Malformed maths

Statac found maths in your writing, between dollar signs, but couldn’t make it into maths for the page. The message says what it found and points at the place to fix, such as a brace that is never closed or a command Statac doesn’t know.

What you’ll see

error  Malformed maths: Statac doesn't know `\fracc`
  More: https://statac.dev/e/malformed-maths/

In the terminal the message also names the file and line where there is one, and marks the exact text.

Why Statac stops

Statac can’t tell what maths it can’t read was meant to say: a command spelt wrong, a brace left out, or dollar signs that were never maths at all. Publishing what you typed would put the maths’ source in front of readers instead, so Statac stops rather than guess.

How to fix it

Look at the place the caret points to. Common causes:

• A command Statac doesn’t know, often one spelt wrong: \fracc for \frac. Writing lists what Statac’s maths covers.
• A { with no } to close it, or a \begin{cases} with no \end{cases}.
• An \end{...} naming another environment than the \begin{...} it closes.
• A command with less after it than it takes, such as \frac{1} with no second part.
• Two ^ or two _ on one thing, x^a^b. Put braces round what goes together: x^{a^b}.
• An \eqref to a label no equation on the page has.

Where the dollar signs were never maths, write a backslash before one: \$5.

Example

In content/post-1.md:

The area is $\frac{1}{2 b h$.

The { before 2 is never closed. Close it with }:

The area is $\frac{1}{2} b h$.

Its name

Name	malformed-maths
In the terminal	statac explain malformed-maths
To stop showing it	It stops the build, so it can't be quietened.