Using Fraktur (and Gothic and Calligraphic) fonts in ConTeXt

Using Fraktur (and Gothic and Calligraphic) fonts in ConTeXt

[Giuseppe Bilotta]

Hello,

I just wanted to report the conclusions I reached after the
hoop-jumping I had to go through to be able to use Fraktur in
ConTeXt, especially in math environments: it seems that the \frak,
\goth, \cal font switches are ignored in math mode (which is
somewhat ridiculous, considering that this is where they are used
more often).

A workaround (stolen from the old math module) is to define

\def\fraktur    #1{\ifmmode\@EA\text\fi{{\frak#1}}}
\def\gothic     #1{\ifmmode\@EA\text\fi{{\goth#1}}}
\def\caligraphic#1{\ifmmode\@EA\text\fi{{\cal #1}}} 

and use \fraktur{a} instead of {\frak a}. This has the
disadvantage that you cannot set Fraktur as the (math) font for a
complex math construct. Can this be fixed, please?

-- 
Giuseppe "Oblomov" Bilotta

Re: Using Fraktur (and Gothic and Calligraphic) fonts in ConTeXt

[Hans Hagen]

At 08:07 PM 12/7/2002 +0100, you wrote:
>Hello,
>
>I just wanted to report the conclusions I reached after the
>hoop-jumping I had to go through to be able to use Fraktur in
>ConTeXt, especially in math environments: it seems that the \frak,
>\goth, \cal font switches are ignored in math mode (which is
>somewhat ridiculous, considering that this is where they are used
>more often).
>
>A workaround (stolen from the old math module) is to define
>
>\def\fraktur    #1{\ifmmode\@EA\text\fi{{\frak#1}}}
>\def\gothic     #1{\ifmmode\@EA\text\fi{{\goth#1}}}
>\def\caligraphic#1{\ifmmode\@EA\text\fi{{\cal #1}}}
>
>and use \fraktur{a} instead of {\frak a}. This has the
>disadvantage that you cannot set Fraktur as the (math) font for a
>complex math construct. Can this be fixed, please?

The reason for the default definitions not working as expected lays in the 
fact that they are defined as fall backs. Only \blackboard is mapped onto a 
math family (practical reason: i never used the other ones). When uses with 
a family, they adapt to the math script sizes.

The problem here is that it can only work as a \switch if there is a math 
family associated, and (1) there are not enough of them for each funny 
font, and (2) one has to keep track of them in different fonts.

I've now changed the defs to kind of always expect text fonts being used, 
in which case your def is ok. (because i want consistency in this, i also 
changed the blackboard def, and expect future defs to act the same, else 
there is no way to keep track of such things (apart from debugging); some 
time a go blackboard alone already took me hours to uncover -)

In the process of cleaning up m-math and moving things to the kernel and/or 
m-newmat, i had a text macro there; i moved a version to the kernel. For 
low level macros, use \mathtext instead, since one never knows if \text is 
overloaded).

Hans
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