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List:       mandoc-tech
Subject:    Re: Rendering of math symbols in ASCII mode
From:       Ingo Schwarze <schwarze () usta ! de>
Date:       2017-06-20 16:44:25
Message-ID: 20170620164425.GF64805 () athene ! usta ! de
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Hi Anthony,

Anthony J. Bentley wrote on Mon, Jun 19, 2017 at 10:27:00PM -0600:
> Ingo Schwarze writes:
>> Anthony Bentley wrote:

>>> .EQ
>>> roman erf ( x ) = 2 over {sqrt pi} int sub 0 sup x e sup {- t sup 2} dt
>>> .EN

>> Why roman?  Aren't function names usually set italic in mathematic
>> papers?

> My impression is that single-letter functions are italic but words
> are roman.

I stand corrected.  Actually, blowing the dust off my own diploma
thesis, i found several instances of arctan, exp, ln, log - all
roman.  Apparently, it has been too long since i looked at such
typesetting...

> Nitpick: \(sr is not the right way to do square roots in eqn(7).
> The sqrt keyword will wrap in parentheses.

I fully agree with that.

> (But I get your point.)

Once i came to the intermediate conclusion that we better work on
the level of character escape sequences than on the level of egn(7)
syntax, i considered all escapes, no matter whether they are needed
in the context of eqn(7).

>> For some character escape sequences that render to nothing in
>> groff -Tascii, i decided to use descriptive renderings
>> enclosed in angle brackets in the past:
>> 
>> 	\(sc	<sec>	SECTION SIGN
>> 	\(de	<deg>	DEGREE SIGN
>> 	\(ps	<par>	PILCROW SIGN
>> 	\(CS	<lub>	BLACK CLUB SUIT
>> 
>> Do you consider that desirable for cases like the above, too?

> Indeed, I think this is a sensible and readable way to go for -Tascii,
> particularly for characters likely to be used in eqn(7).

Following that, my inquiry on <groff@gnu.org> already elicited
positive feedback from Werner Lemberg.  So i'm quite hopeful
that we can get this done and make eqn(7) useful for your
intended purpose.

Yours,
  Ingo
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