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From: fj@iesd.auc.dk (Frank Jensen)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Re: Why is there no seperator in TeX/LaTeX
Message-ID: <FJ.90Aug20121003@pink.iesd.auc.dk>
Date: 20 Aug 90 11:10:03 GMT
References: <1990Aug16.214657.16764@sctc.com> <6433@milton.u.washington.edu>
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In-reply-to: charlie@milton.u.washington.edu's message of 17 Aug 90 01:55:42 GMT

In article <6433@milton.u.washington.edu> charlie@milton.u.washington.edu (Charles Geyer) writes:

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   From: charlie@milton.u.washington.edu (Charles Geyer)
   Newsgroups: comp.text
   Date: 17 Aug 90 01:55:42 GMT
   References: <1990Aug16.214657.16764@sctc.com>
   Reply-To: charlie@stat.washington.edu (Charlie Geyer)
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   In article <1990Aug16.214657.16764@sctc.com> herndon@sctc.com (William R.
   Herndon) writes:

   >    I am curious as to why, in the design of TeX/LaTeX, no character 
   >    exists that can be used as a seperator in the names of macros.

   Because that's the way it is.  The reason might have been to make $\alpha-z$
   make sense.  Or it might not.

Why not try "\catcode`\-=11" ? (I haven't tested it.)  It will screw up
$\alpha-z$ though (at least if you don't have a macro named "\alpha-z"
:-).


Frank Jensen
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Aalborg University
DENMARK