# Re: [NTG-context] text in mathematics

In many "less-rigorous" uses of equations, there is an abundant need
to include words (text) in mathematics, and using \mathtext{} or \mbox{}
or whatever is unwieldy.

Readable subscripts, self-explanatory variable names, etc. might be
text and not symbols. These situations can be very common. This is why I
asked (1) what is the right method, and (2) what do others think about
the shorthand \t{}, similar to the shorthand \m{}?

Alan

On Sun, 8 Jul 2018 23:00:00 +0200
Otared Kavian <ota...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Alan, Wolfgang and Hans Åberg,
>
> As far as I am concerned, when I have to add a text to a math formula
> I use \mbox, as in the example
>
> \startformula
> A := \left\{f : {\Bbb R}^2 \longrightarrow {\Bbb R} \; ; \; f
> \mbox{ is measurable and }  \int_{{\Bbb R}^2}|f(x)|dx < \infty
> \right\}. \stopformula
>
> The advantage being that if the above formula appears in an
> environment such as a Theorem (where the text is typeset in italic,
> or slanted) the text in the above \mbox will be also in italic or
> slanted.
>
> I don't think it would be a good idea to add new commands to treat
> text in a math formula: the existing possiblities are more than
> satisfactory, and moreover situations where one has to add text to a
> formula are not that common. So using a command like \mbox, or \text,
> or \mathtext, or whatever, is not that time consuming.
>
> Best regards: OK
>
>
> > On 8 Jul 2018, at 21:21, Wolfgang Schuster
> > <schuster.wolfg...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Hi Alan,
> >
> > 1. The correct way to use \mathrm is {\mathrm ...} because it is a
> > switch like \rm for text mode.
> >
> > 2. \mathrm is the wrong method to write text in formulas because
> > the command changes only the math alphabet. This means no
> > ligatures, kerning or other characters like umlauts.
> >
> > 3. The correct way to write text in math mode is \mathtext (which
> > has the synonym \text) or \mathword. To change the style of the
> > text you can use \mathtext{\it …} or \mathtextit{…}.
> >
> > Wolfgang
> >> Alan Braslau <mailto:braslau.l...@comcast.net> 7. Juli 2018 um
> >> 16:04 Hello ConTeXt users,
> >>
> >> Does it drive you crazy to see TeX users write $t = time$?
> >> (I see this all of the time by LaTeX users in Beamer
> >> presentations.)
> >>
> >> One can do better writing $t = {\rm time}$ (maybe)
> >> or in ConTeXt $t = \mathrm{time}$.
> >> Sometimes, too, I might write $t = \text{time}$.
> >>
> >> We also have the commands \mathematics{} that can be used in place
> >> of the TeX shorthand $...$, and this also has the shortcut \m{...}.
> >>
> >> I thought that it might be useful to have an equivalent escape, to
> >> be used as $t = \t{time}$. What do other users think?
> >>
> >> OK, \m{t = \t{time}} might be a bit funky...
> >>
> >>
> >> Alan
> >>
> >>
> >> P.S. I proposed doing this via
> >> \let\t\mathrm
> >> but Hans tells me that this is not good, as \mathrm{} does not give
> >> proper font processing, so implementation of \t{} would be
> >> something different...
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