[Tex/LaTex] Why doesn’t TeX/LaTeX have reasonable defaults in certain cases

math-mode

I am in constant search for an alternative to LaTeX, but it seems I am stuck for it for a long time, and I am trying to see the bright side of it.

The other day one thought struck me, I think, LaTeX is missing many reasonable defaults, especially math environment. For example, it is very unlikely that you have three variables named l, o and g at the same time, and you are writing product of those three variables in that order. But still you have to write \log to indicate you meant the function log(). In other words, when someone writes log, they (almost) always mean the log function.

Same is true for parentheses and braces, in math environment when one uses a parenthesis again they most probably mean a \left(. I know, I can introduce my own \( commands but again they are not by default.

Because I am using LaTeX mostly for math typesetting, I am only aware of those kind of non-defaults. My question is why are the things are not designed such that these most basic, fundamental things are not handled by default? I read that Knuth is considered math typesetting specialist, he should have noticed these burdens while he is using TeX in my opinion.

Best Answer

Well, to answer your question. The behaviour is reasonable, because it is consistent. I use, besides \log, the functions \det, \tr, \tg, \inv, \abs, etc. If you made the "most-used" ones "backslash-less", then you don't know which ones have backslash and which don't. As well, some of us generate automated LaTeX codes and such exceptions would change our work to a true hell.

For parentheses, you get into serious troubles with things like [0,1[ for semi-open intervals, or even [0,1) for that.

Remember, LaTeX is good because it is consistent hence predictable, once you learn the basics.

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[Tex/LaTex] Why LaTeX uses upright uppercase Greek letters by default in math mode

Computer Modern's greek (bottom) font is (loosely) based on Monotype's 155M Greek font (top):

comparison between CM and Monotype Greek font

The Monotype 155M font itself is related to the Porson greek font, which was one of the most used typeface for greek in english speaking countries. One of the characteristic of this font is that it has upright capitals but slanted lowercase. This might seem surprising today, but the first italic fonts all had upright capitals (see for example the image of the Aldine Press article on wikipedia)

Notice that in France, the traditional font for greek was Didot's, which has both upright capitals and lowercase, which is why using upright lowercase greek was standard in France.

You can see versions of the Didot and Porson fonts on the Greek Font Society website.

[Tex/LaTex] Shortcut to writing out long, common, expressions

Creating macros that provide shortcuts for frequently used strings is a very good idea. For an entry-level introduction to the uses of the LaTeX \newcommand directive see, e.g., Chapter 6, "Customizing LaTeX", of the guide The Not So Short Introduction to LATEX2e.

For instance, you could issue the instructions

\newcommand\loghi{\log(\mathrm{H}\textsc{i})}
\newcommand\sfrm{\log(\mathrm{SFR} / \mathrm{M}_{\odot})}

in the preamble and, later on in the body of the text, write something like

bleet bleet $\loghi=\sfrm$ more bleet bleet

As you've already noted in a comment, a complication arises if these macros can also be used in bold surroundings such as sectioning headers. Specifically, given the above definition of \loghi, LaTeX will try to typeset the letter i in bold-smallcaps. As you've discovered, if the font family you're using does not feature a bold-smallcaps font, the letter will be set in "ordinary" bold, i.e., as i. Not the desired effect, right?!

What to do? I think you have (at least) two options. The first is to use a font family that does feature a bold-smallcap font. Two such families arenewt xtext/newtxmath and newpxtext/newpxmath . The former provides a "Times Roman" look, the latter a "Palatino" look. This may (or may not...) be acceptable to you.

Second, you could set up the macro that defines \loghi in such a way that it won't even try to use a (possibly nonexistent) bold smallcaps glyph. For instance,

\newcommand\loghi{\log(\mathrm{H}\textsc{\mdseries i})}

(note the addition of \mdseries to the argument of \textsc) instructs LaTeX to apply \textsc to a "medium weight" (rather than a "bold weight") version of i. As long as the medium-weight font features smallcaps glyphs, you'll be guaranteed success.

Best Answer

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[Tex/LaTex] Why LaTeX uses upright uppercase Greek letters by default in math mode

[Tex/LaTex] Shortcut to writing out long, common, expressions

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