Render math as native MathML via Pandoc (offline support)

[srid]

Problem

Currently, math rendering requires client-side JavaScript loaded from CDNs:

• MathJax: cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/mathjax@3
• KaTeX: cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/katex@0.16.9 (CSS + JS + auto-render)

These are opt-in via <snippet var="js.mathjax" /> or <snippet var="js.katex" /> in page.headHtml. Generated sites cannot render math when viewed offline.

Proposed Solution

Use Pandoc's built-in --mathml support (writerHTMLMathMethod = MathML) to render TeX math as native MathML elements at build time.

Implementation

1. Set writerHTMLMathMethod = MathML in the Pandoc writer configuration
2. Pandoc will emit <math> MathML elements directly in the HTML output
3. No client-side JavaScript needed — browsers render MathML natively
4. Remove or deprecate js.mathjax and js.katex snippets (or keep as opt-in fallback)
5. Optionally add a small CSS snippet for MathML styling

Browser Support

Native MathML is supported in:

• Firefox (long-standing support)
• Safari (long-standing support)
• Chrome 109+ (January 2023)

This covers the vast majority of current browsers.

Benefits

• Generated site works fully offline
• No client-side JavaScript needed for math
• Faster page loads
• Math is part of the HTML document structure

Tradeoffs

• Very old browsers (Chrome < 109) won't render math correctly
• MathML rendering may look slightly different from MathJax/KaTeX