Why does the renderer drop parts of lines with no error?

[sigilante]

Description of bug / unexpected behavior

I am constructing a Manim scene with manually aligned lines of text alternating between texttt lines and math lines. Parts of some lines of text are disappearing from the output.

In particular, note that text1 and text3 do not appear although they are present in the VGroup. Experimentation shows that this is not a function of set_color so I suspect that the nested {{}} clauses are causing a problem, but only on those lines.

What is failing and how can I render these lines successfully?

Expected behavior

All text would appear.

How to reproduce the issue

Code for reproducing the problem

from manim import *

highlight = "#aa0000"
background = "#121214"

class MyTable(Scene):
    def construct(self):
        float1 = MathTex(
          r'\texttt{ {{0}}011.1110.1\;\,000.0000.0000.0000.0000.0000}'
        )
        float1[1].set_color(highlight)

        text1 = MathTex(
          r'(-1)^{ {{0}} } \;'
        )
        print(text1[0])
        print(text1[1])
        print(text1[2])
        text1[1].set_color(highlight)

        float2 = MathTex(
          r'\texttt{ 0 {{011.1110.1}} 000.0000.0000.0000.0000.0000 }'
        )
        float2[1].set_color(highlight)

        text2 = MathTex(
          r'2^{ {{125}}-127}=2^{-2}'
        )
        text2[1].set_color(highlight)
        print(text2[0])
        print(text2[1])
        print(text2[2])

        float3 = MathTex(
          r'\texttt{ 0\;\,011.1110.1 {{ 000.0000.0000.0000.0000.0000 }} }'
        )
        float3[1].set_color(highlight)

        text3 = MathTex(
          r'[1] + {{ 0 }} \;'
        )
        text3[1].set_color(highlight)
        print(text3[0])
        print(text3[1])

        lines = VGroup(float1, text1,
                       float2, text2,
                       float3, text3)
        lines.arrange(DOWN, buff=MED_LARGE_BUFF)

        self.play(Write(lines[0:2]))
        self.wait()
        self.play(Write(lines[2:4]))
        self.wait()
        self.play(Write(lines[4:6]))
        self.wait()
        self.play(FadeOut(lines[0:6]))
        self.wait()

Logs

Terminal output

My command line is manim -ql -p MyTable.py MyTable. No errors are indicated by the output.

Manim Community v0.17.0

SingleStringMathTex('(-1)^{ ')
SingleStringMathTex('0')
SingleStringMathTex(' }')
SingleStringMathTex('2^{ ')
SingleStringMathTex('125')
SingleStringMathTex('-127}=2^{-2}')
SingleStringMathTex('[1] + ')
SingleStringMathTex(' 0 ')
[12/02/22 16:10:50] INFO     Animation 0 : Partial movie file written in        scene_file_writer.py:527
                             '/home/neal/urbit/videos/media/videos/MyTable/480p                         
                             15/partial_movie_files/MyTable/4266129954_27101181                         
                             9_223132457.mp4'                                                           
                    INFO     Animation 1 : Partial movie file written in        scene_file_writer.py:527
                             '/home/neal/urbit/videos/media/videos/MyTable/480p                         
                             15/partial_movie_files/MyTable/1442284246_32996964                         
                             5_74768480.mp4'                                                            
(and so forth)

System specifications

System Details

• OS (with version, e.g., Windows 10 v2004 or macOS 10.15 (Catalina)): Ubuntu Linux 22.04
• RAM: 32 GB
• Python version (python/py/python3 --version): 3.9.7
• Installed modules (provide output from pip list):

Package                       Version
----------------------------- --------------------
aiohttp                       3.8.1
aiosignal                     1.2.0
alabaster                     0.7.12
anaconda-client               1.11.0
anaconda-navigator            2.1.1
anaconda-project              0.11.1
anyio                         3.5.0
appdirs                       1.4.4
argon2-cffi                   21.3.0
argon2-cffi-bindings          21.2.0
arrow                         1.2.3
astroid                       2.11.7
astropy                       5.1
asttokens                     2.0.5
async-timeout                 4.0.2
atomicwrites                  1.4.0
attrs                         21.4.0
Automat                       20.2.0
autopep8                      1.6.0
Babel                         2.9.1
backcall                      0.2.0
backports.functools-lru-cache 1.6.4
backports.tempfile            1.0
backports.weakref             1.0.post1
bcrypt                        3.2.0
beautifulsoup4                4.11.1
binaryornot                   0.4.4
bitarray                      2.5.1
bkcharts                      0.2
black                         22.6.0
bleach                        4.1.0
bokeh                         2.4.3
boto3                         1.24.28
botocore                      1.27.59
Bottleneck                    1.3.5
brotlipy                      0.7.0
cachetools                    4.2.2
cairocffi                     1.3.0
CairoSVG                      2.5.2
certifi                       2022.9.24
cffi                          1.15.1
chardet                       4.0.0
charset-normalizer            2.0.4
click                         8.0.4
click-default-group           1.2.2
cloudpickle                   2.0.0
cloup                         0.13.1
clyent                        1.2.2
colorama                      0.4.5
colorcet                      3.0.1
colour                        0.1.5
commonmark                    0.9.1
conda                         22.9.0
conda-build                   3.21.5
conda-content-trust           0.1.3
conda-pack                    0.6.0
conda-package-handling        1.9.0
conda-repo-cli                1.0.24
conda-token                   0.4.0
conda-verify                  3.4.2
constantly                    15.1.0
cookiecutter                  1.7.3
cryptography                  38.0.1
cssselect                     1.1.0
cssselect2                    0.4.1
cycler                        0.11.0
Cython                        0.29.32
cytoolz                       0.12.0
daal4py                       2021.6.0
dask                          2022.7.0
datashader                    0.14.1
datashape                     0.5.4
debugpy                       1.5.1
decorator                     5.1.1
defusedxml                    0.7.1
diff-match-patch              20200713
dill                          0.3.6
distributed                   2022.7.0
docutils                      0.18.1
entrypoints                   0.4
et-xmlfile                    1.1.0
executing                     0.8.3
fastjsonschema                2.16.2
filelock                      3.6.0
flake8                        4.0.1
Flask                         1.1.2
fonttools                     4.25.0
frozenlist                    1.2.0
fsspec                        2022.10.0
future                        0.18.2
gensim                        4.1.2
glcontext                     2.3.7
glob2                         0.7
gmpy2                         2.1.2
google-api-core               2.10.1
google-auth                   2.6.0
google-cloud-core             2.3.2
google-cloud-storage          1.43.0
google-crc32c                 1.5.0
google-resumable-media        1.3.1
googleapis-common-protos      1.56.4
greenlet                      1.1.1
grpcio                        1.42.0
h5py                          3.7.0
HeapDict                      1.0.1
holoviews                     1.15.0
hvplot                        0.8.0
hyperlink                     21.0.0
idna                          3.4
imagecodecs                   2021.8.26
imageio                       2.19.3
imagesize                     1.4.1
importlib-metadata            4.11.3
incremental                   21.3.0
inflection                    0.5.1
iniconfig                     1.1.1
intake                        0.6.5
intervaltree                  3.1.0
ipykernel                     6.15.2
ipython                       7.31.1
ipython-genutils              0.2.0
ipywidgets                    7.6.5
isort                         5.9.3
isosurfaces                   0.1.0
itemadapter                   0.3.0
itemloaders                   1.0.4
itsdangerous                  2.0.1
jdcal                         1.4.1
jedi                          0.18.1
jeepney                       0.7.1
jellyfish                     0.9.0
Jinja2                        2.11.3
jinja2-time                   0.2.0
jmespath                      0.10.0
joblib                        1.1.1
json5                         0.9.6
jsonschema                    4.16.0
jupyter                       1.0.0
jupyter_client                7.3.4
jupyter-console               6.4.3
jupyter_core                  4.11.2
jupyter-server                1.18.1
jupyterlab                    3.4.4
jupyterlab-pygments           0.1.2
jupyterlab-server             2.10.3
jupyterlab-widgets            1.0.0
keyring                       23.4.0
kiwisolver                    1.4.2
lazy-object-proxy             1.6.0
libarchive-c                  2.9
llvmlite                      0.39.1
locket                        1.0.0
lxml                          4.9.1
lz4                           3.1.3
manim                         0.17.0
ManimPango                    0.4.3
mapbox-earcut                 1.0.1
Markdown                      3.3.4
MarkupSafe                    2.0.1
matplotlib                    3.5.3
matplotlib-inline             0.1.6
mccabe                        0.7.0
mistune                       0.8.4
mkl-fft                       1.3.1
mkl-random                    1.2.2
mkl-service                   2.4.0
mock                          4.0.3
moderngl                      5.7.3
moderngl-window               2.4.2
mpmath                        1.2.1
msgpack                       1.0.3
multidict                     6.0.2
multipledispatch              0.6.0
munkres                       1.1.4
mypy-extensions               0.4.3
navigator-updater             0.2.1
nbclassic                     0.4.8
nbclient                      0.5.13
nbconvert                     6.4.4
nbformat                      5.5.0
neovim                        0.3.1
nest-asyncio                  1.5.5
networkx                      2.8.4
nltk                          3.7
nose                          1.3.7
notebook                      6.4.12
notebook_shim                 0.2.2
numba                         0.56.3
numexpr                       2.8.3
numpy                         1.21.5
numpydoc                      1.5.0
olefile                       0.46
opencv-python                 4.5.5.64
openpyxl                      3.0.10
packaging                     21.3
pandas                        1.4.4
pandocfilters                 1.5.0
panel                         0.14.1
param                         1.12.0
parsel                        1.6.0
parso                         0.8.3
partd                         1.2.0
pathlib                       1.0.1
pathspec                      0.9.0
patsy                         0.5.2
pep8                          1.7.1
pexpect                       4.8.0
pickleshare                   0.7.5
Pillow                        9.2.0
pip                           22.2.2
pkginfo                       1.8.3
platformdirs                  2.5.2
plotly                        5.9.0
pluggy                        1.0.0
ply                           3.11
poyo                          0.5.0
prometheus-client             0.14.1
prompt-toolkit                3.0.20
Protego                       0.1.16
protobuf                      3.20.1
psutil                        5.9.0
ptyprocess                    0.7.0
pure-eval                     0.2.2
py                            1.11.0
pyasn1                        0.4.8
pyasn1-modules                0.2.8
pycairo                       1.23.0
pycodestyle                   2.8.0
pycosat                       0.6.4
pycparser                     2.21
pyct                          0.4.8
pycurl                        7.45.1
PyDispatcher                  2.0.5
pydocstyle                    6.1.1
pydub                         0.25.1
pyerfa                        2.0.0
pyflakes                      2.4.0
pyglet                        2.0.0
Pygments                      2.11.2
pygraphviz                    1.7
PyHamcrest                    2.0.2
PyJWT                         2.4.0
pylint                        2.14.5
pyls-spyder                   0.4.0
pynvim                        0.4.3
pyodbc                        4.0.34
pyOpenSSL                     22.0.0
pyparsing                     3.0.9
PyQt5-sip                     12.11.0
pyrr                          0.10.3
pyrsistent                    0.18.0
PySocks                       1.7.1
pytesseract                   0.3.9
pytest                        7.1.2
python-dateutil               2.8.2
python-lsp-black              1.2.1
python-lsp-jsonrpc            1.0.0
python-lsp-server             1.5.0
python-slugify                5.0.2
python-snappy                 0.6.0
pytz                          2022.1
pyviz-comms                   2.0.2
PyWavelets                    1.3.0
pyxdg                         0.27
PyYAML                        6.0
pyzmq                         23.2.0
QDarkStyle                    3.0.2
qstylizer                     0.1.10
QtAwesome                     1.0.3
qtconsole                     5.3.2
QtPy                          2.2.0
queuelib                      1.5.0
regex                         2022.7.9
requests                      2.28.1
requests-file                 1.5.1
rich                          12.6.0
rope                          0.22.0
rsa                           4.7.2
Rtree                         0.9.7
ruamel-yaml-conda             0.15.100
s3transfer                    0.6.0
scikit-image                  0.19.2
scikit-learn                  1.0.2
scikit-learn-intelex          2021.20221004.171807
scipy                         1.7.3
Scrapy                        2.6.2
screeninfo                    0.8.1
seaborn                       0.12.0
SecretStorage                 3.3.1
Send2Trash                    1.8.0
service-identity              18.1.0
setuptools                    65.5.0
sip                           6.6.2
six                           1.16.0
skia-pathops                  0.7.4
smart-open                    5.2.1
sniffio                       1.2.0
snowballstemmer               2.2.0
sortedcollections             2.1.0
sortedcontainers              2.4.0
soupsieve                     2.3.2.post1
Sphinx                        5.0.2
sphinxcontrib-applehelp       1.0.2
sphinxcontrib-devhelp         1.0.2
sphinxcontrib-htmlhelp        2.0.0
sphinxcontrib-jsmath          1.0.1
sphinxcontrib-qthelp          1.0.3
sphinxcontrib-serializinghtml 1.1.5
spyder                        5.3.3
spyder-kernels                2.3.3
SQLAlchemy                    1.4.39
srt                           3.5.2
stack-data                    0.2.0
statsmodels                   0.13.2
svgelements                   1.8.4
sympy                         1.10.1
tables                        3.6.1
tabulate                      0.8.10
TBB                           0.2
tblib                         1.7.0
tenacity                      8.0.1
terminado                     0.13.1
testpath                      0.6.0
text-unidecode                1.3
textdistance                  4.2.1
threadpoolctl                 2.2.0
three-merge                   0.1.1
tifffile                      2021.7.2
tinycss                       0.4
tinycss2                      1.1.1
tldextract                    3.2.0
toml                          0.10.2
tomli                         2.0.1
tomlkit                       0.11.1
toolz                         0.12.0
tornado                       6.1
tqdm                          4.64.1
traitlets                     5.1.1
Twisted                       22.2.0
typed-ast                     1.4.3
typing_extensions             4.3.0
ujson                         5.4.0
Unidecode                     1.2.0
urllib3                       1.26.12
w3lib                         1.21.0
watchdog                      2.1.6
wcwidth                       0.2.5
webencodings                  0.5.1
websocket-client              0.58.0
Werkzeug                      2.0.3
whatthepatch                  1.0.2
wheel                         0.37.1
widgetsnbextension            3.5.2
wrapt                         1.14.1
wurlitzer                     3.0.2
xarray                        0.20.1
xlrd                          2.0.1
XlsxWriter                    3.0.3
xmltodict                     0.12.0
yapf                          0.31.0
yarl                          1.8.1
zict                          2.1.0
zipp                          3.8.0
zope.interface                5.4.0

LaTeX details

• LaTeX distribution (e.g. TeX Live 2020): texlive/jammy,jammy 2021.20220204-1 all
• Installed LaTeX packages: (really long, texlive-full)

FFMPEG

Output of ffmpeg -version:

ffmpeg version 4.4.2-0ubuntu0.22.04.1 Copyright (c) 2000-2021 the FFmpeg developers
built with gcc 11 (Ubuntu 11.2.0-19ubuntu1)
configuration: --prefix=/usr --extra-version=0ubuntu0.22.04.1 --toolchain=hardened --libdir=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu --incdir=/usr/include/x86_64-linux-gnu --arch=amd64 --enable-gpl --disable-stripping --enable-gnutls --enable-ladspa --enable-libaom --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libbs2b --enable-libcaca --enable-libcdio --enable-libcodec2 --enable-libdav1d --enable-libflite --enable-libfontconfig --enable-libfreetype --enable-libfribidi --enable-libgme --enable-libgsm --enable-libjack --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libmysofa --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopenmpt --enable-libopus --enable-libpulse --enable-librabbitmq --enable-librubberband --enable-libshine --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libsrt --enable-libssh --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwebp --enable-libx265 --enable-libxml2 --enable-libxvid --enable-libzimg --enable-libzmq --enable-libzvbi --enable-lv2 --enable-omx --enable-openal --enable-opencl --enable-opengl --enable-sdl2 --enable-pocketsphinx --enable-librsvg --enable-libmfx --enable-libdc1394 --enable-libdrm --enable-libiec61883 --enable-chromaprint --enable-frei0r --enable-libx264 --enable-shared
libavutil      56. 70.100 / 56. 70.100
libavcodec     58.134.100 / 58.134.100
libavformat    58. 76.100 / 58. 76.100
libavdevice    58. 13.100 / 58. 13.100
libavfilter     7.110.100 /  7.110.100
libswscale      5.  9.100 /  5.  9.100
libswresample   3.  9.100 /  3.  9.100
libpostproc    55.  9.100 / 55.  9.100

Additional comments

[huguesdevimeux]

Hello and thank you for the report !

I must say that your issue is a little hard to understand. Is the snippet you provided a minimum reproducible example ? If not, can you try to make it shorter ?
In particular, I don't see/understand which text you are expecting to see/which one disappeared.

Thanks !

[sigilante]

OK, here's one that I reduced to as few lines as possible:

The expected behavior is to show (-1)⁰, but instead it just shows (-1) (no superscript).

from manim import *

class MyTable(Scene):
    def construct(self):
        text1 = MathTex(
          r'{{ (-1) }} ^{ {{ 0 }} }'
        )

        self.play(Write(text1))
        self.wait()

If I use the string r'(-1)^{ {{ 0 }} }' instead, the superscript renders. This implies that starting with a double brace may be causing the trouble in some MathTex strings. That's not a complete explanation of other similar cases I've seen tho.

(My ultimate goal is to highlight different substrings of 0s that I have to distinguish e.g. using braces, so that's why I have tried to use strings beginning with double braces.)

[sigilante]

Another way to think about this problem: how does Manim handle bracketed clauses in double-bracketed code?

These two programs differ in that one succeeds in showing all equation elements, while the other trims off elements.

This succeeds as a + 2 = c:

from manim import *

class MyTable(Scene):
    def construct(self):
        text1 = MathTex('{{ a }} + {{ 2 }} = {{ c }}') 
        self.play(Write(text1))

This fails for various ways of specifying the superscript b; it should show a² = c but just shows a:

from manim import *

class MyTable(Scene):
    def construct(self):
        text1 = MathTex('{{ a }} ^ { {{ 2 }} } = {{ c }}') 
        self.play(Write(text1))

If the answer is "don't use {} in {{}} clauses", that's fine, but how should I specify superscripted elements (and other {} clauses)?