mailing-list for TeXmacs Users

[Massimiliano Gubinelli <address@hidden>]

Dear all,
 
I cannot speak for Joris, but in my experience $...$ is the most common way 
people around me write LaTeX, so I guess it was intentional in the sense that 
it is what is usually done. It would be interesting to download a sample from 
the arXiv and see which is the distribution of different usages. Anyway is 
not a fundamental issue and actually quite easy to change in the export. It 
is not clear to me why we would like to do it. If the exported file is not 
used by humans then both kind of exports are correct and therefor fine, if it 
used by humans (e.g. to further modify it), it would be good to stick to the 
more common usage which is easier to type, but again the opposite opinion is 
also understandable to me.

Best regards,
Massimiliano Gubinelli

ps: I do not think that we should make a decision using a discussion in stack 
exchange. I would prefer a sample of documents from the real world which give 
a better picture of the current situation. If LaTeX wanted to discourage this 
attitude it would have made so that $...$ is invalid in LaTeX. 

pps: Again I agree that /( /) express better the start and end of the math, 
and more easily parsable by a machine. But I do not think it is a fundamental 
issue. Certainly we should not discuss much here on the TeXmacs mailing list 
what it is appropriate in LaTeX :)


> On 26. May 2022, at 10:28, Maxime Devos <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
> Basile Audoly schreef op do 26-05-2022 om 09:04 [+0200]:
>> Hi Maxime,
>> The stackexchange discussion mentions prominently that both options
>> are acceptable.
> 
> According to the two answers by ‘Lover of Structure’, there are a few
> advantages to \( ... \) (see ‘There is actually a very good reason to’
> and ‘For the users of the package soul’, MattocxBeckman, the answer
> about better error message, the answer of Mico about robustness).  And
> while $...$ is acceptable, that doesn't necessarily mean it's the best,
> maybe \(...\) is acceptable too and better?
> 
>> The arguments in favor of either one of the options are debatable.
>> At the end of the day, $…$ is both perfectly fine LaTeX
> 
> There are some disagreements about which is the best (apparently some
> consider \( \) to be ‘distracting’, and \(...\) takes more characters
> than $...$ though that doesn't seem relevant for an export).
> However, given that \(...\) is LaTeX and $...$ is raw non-LaTeX Tex,
> I consider \(...\) to be the default option.
> 
>> and very common.
> 
> I fail to see what the relevancy of it being commonly used (cf.
> argumentum ad populum).  For what it isn't worth, \(...\) is common
> too, and AFAICT the only reason \(...\) is less common than $...$ is
> inertia.
> 
> Greetings,
> Maxime
>