Darren Dale wrote: > On Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 9:46 AM, Michael Droettboom <md...@st... > <mailto:md...@st...>> wrote: > > Manuel Metz wrote: > > Michael Droettboom wrote: > > > >> There was a discussion on this list around a year ago about > this. The > >> concern was that not rendering $ as $ would break (matplotlib) > backward > >> compatibility with scripts that don't care about math at all > but use a > >> lot of dollar signs (e.g. financial plots). This is one of the few > >> places where we deliberately broke usetex compatibility in > favour of > >> matplotlib compatibility. > >> > >> That said, it's probably a bug that the escaped dollar sign in > non-math > >> context is not rendered as a dollar sign. > >> > >> As a workaround "$\$%1.2f$" works with usetex on or off, with the > >> proviso that it uses math- rather than text-rendering for the > numbers. > >> > >> Mike > >> > > > > In that case I suggest to note this somewhere in the docs (and User > > Guide) with three exclamation marks (or is it ???). > > > So there's really two sub-bugs here: > > 1) '\8ドル' gives '\8ドル' in mathtext (well, actually it gets sent verbatim > to the non-math text renderer, which is a bug). This, IMHO, is a > "must-fix". > > 2) '8ドル' gives '8ドル' in mathtext and an error in usetex. This could be > solved in two ways: > > a) document the difference > b) make '8ドル' give '8ドル' in usetex as well > > I realise b) is technically making usetex accept a string that is not > normally valid TeX -- but it's not like a user would ever enter > '8ドル' and > *want* to get a TeX error back. And usetex strings aren't > perfectly TeX > anyway. > > Personally, I'm leaning toward b), because it requires less mental > effort for the user turning usetex on/off. And it doesn't force us to > backtrack on the idea of supporting "100ドル.00" easily. > > But before I commit -- any feedback? > > > I opposed to b). If we go that route, we can look forward to > advertising usetex as "a latex backend, with familiar, standard latex > markup, except when it isnt." It's not as bad as that. '\8ドル' will still work as in LaTeX as it always has and as a LaTeX expert would expect it to. All I'm proposing is that '8ドル', which is currently a LaTeX syntax error, will behave as it does when usetex is turned off. So it's not breaking anything that's already valid. It's a question of which pain is worse, I guess. The deeper question is -- should usetex even strive to have any compatibility with standard text? If not, then I can see your point. Mike -- Michael Droettboom Science Software Branch Operations and Engineering Division Space Telescope Science Institute Operated by AURA for NASA