From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
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From: Gregory Pavelcak <g.pavelcak@comcast.net>
Date: Thu, 28 May 2009 07:08:56 -0400
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[acme.dump bin/ devel/ doc/ guide lib/ sys/ text/ tmp/]
Subject: eqn and unicode

I noticed that sometimes my troff-related questions don't
generate much interest. I hope they aren't considered bad
form, because I am curious about another thing.

If you write the eqn-word for a greek letter, "GAMMA" for
example; eqn passes the unicode character (the output of
Alt-*G) to troff. If, on the other hand, you type Alt-*G in eqn,
it passes `"\f2Γ\fP' to troff, thus producing, by my lights anyway,
a nicer looking character. I was just wondering if this was
intended as a way to give people both a roman-greek letter
and an italic one, or if it was intended to discourage the use
of eqn's letter names in favor of unicode, or if it just sorta
happened. Perhaps none of the above. Anyone know?

My problem is that I developed the habit of using eqn letter-
words, and the output isn't very nice. (Yes, I know I can
define GAMMA %"\f2Γ\fP"%, but I'm still curious.)

Thanks.

Greg