Re: Questions about mathfence

[Aditya Mahajan <adityam@umich.edu>]

On 2013-07-29, at 5:34 AM, Hans Hagen <pragma@wxs.nl> wrote:

> On 7/29/2013 3:24 AM, Aditya Mahajan wrote:
>> Hi,
>> 
>> Some questions/remarks about math fences
>> 
>> 1. When using
>> 
>>     \definemathfence[colorbracket][bar][middle=0x7C,color=red,
>> command=yes]
>>     \starttext
>> 
>>     \startformula
>>       \colorbracket{\frac {a}{b}\fence a = b}^n
>>     \stopformula
>> 
>>     \stoptext
>> 
>> The delimiter is of the wrong color (black instead of red), and the
>> clause after \fence is red. I am doing something wrong or is it a bug.
> 
> Just not yet done .. coloring such math thingies is somewhat tricky ... added.

Thanks.

>> 2. For some types of expressions, for example, probability, the middle
>> delimiter should have the space similar to mathrel, rather than mathord.
>> For example, while typing I often use:
>> 
>> \Pr\left( X = \frac {a}{b} \,\middle|\, Y = \frac{c}{d} \right)
>> 
>> Would it be worthwhile to add these extra spaces by default (not sure
>> what is the convention in physics/quantum mechanics for bra and ket
>> notation) or as an option.
> 
> I'll add \mskip\thinmuskip around the middle ... no clue what key/value to use so we can wait tile someone complaints

Thanks.

>> 3. Finally, why are the default values of left, middle, and right =
>> 0x2E. Isn't 0x7C a better default?
> 
> Well, the period is (for tex) special in the sense that it is a nop so if you only want
> 
> (
> 
> and no
> 
> )
> 
> then explaining to a user that a period is to be used to nil the right symbol is somewhat less troublesome.
> 
> One sets up the wanted symbols anyway.

Of course. I use unmatched delimiters so infrequently that I forgot about it. 

Math fences replace most of the functionality of my old mathsets module. The only missing feature is the text key, but that is a specialized use case, so I'll just update mathsets so that it uses math fences in the background. 

I it really necessary to use Unicode characters to specify left, right, etc? I ink that most math users will be more comfortable using literal symbols, {,[,(,|, etc or tex names \Vert, \vert, etc. 

Aditya
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