On 2013-07-29, at 5:34 AM, Hans Hagen 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

On Tue, 30 Jul 2013, Hans Hagen wrote:

On 7/30/2013 3:28 PM, Aditya Mahajan wrote:

...

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.

currently yes ... i hate to introduce all kind of extra tests for what value is given and by permitting \commands we also become less robust

In the mathsets module, I assumed that a valid math delimiter is used as the value for left, right, and middle keys. In that case, no extra test it needed.

keep in mind that one can clone

\definemathfence [fancybracket] [bracket] [command=yes,color=red]

so if there is a properly named base set (i tend to clean expressive verbose names, at least as base commands instead of all the weird ones that showed up over time (along with entities with slightly different names) ... clean math as start and we can always add dirty math as instances

Agreed. Unmatched brackets are not so common, so this the default set is a reasonable starting point. Aditya