Re: update / punctuation / math

[Willi Egger via ntg-context <ntg-context@ntg.nl>]

Cute, as always today :-)

Willi

> On 1 Apr 2023, at 10:27, Hans Hagen via ntg-context <ntg-context@ntg.nl> wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> There have been some mails about punctuation spacing and a fix was added to the engine that related to that. As tests showed it to be okay so we made an update. It took a bit longer than normal because we were in the middle of some other math stuff: additional fonts and extensibles.
> 
> Daniel Flipo maintains a few math fonts (like concrete, xcharter, erewhon, kp, euler) and the last few weeks more extensive support for extensibles was added and concrete became quite nice too, so these fonts make a nice benchmark. As they are part of the lmtx install and we made sure to support them.
> 
> In the process we adapted our 2023 roadmap of which part is attached (we included an example end then decided to show of concrete).
> 
> When we go through the process of 'upgrading' we noticed some interesting names for symbols and 'constructs'. Quite some come from plain and/or amsmath (in the past taco and aditya did some porting to context) and we're not always sure if something is really used (or even what it was intended for) so if you notice something weird or missing, let us know. Examples are welcome too. It might also be that something can go away because it's obsolete or never needed (so far we could resist te kick-out-symbole-name temptation when it comes to symbol names that we think no sane user can remember or imagine to be there).
> 
> When often add extra tests to the test suite (math subsection).
> 
> Hans & Mikael
> 
> ps. Alan and I are still messing around with some cross referencing. That code is still experimental and can have issues that we're looking at but hard to nail down (huge complex cross-referencing documents). More about that later.
> 
> ==================================
> 
> We added the tex of the pdf below
> 
> ====== extract from roadmap ======
> 
> \usemodule[article-basic,abbreviations-logos]
> 
> \setupbodyfont[concrete]
> 
> \starttext
> 
> \startsubject[title=Math in \CONTEXT\ roadmap]
> 
> \startitemize[n]
> 
> \startitem
>    After playing with math support for more than a year, we have come to the
>    conclusion that it is time to move on. We have already discarded italic
>    correction and now are replacing rules with extensibles. Much was already in
>    place (and applied) but experiences with type one antykwas made us review
>    some \OPENTYPE\ fonts. Not using rules makes some of them look better. The
>    effect is subtle and probably not \AMS\ compliant, but we think that it will
>    work out well for simple math like fractions of decimal numbers.
>    Consequently, we have added to our shrinking to-do list the burden to
>    investigate whether we can remove those obsolete code paths from the engine.
>    After all, who needs italic correction, who prefers ugly rules to beautiful
>    glyphs, and who understands all these font parameters? Furthermore, after all
>    these years, we don't expect \OPENTYPE\ font and \UNICODE\ math technologies
>    to improve much; we don't know if \MICROSOFT\ is developing their technology
>    further at all. Therefore, we are confident that what we are doing is the way
>    it should have been done when math was upgraded. Hopefully users will notice
>    the improvements.
> \stopitem
> 
> \startitem
>    Math also means physics and units (that topic was brought up recently on the
>    list by Gavin). Therefore, because we're in cleanup mode, we decided to
>    eliminate some more. With \ISO\ now in place for a long time, we are going to
>    ignore the existence of the inch as unit from now on. The unit will probably
>    remain in the engine for nostalgic reasons, but it will no be accepted in
>    MWE. Instead, we will provide some more modern, culturally correct,
>    kid-friendly units that we will use in examples, manuals and such. Because
>    the four-person strong team dealing with this wants to avoid making mistakes,
>    we will go through a careful and scientifically sound process of calibration
>    first, using a selected tex savvy audience. We expect these new units to be
>    stable a month from now. Believe it or not, in the process of documenting all
>    this, we found a buglet in the new math dimension spacing, so it has already
>    paid off. Expect to hear more in a month or so, and enjoy your inches as long
>    as you still can. In case you wonder how this relates to math other than
>    mentioned: the math subsystem has 'mu' as adaptive unit, and that inspired is
>    to come up with one for text (in addition to two new more or less fixed
>    units).
> \stopitem
> 
> \startitem
>    The math family model is a fundamental concept in \TEX\ but we think we can
>    do without. First of all, \OPENTYPE\ math fonts have (design) script and
>    scriptscript sizes built in, so for that we have one family. Second, only
>    full bold (heavy) makes sense as companion for regular math which is
>    something that in practice we can support otherwise. So, this makes us
>    consider dropping families altogether which then provides (mem) space for
>    even more classes or dictionaries. If we nevertheless decide to keep
>    families, we can certainly go with less than we have now, maybe two (or four
>    if we want to be generous and also resemble original tex) of them is enough.
>    We cannot imagine users wanting more. As a side note: completely divorcing
>    families could make the math engine a bit leaner. It is hard to explain and
>    users only care about the outcome. So more on this later.
> \stopitem
> 
> \startitem
>    Another path to explore is to identify the few building blocks that are
>    needed for typesetting math, and then doing a bit more at the tex end. Of
>    course that would nil quite some earlier effort, which is a bit frustrating,
>    but still \unknown\ maybe the math engine can be reduced to a fraction of
>    what is is now.
> \stopitem
> 
> \startitem
>    When we look at the math fonts and some characters in there, we sometimes
>    wonder what makes sense. For some, searching in e.g. arXiv brings no hit.
>    Basically we have obsolete math symbols and currently used one. That made us
>    think about ancient math versus modern math, just like there is ancient greek
>    and modern greek. Because math is a script one can wonder about obsolete math
>    dialects with symbols just like there are plenty deal scripts in \UNICODE. We
>    already are working on dictionaries but another axis is useability.
> \stopitem
> 
> \startitem
>    We no longer have the small / large extensible family model so we can
>    simplify delimiters in the engine. Not something users should worry about.
> \stopitem
> 
> \startitem
>    We're not sure why math is considered stable because everything moved
>    forward. Therefore we're preparing a bid for extra math symbols as needed in
>    modern explorative and daring math thesis. When symbols are really used, and
>    we have proof of that, it should be possible to get them un \UNICODE, just
>    like all these emoji. We welcome input and as an example of currently faked
>    symbols we added some to the distribution as easter eggs. One example:
> 
>    Mikael got contacted by a stressed student working on a thesis on
>    probability. This student needed to typeset the characteristic function of a
>    random variable \im {X} with density function \im {f_{X}}, and it was
>    insisted to use another notation than the (wide) hat, that was already used
>    for something else. For this reason the \tex {widerandomhat} was introduced,
> 
>    \useMPlibrary[newmath]
> 
>    \startformula
>        E[\ee^{\ii tX}] = \widerandomhat{f_{X}}(t)\mtp{,}
>        E[\ee^{\ii t(X_1+X_2)}] = \widerandomhat{f_{X_1} \ast f_{X_2}}(t)\mtp{.}
>    \stopformula
> 
>    Naturally, it is automatically scaled, just like the ordinary wide hat
> 
>    \startformula
>        \widehat{a+b+c+d+e+f} \neq \widerandomhat{a+b+c+d+e+f}
>    \stopformula
> 
>    Once the thesis is printed, we will contact the \UNICODE\ Consortium to
>    suggest that it gets a slot.
> \stopitem
> 
> \startitem
>    Our most ambitious project is a reverse engineering one, which is why it is
>    conducted at the engineering faculty of the Dnul university (we cannot
>    reveal the real name yet). In math articles one can find visualizing like
>    $x\leftarrow x$ and there are plenty of \TEX\ commands that have arrow or
>    hook in their names. If you look at the names of math symbols plenty
>    are kind of weird. We think it is not natural and are considering a \quote
>    {natural language math input} project, where you tell what it is and get the
>    symbols you expect. For that we need to analyze typeset math and from the
>    context as well as visualization derive a dataset that we can feed into a
>    machine learning subsystem that then can be used to turn input into type. We
>    have several stages in mind spanning years but it can be fun. Think of it
>    like \quote {untagged math} which then of course results in \quote {untagged
>    pdf}, but better!
> \stopitem
> 
> \stopitemize
> 
> Mikael & Hans
> 
> \stopsubject
> 
> \stoptext
> 
> 
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
>                                          Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE
>              Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands
>       tel: 038 477 53 69 | www.pragma-ade.nl | www.pragma-pod.nl
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