Is it possible to include invisible code in a post?

Question

I wanted to include a diagram in an answer, but Mathjax doesn't support TikZ. I therefore wrote the TikZ code in a local .tex file in my PC, compiled it, and included the diagram as a .png file. The problem with this procedure is that it prevents me from sharing the code (in case someone wants to use it themselves somewhere else), and it forces me to keep the .tex file in my PC (so that I can modify it in the future if I need to).

It would be great if I could include the TikZ code in the post itself but, preferably, to make it invisible. Is it possible somehow? An HTML trick perhaps?

Answer 1

You can include TeX comments. For example, the Einstein equation is

$$
E = 
%\gamma
mc^2
$$

$$ E = %\gamma mc^2 $$

where most people don't include the $\gamma$ that describes the dynamics.

Answer 2

You can just define an empty tex macro and wrap your code in that. Like this:

$$\def\ignore #1{} \ignore{\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw (0,0) -- (1,1) ;
\end{tikzpicture}}$$

Which looks like this:

$$ \def\ignore #1{} \ignore{\begin{tikzpicture} \draw (0,0) -- (1,1) ; \end{tikzpicture}} $$

Answer 3

An alternative to pasting invisible code is to simply post the code to a Latex sharing site, such as ShareLatex or Overleaf, and then link to it below the image. Then interested users could go see it without having to clicking the edit button (though it is forcing someone off-site).

Even repositories such as GitHub or PasteBin would work, though you wouldn't have the ability to compile and see the results on in these cases as you would with the previous option.