LaTeX does not render when selfHosted

[pmeckoni]

When I use \(\LaTeX\), it does not render and instead gives an error in the browser console inspector when we use the selfHosted option.

[Params]
 selfHosted = true

However everything works well when I use

[Params]
 selfHosted = false

The error is

KaTeX auto-render: Failed to parse ` \LaTeX` with  ParseError: KaTeX parse error: Expected 'EOF', got '\LaTeX' at position 2:  \̲L̲a̲T̲e̲X̲
    a http://localhost:1313/js/katex.min.js:1
    expect http://localhost:1313/js/katex.min.js:1
    parseInput http://localhost:1313/js/katex.min.js:1
    parse http://localhost:1313/js/katex.min.js:1
    i http://localhost:1313/js/katex.min.js:4
    o http://localhost:1313/js/katex.min.js:1
    i http://localhost:1313/js/auto-render.min.js:1
    o http://localhost:1313/js/auto-render.min.js:1
    o http://localhost:1313/js/auto-render.min.js:1
    o http://localhost:1313/js/auto-render.min.js:1
    o http://localhost:1313/js/auto-render.min.js:1
    o http://localhost:1313/js/auto-render.min.js:1
    o http://localhost:1313/js/auto-render.min.js:1
    d http://localhost:1313/js/auto-render.min.js:1
    <anonymous> http://localhost:1313/post/adding-notes/:386
auto-render.min.js:1:1334
    i http://localhost:1313/js/auto-render.min.js:1
    o http://localhost:1313/js/auto-render.min.js:1
    o http://localhost:1313/js/auto-render.min.js:1
    o http://localhost:1313/js/auto-render.min.js:1
    o http://localhost:1313/js/auto-render.min.js:1
    o http://localhost:1313/js/auto-render.min.js:1
    o http://localhost:1313/js/auto-render.min.js:1
    d http://localhost:1313/js/auto-render.min.js:1
    <anonymous> http://localhost:1313/post/adding-notes/:386

[pmeckoni]

Additionally, I found that other latex environments also don't work (like the below sample doesn't work):

\begin{align} 
x &= y
\end{align}

I found the problem is related to the old version of KaTeX. The version available in layouts/partials/footer.html is referring to 0.10.0 which was released in 2018. The current KaTeX version is 0.13.11.

While upgrading to the latest version of KaTeX may be a solution, please try to move from KaTeX to MathJax. MathJax 2.x is superior to KaTeX, though slower. When MathJax 3 is completely released, we expect it to be faster than KaTeX. source.

So summarizing the issue:

1. KaTeX from CDN needs to be upgraded.
2. KaTeX on selfHosted needs to be upgraded.
3. Consider moving from KaTeX to MathJax.

[VincentTam]

I tested this with Firefox on Xubuntu but KaTeX was a bit faster.

[pmeckoni]

Yes KaTeX is faster. MathJax is more complete. Perhaps one way out is to provide both and let users to choose KaTeX or MathJax