Re: Mathematical selection

Neil Soiffer wrote:
>
> Again, I think pullback is used in a superscript position.  
> Convolution uses "*" as an infix operator that does have the same (or 
> very close to the same) precedence as multiplication.  Notations are 
> re-used in different contexts with different meanings.  The remarkable 
> thing is that for at least commonly used notations and operators, 
> people seem to have come to agreement as to their relative precedence 
> and grouping -- it makes understanding the new use easier.
>
I think you are right but I am fearing that this only relies on 
experimental observation...
>
> The MathML spec does recommend proper nesting of mrows to reflect the 
> structure of the expression.  This aids in linebreaking and indenting 
> expressions.  Proper nesting also aids in writing transformations of 
> MathML to whatever.  Unfortunately, proper nesting is not the norm.  
> However, this does mean that applications can distinguish themselves 
> by inferring the proper mrow structure.  They do so at the very minor 
> risk that the generating application really did want a flat mrow.
>
Standardizin g a feature such as selection based on the proper nesting 
is probably what might stimulate it ?
My intent would be to take this further into a specification of the copy 
action (and maybe paste).

paul

Received on Thursday, 30 March 2006 21:05:40 UTC