Re: Proposal for math mappings

["Procházka Lukáš Ing. - Pontex s. r. o." <LPr@pontex.cz>]

On Fri, 10 Dec 2010 05:49:26 +0100, Aditya Mahajan <adityam@umich.edu> wrote:

> This is a proposal for a new way of selecting math mappings in MkIV. I want
> to get input from other math users whether this syntax would take care of all
> scenarios or not.
>
> There are five different ranges in mathematics:
> - digits (0..9)
> - lower case Latin (abc..z)
> - upper case Latin (ABC..Z)
> - lower case Greek (αβγ..ζ)
> - upper case Greek (ΑΒΓ..Z)

Just to confirm -

- 0-9 are 48-57 in ASCII
- a-z = 97-122
- A-Z = 65-90
- LC Greek = ?-? (given by \alpha to \omega range)
- UC Greek = ?-? (given by \Alpha to \Omega range)

- Is that right?

> A user may want to control what each range is mapped to. So, I suggest a setup
> command
>
>      \setupmathmappings
>        [
>           digits={style,alternative},
>          lclatin={style,alternative},
>          uclatin={style,alternative},
>          lcgreek={style,alternative},
>          ucgreek={style,alternative},
>        ]
>

OK, it might be useful when one wants e.g. ALL Greek letters to be printed somehow, e.g. bold.

I don't think that the basic criterion for style in math is the (alphabet) range, it's rather the meaning of maths (variable/parameter/vector/tensor/operator (e.g. Nabla operator)). But OK -

> where the options for style are
>
>    normal, bold
>
> while the options for alternative are
>
>    normal, italic, sans, sansitalic, blackboard, script
>
> This command will the mappings for each range. **NOTE**: All combinations are not valid.
>
> A companion command
>
>      \definemathmappings
>        [whatever]
>        [....]
>
> can be used to define multiple mappings. These mappings can be used by
>
>      \setupmathmappings[whatever]
>
> (An alternative is that these mappings are activated using \whatever ...)
>
> For example, we can define a command to typeset vectors using
>
>      \definemathmappings
>        [vectors]
>        [ digits={bold,normal},
>         lclatin={bold,normal},
>         uclatin={bold,normal},
>         lcgreek={bold,normal},
>         ucgreek={bold,normal}]
>
>      \def\VEC{\groupedcommand{\setupmathmappings[vector]}{}}

Or rather the following (?): \def\VEC#1{\groupedcommand{\setupmathmappings[vector]}{#1}}

> If later, we want to represent vectors as sans serif, we can use
>
>      \definemathmappings
>        [vectors]
>        [ digits={normal,sans},
>         lclatin={normal,sans},
>         uclatin={normal,sans},
>         lcgreek={normal,sans},
>         ucgreek={normal,sans}]
>

This kind of switching would be great.

> This interface makes it easy to switch math fonts for disciplines that want
> different style for different alphabet ranges.
>
> It is relatively easy to implement the above interface. All we need is
> some bookkeeping to set the right attributes. The default math mapping
> commands can be reimplmeneted using \definemappings. Before implementing
> this, I want to ask the opinion of other math users.
>
> Would the above interface take care of different use cases, or is it missing
> something?

It looks good. Some examples would be needed, starting at simple ones and ending with "wildly" switching math formulas.

> Finally, I am not too happy with the syntax. There are only a few ConTeXt
> commands in which the keys take a pair of values. Another option is to allow all
> 12 valid options
>
>    normal, italic, sans, sansitalic, blackboard, script,
>    bold, bolditlaic, boldsans, boldsansitalic, boldblackboard, boldscript
>
> with the variants sansitalic-italicsans, boldsans-sansbold, etc. as synonmyms.
>
> Which way of specifying the keys do you prefer?

Personally, no matter. Programming "clarity" should be kept at most - so it's up to you. When some samples are provided, someone will follow them.

Thank for your effort.

Lukas

>
> Aditya


-- 
Ing. Lukáš Procházka [mailto:LPr@pontex.cz]
Pontex s. r. o.      [mailto:pontex@pontex.cz] [http://www.pontex.cz]
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