Enrico Forestieri wrote:
On Tue, Sep 16, 2008 at 02:13:49PM +0200, G. Milde wrote:
On 9.09.08, G. Milde wrote:
Dear LyX users,
...
but I was told that this is rather somethign for lyx-devel. So, please send
me a copy of eventual replies, as I am just a user.
With LyX 1.6, using unicode characters other than Basic Latin is possible
also in math mode. This is a vast improvement over the silent failure in
LyX 1.5, my thanks go out to the relevant developer(s)!
However, there remain some inconsistencies, as the character in question
is either replaced by a math-equivalent (if defined in the
"unicodesymbols" file) or by "text in math" with the text-equivalent.
* while A is typeset italic, Ä (and other accented characters) as well as
Α (and other Greek characters) are typeset upright (and in the text font).
The question is
* should the "input->math" conversion only be done for characters
from "Basic Latin" and "Mathematical Alphanumeric Symbols", or
I think so, as this is what TeX does.
* should "latin-1 supplement" characters for which a math equivalent exists
use this instead of a text-version (e.g. Ä be replaced with \ddot{A} in
math), and/or
* should Greek characters from the "Greek and Coptic" unicode block use
the math-equivalent?
No, I don't think so.
Note that in math mode TeX (and even XeTeX) doesn't support anything
outside the ASCII set,
Which is sad. The latin alphabet does not stop at 'z' unless you are
english.
so thinking that Ä should be typeset in italic
is pretty arbitrary.
I think it is the other way around - the ascii subset of the alphabet is
pretty arbitrary, and there is no reason at all to draw a line just
there. A-Z is not in any way a special interval.
Of course, TeX may have limitations that are very hard for LyX to
work around right now. If they disappear due to simple solutions
in the form of an extra package, then the
The rationale is that when you use a non-ascii
char in math mode, you really want to use it as a math symbol, so LyX
takes care that no error occurs without changing the shape of the symbol,
as it would be arbitrary to do so. Even if it may seem natural to turn
non-ascii latin chars into italic, this feature is not thought for using
Ä as a substitute for \ddot{A}. If you want an italic Ä, you can use
\textit{Ä} in math mode, which is a perfectly legal latex construct.
If I use any _alphabetic letter_ in math, then I want them all treated
the same way. AaBbCc...æÆåÅöÖ. For me, 'C' and 'Æ' are no more
different than 'C' and 'O'.
And I guess people using cyrillic and other alphabets might want to use
their own alphabets for math too?
Of course - non-aplpabetic symbols can be treated differently. Numerals,
punctuation, special symbols.
If this is easily achieved with simple latex constructs, then I hope LyX
will do that for me someday. It is an odd and arbitrary surprise when an
'æ' doesn't work the same way as an 'e'. Well, perhaps not for
someone who knows about the ascii-centric past history of computers, but
the generic user doesn't necessarily do that.
Helge Hafting
