The instructions for compiling TeX from scratch are a little daunting, and sometimes unclear (e.g., having to define printer settings). Here are my Linux instru

The instructions for compiling TeX from scratch are a little daunting, and sometimes unclear (e.g., having to define printer settings). Here are my Linux instructions for those who want to get core TeX up and running: https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/576314/2148 https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/576314/2148 Although TeX has many years of development effort behind it, the core functionality of converting macros to math glyphs is reasonably straightforward and can be accomplished in a few months---especially given that high-quality math fonts are freely available. Here's a Java-based TeX implementation that provides the ability to format simple TeX equations: https://github.com/DaveJarvis/JMathTeX https://github.com/DaveJarvis/JMathTeX The code supports neither vectors/matrices nor bracket sizing (PR welcome!): https://github.com/DaveJarvis/JMathTeX/issues https://github.com/DaveJarvis/JMathTeX/issues