Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!yale!horne-scott
From: horne-scott@CS.YALE.EDU (Scott Horne)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Re: Slanted + signs in italic text?
Message-ID: <61904@yale-celray.yale.UUCP>
Date: 27 May 89 03:45:59 GMT
References: <47700053@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu> <566@sphere.mast.ohio-state.edu> <1055@sas.UUCP>
Sender: root@yale.UUCP
Reply-To: horne-scott@CS.YALE.EDU (Scott Horne)
Organization: Yale University Computer Science Dept, New Haven CT  06520-2158
Lines: 59

In article <1055@sas.UUCP> bts@sas.UUCP (Brian T. Schellenberger) writes:
>In article <566@sphere.mast.ohio-state.edu> gae@sphere.UUCP (Gerald Edgar) writes:
>|In article <47700053@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu> mcdonald@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu writes:
>|>
>|>to slanted ones ($\theta$ {\it +} $\theta$) and to my eyes it looks
>|>more normal. What do the cognoscenti out there think of this?

See below.  :-)

>|REAL math books do not use slanted + signs.  Of course, with TeX,
>|you can do whatever you want.  But I think you should do things as
>|much like everyone else as possible, or the reader will be distracted.

I agree.

>Well, certainly you shouldn't slant the + just because the math fonts are
>slanted (that would be really odd), but are you certain about the conventions
>when the entire math formula is logically part of slanted text?  I'm not sure
>that I've ever seen such a thing myself, so I wouldn't know either way.

I am.  The plus sign should *not* be slanted.  Nor should any other symbols
be (unless they regularly are in math formulae, such as letters--by the way,
please note that the math fonts are not ``slanted'').

You won't go wrong if you type formulae this way:

	\proclaim Horne's Theorem. For any even number~$x$ greater than~$4$,
	there exist prime numbers $y$~and~$z$ such that $x=y+z$.

The plus sign will appear unslanted, as it should.

(Incidentally, Horne's Theorem is often incorrectly called Goldbach's
Conjecture.  :-) )

>In any case, why is the original poster slanting so much text that it
>includes a formula?  Generally, slanted text should be kept to a bar
>minimum, methinks.

Yethinks correctly.  :-)  However, it is a standard practice to print
statements of theorems (as well as lemmas, corollaries, conjectures, &c)
in slanted type, with the formulae set as usual.  (Note, though, that proofs
of theorems should not be set slanted.)

>More than one word tends to look busy fairly quickly,
>except in unusual situations.

Yes.  However, in this ``unusual situation'', slanted type helps to set off
the theorem from the text.

>Just my 2\cents worth . . .

Naaaah, I'd say at least a nickel. . . .  :-)

					--Scott

horne-scott@cs.Yale.edu          ...!{harvard,cmcl2,decvax}!yale!horne-scott
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