Any LaTeX cowboys out there?
 

LaTeX is an open source typesetting software. I'm mainly looking to use it so I can create nice quality math formulas that can be transmitted online via Jpegs or Pdfs.

I downloaded the MikeTEX software and I'm looking at this tutorial:

https://www.latex-tutorial.com/

I'm having difficulty figuring out how to do what they call "compiling." After you have your code typed into a tex file on the composition page, you compile it into a PDF file and that's how you get your finished product. Not sure why I'm having such difficulty getting this one down. It might be my general slowness, I'm not sure.

Here's an example what you can produce:

http://rogercortesi.com/eqn/tempimagedir/eqn6596.png

The hyphens mean nothing, I was just separating the two bits in the file where I was keeping them.

I got the above finished product from this page:

Roger's Online Equation Editor

It's useful, but you only have a small window in which to paste the code you want to translate.

The TEX composition page would be much more useful.

the LaTex editor you are using should have a built in compiler that will take the code and transform it into the pdf.

a compiler takes the human readable code and "compiles" or composes it into machine code so the computer can run it or in your case, generate elegant formulas.

Try one of the front end editors

(I'd refrain from doing an image search of "Latex front end" though just in case...)

Latex! What a name for the damn thing. I just got the first textbook in a series put up by the developer, Donald Knuth. Copyright 1970. Cost me about seven bucks including shipping on eBay. It's amazing that it has survived so well, and has been adapted to new computer tech.

You would sure think so. I keep thinking I must be doing something wrong. I'll look a little harder, maybe I can find a chat room that'll help me out.

I haven't used it myself, but I've read some positive comments about LyX as a front end, particularly for mathematical equations.