input mathematical equation !?

[Rex_chaos]

hi all,
I am going to write a forum for math and physics' discussion with php. In my forum, there is a whitebroad for people to write down mathematical equations if necessary. However, i don't want to use a text character to represent the mathematical sign. I have two ideas(not really good).

1) prepare some images corresponding to some useful sign and create a coding system for input. But this approach will limit the number of the sign as well as the qualification.

2) allow people to write a latex command and call the local interpreter for compilation. Then a pdf is returned and shown. However, I am worry about the efficiency.

Does anyone give me any suggestion on this project? I am looking forward to your reply.

Thanks in advance.

[planetsim]

Use BBcode so.. say

so

[plus] [equal]

or something like that.

Should output
+ =

But thats just something. Im sure you can just let the write it down.

Validate it or something.

[Rex_chaos]

i have searched on the internet an found that BBCODE can only input some formatted text or image, etc . Can it also use to input mathematical sign like phi, delta and so on?

thanks