Install itex2mml with Homebrew

Project links

• Homepage

Commands and aliases

• itex2MML

Project history

Jacques Distler's project page describes itex2MML as a stream filter that reads text with embedded itex equations from standard input and writes text with MathML output to standard output. The package also includes Mac and Linux binaries, source code, Ruby bindings, Perl modules on CPAN, and Movable Type plugins.

The page credits Paul Gartside's original version and says Distler's version is greatly enhanced, with bug fixes and support for a larger subset of LaTeX and AMSLaTeX syntax. The Movable Type plugin ecosystem around itex2MML connects the command-line tool to mathematical blogging workflows from the early XHTML+MathML era.

Version 1.5 added inclusion of the original itex source as an annotation element in the generated MathML, making the source available programmatically. Version 1.6.1 is dated 2021-10-03 on the project page, and the CPAN MathML::itex2MML readme documents Perl bindings for the same conversion model.

Adoption history

The package's adoption was narrow but influential: mathematical bloggers, Movable Type users, Ruby and Perl users, and site maintainers who wanted semantic MathML rather than rasterized equations could add itex syntax to publishing pipelines.

Homebrew packaging keeps the standalone `itex2MML` binary installable for command-line filters and older publishing workflows even though browser and web-math practice later shifted toward client-side renderers and broader TeX-to-HTML pipelines.

How it is used

Typical usage is as a Unix filter: pipe text containing `$...$`, `\(...\)`, `$$...$$`, or `\[...\]` equations into `itex2MML` and receive XHTML/MathML-oriented output on standard output.

The surrounding ecosystem includes Ruby methods such as html_filter, filter, inline_filter, and block_filter, Perl modules MathML::itex2MML and MathML::Entities, and Movable Type text filters for posts containing itex equations.

Why package nerds care

itex2MML is a good package-nerd artifact because it is exactly the kind of tiny language filter that Unix packaging preserves: one executable, a specialist syntax, and a historical web standards niche.

It also captures a moment when MathML publishing required server-side filters, XHTML MIME-type care, and blog-engine plugins rather than a single JavaScript include.

Timeline

• 2003: The Movable Type plugin directory listed itex2MML v0.9 for math equations in entries.
• 2019: The project page dates Movable Type plugin version 2.0 to 2019-01-02.
• 2021: The project page dates itex2MML version 1.6.1 to 2021-10-03.
• 2021: CPAN distributed MathML::itex2MML 1.6.1 readme material for Perl users.

Related projects

• MathML is the output format and reason the package exists.
• Paul Gartside's original itex2mml work, Movable Type, RubyGems itextomml, CPAN MathML::itex2MML, MathML::Entities, Textile, Markdown, and Maruku all appear in the project's documented ecosystem.

Sources

• https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/itex2mml
• https://golem.ph.utexas.edu/~distler/blog/itex2MML.html
• https://golem.ph.utexas.edu/~distler/blog/itex2MMLcommands.html
• https://golem.ph.utexas.edu/~distler/code/itexToMML
• https://plugins.movabletype.org/itex2mml/
• https://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/MathML/MathML-itex2MML-1.6.1.readme