[OS X TeX] blackboard bold semicolon

[Ross Moore]

Hi Art,

On 24/07/2008, at 2:17 AM, Art Werschulz wrote:
> Hi.
>
> I am trying to produce a blackboard bold semicolon.  My test file  
> is as follows:
>
> <testfile>
> \documentclass[12pt]{article}
> \usepackage{amsfonts}
>
> \begin{document}
> $R{\mathbb{;}}S$ and $R;S$ should look different (the semicolon should
> be blackboard bold and normal, respectively).

Sorry, I cannot agree with you here.
What is a "blackboard bold semi-colon" meant to mean?
How is it different to a normal semi-colon?
If there is a different meaning, where does this occur
within existing literature?

Blackboard-bold is meant as a collection of symbols (that happen
to resemble ordinary letters). It is *not* meant to be an
alternative alphabet used for constructing words and sentences.

> Also, look at
> $\mathbb{R;S}$ and $R;S$ the complete math expressions should be
> blackboard bold and normal, respectively).

No.
A "complete math expression" should never be all blackboard-bold.
Individual symbols within a math expression may be blackboard bold.

> \end{document}
> </testfile>
>
> Following the advice in the "Comprehensive LaTeX Symbol List", I  
> have tried this using the amsfonts, amssymb, txfonts, pxfonts,  
> mathbbol, bbm, and dsfont packages (with the variant versions of  
> the \mathbb command).  I didn't try the bbol or mbboard packages,  
> since they are not installed.
>
> None of these produced a blackboard bold semicolon---just the  
> normal semicolon.
>
> Note that the blackboard bold semicolon showed up ok in "tex  
> testfont", using bbold10 (or bbold17) as the test font.

Fonts can contain symbols that have not gained acceptance
in any particular field of mathematics.

If you use these symbols, then you will certainly
have difficulty trying to get your work published,
in a journal, ...

  ... or electronically on the web, since there is
no available Unicode code-point for such a symbol.

>
> Any idea what I'm doing wrong here?  Thanks.
>
> Art Werschulz (8-{)}   "Metaphors be with you."  -- bumper sticker
> GCS/M (GAT): d? -p+ c++ l u+(-) e--- m* s n+ h f g+ w+ t++ r- y?
> Internet: agw STRUDEL comcast.net


Hope this helps,

	Ross


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ross Moore                                       ross at maths.mq.edu.au
Mathematics Department                           office: E7A-419
Macquarie University                             tel: +61 (0)2 9850 8955
Sydney, Australia  2109                          fax: +61 (0)2 9850 8114
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