RE: Accented variables (names)

jpederse@wiley.com [mailto:jpederse@wiley.com] wrote on 06 August 2003
17:04:
>
> It would indeed be good to have some conventions. At Wiley we 
> will likely
> stay with the combining diacritical marks for single characters not in
> MathML in inline expressions (and use names we have provided 
> to vendors for
> them -- see http://v.wiley.com:3535/dtds/wileyml/dtd/wileycdm.ent.txt
> user/pass = wileyguest/wileyguest -- anyone is welcome to use 
> those names).

For text this is the right approach. Your list is a good set of names. But I
expect that the combining diacritics are usually inserted in the text by
editing software, which will use the Unicode point.

> But if the combining marks are not the thing to use within 
> MathML, then
> your suggested list does look like a good start. A few suggestions:
> 
> 1. Perhaps UnderBar should be eliminated, as it is a combining mark
> (̲) and with other accents in the list there are no under/over
> pairs. OverBar by itself should do the trick, although I 
> admit it sounds a
> bit funny using that name within <munder>.

Agreed. Both MathPlayer and Mozilla seem to expect this.
 
> 2. OverBar is actually defined to be the same codepoint as macr
> (&#x000AF;). This symbol applied to a single character does 
> not necessarily
> stretch the full width of the letter (compare &#x00304; and 
> &#x00305;). If
> there were ever a case where there was a need to draw a 
> distinction between
> the shorter line (macron) and a complete overline (&#x00305;) 
> on single
> characters, which I can imagine some finicky authors wanting, 
> there would
> not be a name for
> the latter.

&#x0203E; is an overline. It might be more suitable for a complete overline,
but Mozilla does just the opposite.

> 3. Of the others, DownBreve (&x00311;)  and TripleDot 
> (&x020DB;) are also
> combining marks, so presumably we should not or cannot use them by
> themselves in <mo>&....;</mo> but should put a space before them.
> 
> 4. We may also want DotDot (four dots above &#x020DC;) and a 
> double line
> (&#x0033F;) although those are also combining.

Agreed.
 
Regards,
Simon Pepping
DTD Development and Maintenance
Elsevier
s.pepping@elsevier.com
www.elsevier.com/locate/sgml

Received on Friday, 8 August 2003 06:56:24 UTC