Re: Using a ~ in a text

["Johannes Hüsing" <tmi0m0@spi.power.uni-essen.de>]

On Fri 2000-05-26 (13:33), Ed Roozendaal wrote:
> Hello
> 
> I am trying to insert a tilde (~) into my document, but I receive an
> error message. 
> 
> The log file says:
> 
> <snip>
> ! Missing $ inserted.
> <inserted text> 
>                 $
> <to be read again> 
>                    _
> <argument> ...soft.com/library/backgrnd/html/msdn_
>                                                   bldcli~1.htm}

As TeX's error log linebreaks at the point where it fails to
treat a token accordingly, it can be seen from the log that the 
underscore poses the problem. This is because the underscore is 
interpreted by TeX as "set the following character or group as
subscript". This can only be done in math mode. Hence, the 
"Missing $ inserted" message as the dollar sign signifies a switch
to math mode. 

The "~" wouldn't have caused a problem by itself, as it is interpreted
as a non-breakable space in text mode -- certainly not what you want :).

Both "~" and "_" are not encoded in many text fonts except the 
typewriter fonts. Yet, \type{http://www.micros~1.com/} should do
what you  want.

Greetings

Johannes