Basic RFC(?): Enhance LaTeX Support: In-place Preview & Region-based Rendering

[SeniorMars]

I'd like to propose enhancing snacks.nvim's LaTeX support by implementing features inspired by Emacs' preview-latex package. Since snacks.nvim already has robust image rendering and region management, it seems like a perfect foundation for these features.

Current Status

snacks.nvim already provides:

• Image rendering via Kitty protocol
• File conversion pipeline
• Extmark management
• Document region handling

Proposed Enhancements

1. Treesitter Integration

   • Accurate LaTeX math detection using treesitter queries
   • Support for inline (\( ... \)), display (\[ ... \]), and environment math

2. In-place Preview

   • Render equations directly where they appear in text
   • Group multiple equations on the same line (as opposed to the row by row we have now)
   • Proper alignment and spacing preservation

3. Region-based Rendering

   • Preview selected regions
   • Buffer-wide preview capabilities
   • Section-based preview

4. Asynchronous Processing

   • Cache management

Technical Implementation

We can implement this by:

1. Adding LaTeX-specific treesitter queries
2. Enhancing the existing image placement system
3. Extending region functionality for LaTeX
4. Building on existing async capabilities

Questions

1. Would this enhancement fit snacks.nvim's scope and goals?
2. Should this be implemented as a new plugin?
3. Are there specific design considerations to maintain consistency?

Looking forward to your thoughts on this proposal.

TO BE CLEAR: I would be happy to try to implement all of this. Moreover, I'm interested in making these features for typst.

[SeniorMars]

#1318

[folke]

Sneak peek of what's coming:

• only renders what's visible, which solves the performance issue
• proper conceal mode (enabled by default for math expressions)
• inline rendering

[SeniorMars]

THANK YOU SO MUCH!