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From: espie@ibis.Stanford.EDU (Marc Espie)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Re: Math mode in LaTeX
Message-ID: <1991May28.070140.16324@neon.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 28 May 91 07:01:40 GMT
References: <1991May15.205919.12393@serval.net.wsu.edu> <JEFFT.91May16102428@tailgunner.mit.edu>
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In article <JEFFT.91May16102428@tailgunner.mit.edu> jefft@athena.mit.edu (Jeff Tang) writes:
>In article <1991May15.205919.12393@serval.net.wsu.edu> rdubey@yoda.eecs.wsu.edu (Rakesh Dubey - grad student) writes:
>
>   I need to typeset a lot of material in which mathematical 
>   formulas are interspersed with text. Is it possible to define
>   something similar to $...$ for the text mode, so that I could use it
>   instead of \mbox{...} which really gets clumsy and takes too much
>   space. Right now I write $a \mbox{ or } b$ where it will be very
>   nice to have something like $a !or! b$. I believe formulas will be
>   easier to read this way. (The letter ! is just for example).
>
>How about the  $  character?
>
>$a$ or $b$    should work, though you'll probably need to add spaces.
>
>Jeff Tang
>jefft@athena.mit.edu
There is a very good reason why this is not a good idea:
$\left(a ! or ! b \right)$.
and another one:
$$a ! or ! b$$

So, now redefining !thing! to act like \mbox{thing} is not really 
difficult. Here is a quick answer, it should work with little or no
modification.
----
\catcode`\!=\active
\def\leavemath{\egroup\let!=\entermath}
\def\entermath{\let!=\leavemath\mbox\bgroup}
\let!=\leavemath
----
    Marc (espie@flamingo.stanford.edu)