Just the facts.
MathDown is a text editor designed for scientists, engineers, and students who need to write about math and see it work in real-time. It combines standard Markdown with a powerful evaluation engine.
Core Capabilities
- Rich LaTeX Rendering High-fidelity rendering of math expressions using standard LaTeX syntax.
- Live Evaluation Variables and functions are evaluated as you type. No compilation step.
- REPL Mode Use $$$ blocks for interactive scratchpad behavior. Define functions, expand terms, and see step-by-step simplifications.
- Syntax Highlighting Deep integration with the AST to provide accurate highlighting for both Markdown and Math.
Competition
| Feature | MathDown | Typora | MacDown |
|---|---|---|---|
| Live Eval | Yes | No | No |
| REPL Blocks | Yes | No | No |
| LaTeX | Rich | Rich | Basic |
| Cross-Platform | macOS/iOS | Desktop | macOS |
Technical Details
Evaluation System
The evaluation engine uses a custom visitor pattern to traverse the math AST. It supports:
- Expression simplification
- Variable substitution
- Function distribution (e.g.,
/expand)
Demo: REPL Behavior
$$$
let f(x) = (x + 1)^2
/expand f(x)
# Output: x^2 + 2x + 1
f(3)
# Output: 16
$$$
