be that guy. Searched for "rho", but it didn't find "varrho"

19ylram49 7y ago

This is why I dig HN. To the creator: Thank you for creating this!

itsarnavb 7y ago
Thanks! :D This made my day

mraza007 7y ago

This is definitely cool Why didn’t I think of this