David Sheets <kosmo...@gmail.com> writes: > On Sun, Feb 15, 2015 at 3:16 AM, Glenn Maynard <gl...@zewt.org> wrote: >> On Sat, Feb 14, 2015 at 12:34 PM, David Sheets <kosmo...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> >>> I am writing a documentation generation tool for a programming >>> language with right arrows represented as -> but would like to render >>> them as →. Programmers are used to writing in ASCII and reading >>> typeset mathematics. If I present documentation to them via a >>> purpose-built document browser, I should give them the option (at the >>> generation/styling stage) of making those documents as pleasing as >>> possible. >> >> >> Programmers a decade or two ago, maybe, but not today. >> >> As a programmer, if I see "→" on a page, select it and copy it, I expect to >> copy "→", just as I selected. This sounds like something browsers should >> actively discourage. > > If you're reading documentation which includes types, it's nice to see > implication arrows but copy valid syntax.
If you are reading documentation, it is nice to see valid syntax. What if the user is typing the documentation? I can type “→” easily by using a compose key and would be confused if it does not work in the language. > Programming communities which use types or other formal methods > commonly typeset their own documents with mathematical notation. For > practical reasons, they define their language representations using > ASCII. > > If you have nothing more useful to discuss beyond uninformed, > opinionated naysaying, I'll be leaving this thread lie. I find that last paragraph entirely superfluous. Greetings, -- Nils Dagsson Moskopp // erlehmann <http://dieweltistgarnichtso.net>
