How to add other languages to TeX

Question

In MediaWiki if you add in formulas non english text it cuts. For example if you write \text{щfбb} (щ and б russian (cyrillic) symbols) output will be fb not щfбb.

Answer 1

First of all if you have MediaWiki version lower than 1.18 then open file includes/Math.php and find (this code for version 1.16):

escapeshellarg( $wgTmpDirectory ).' ';
escapeshellarg( $this->tex ).' ';

and replace with:

escapeshellarg( $wgTmpDirectory ).' '; setlocale(LC_CTYPE, "en_US.utf8"); $cmd .=
escapeshellarg( $this->tex ).' '; setlocale(LC_ALL, "C"); $cmd .=

this needed because escapeshellarg cut UTF8 symbols. If you see in that place function wfEscapeShellArg instead of escapeshellarg then you need to set $wgShellLocale to en_US.utf8.

Second, download latest Math extension and extract math folder. Open file texutil.ml and find line:

"\\usepackage{cancel}\n\\pagestyle{empty}\n\\begin{document}\n$$\n"

add your alphabet:

"\\usepackage[russian]{babel}\n\\usepackage{cancel}\n\\pagestyle{empty}\n\\begin{document}\n$$\n"

Delete all files from your current math folder and upload files from extension. Open console, cd to math folder and do make:

$ aptitude install ocaml /* install ocaml if needed */
$ make

Also add to LocalSettings.php (change folder to yours):

putenv('HOME=/home/user');

Now new alphabet should work. ;)