Re: Reg. fonts and math

[Aditya Mahajan <adityam@umich.edu>]

On Thu, 12 Jan 2006, Hans Hagen wrote:

> Aditya Mahajan wrote:
>
>> Most math in latex is *not* same as tex math. Though, most that can be done 
>> with latex can also be done in tex, but latex does provide a nice interface 
>> which sadly is missing in context. amsl and nath modules provide some of 
>> this functionality but a lot still needs to be done to make Context math 
>> handling as easy as it is in Latex.
>
>
> Do you mean that everything between $ $ and \begin{math} \end{math} is 
> different?
>
> a + b
> \int ...
> \sqrt
>
> etc is not different is it?

No, I mean the complicated math is much harder in context. Consider

\begin{align}
  a &= b \\
  c &= d \notag \\
    &= f \notag \\
    &= g
\end{align}

which will typeset as

  a = b        (1)
  c = d
    = f
    = g        (2)


There is no Context way to do it, and one has to resort to plain tex

\placeformula
$$
\eqalignno{
  a &= b &\formulanumber \cr
  c &= d \cr
    &= f \cr
    &= g \formulanumber}
$$

Context gives the same result, but the input syntax is much more verbose 
than the latex syntax.

Latex also has a lot of other useful enviromnemts like

\begin{equation}
  \begin{split}
    a &= b \\
      &= c
   \end{split}
\end{equation}

Again, the same effect can be achieved in plain tex, but it is more 
verbose.

amsmath also has some useful environments like multalign and aligned, 
gathered, faligned, alignat, etc. Some of their functionality can be 
achieved using \start stop array from amsl but the amsmath environments 
have a lot more features.

There are certain features that are much more difficult to achieve using 
context. Consider equation subnumbering. In latex, it is as simple as

\begin{subequations}
\begin{align}
  a &= b \\
  c &= d
\end{align}
\end{subequations}

Compare this from how to do this in context (see the wiki). You have to 
*manually* set the number of the subequation. Actually, for equation 
numbering and refering, the context way is rather limited. Consider 
something like an align environment

a &= b\\
c &= d\\
e &= f

Suppose, I want to refer to the second equation.  In latex, I can simply 
add \label{eq:2} and the end of c&= d and then \ref{eq:2}. For context, 
the reference label goes at the top, with \placeformula[eqs]. But I am not 
sure, how to give individual labels to each equations.


Browse through http://www-sop.inria.fr/miaou/latex/voss-math.pdf which 
explains almost all math tricks in latex. For some of the more complicated 
stuff, compare the latex code and the context code to achieve that result. 
Context has all the features, but for complicated maths, they are low 
level tricks. There is no upper layer like amsmath making life easier for 
the user. It will be nice to have such a layer.

Aditya