special math minus

special math minus

[Hans Hagen]

Hi, 

Sometimes a special minus sign is used to distinguish between a - b and -b.
In the second case, the sign is alightly raised and looks more like a
hyphen than a math minus.

Is there a pre-coocked macro for that? [the problem is that \hbox's are not
zware of superscript status and therefore cannot be used, 

Hans  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                  Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE | pragma@wxs.nl
                      Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands
 tel: +31 (0)38 477 53 69 | fax: +31 (0)38 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Re: special math minus

[Taco Hoekwater]

Hans Hagen wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> Sometimes a special minus sign is used to distinguish between a - b and -b.
> In the second case, the sign is alightly raised and looks more like a
> hyphen than a math minus.
> 
> Is there a pre-coocked macro for that? [the problem is that \hbox's are not
> zware of superscript status and therefore cannot be used,

Not one I know of, so you need a mathchoice instead. Something like this
should work:

\def\doneg{\mathord{{#1\raise.2ex\hbox{{#1 -}}}}}

\def\negative{\mathchoice{\doneg{\tf}}{\doneg{\tf}}{\doneg{\tfx}}{\doneg{\tfxx}}}

-- 
groeten,

Taco

Re: special math minus

[Hans Hagen]

At 03:22 PM 2/15/01 +0100, Taco Hoekwater wrote:
>Hans Hagen wrote:
>> 
>> Hi,
>> 
>> Sometimes a special minus sign is used to distinguish between a - b and -b.
>> In the second case, the sign is alightly raised and looks more like a
>> hyphen than a math minus.
>> 
>> Is there a pre-coocked macro for that? [the problem is that \hbox's are not
>> zware of superscript status and therefore cannot be used,
>
>Not one I know of, so you need a mathchoice instead. Something like this

if you don't know it, then there is no -)    

>should work:
>
>\def\doneg{\mathord{{#1\raise.2ex\hbox{{#1 -}}}}}
>
>\def\negative{\mathchoice{\doneg{\tf}}{\doneg{\tf}}{\doneg{\tfx}}{\doneg{\t
fxx}}}

Thanks, I now have: 

\def\domminus#1#2%
  {\mathord{{#2\raise.#1ex\hbox{#2-}}}}

\def\mminus
  {\mathchoice
     {\donegative5\tf}
     {\donegative5\tf}
     {\donegative4\tfx}
     {\donegative3\tfxx}}

$\negative10^{\negative10^{\negative10}}$

Hans
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                  Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE | pragma@wxs.nl
                      Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands
 tel: +31 (0)38 477 53 69 | fax: +31 (0)38 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------