[OS X TeX] automatic superscript braces in TeXShop editor

[Don Green Dragon]

Hello Herb and Ross,

Thank you both for explaining how to use \usepackage{xspace} properly.

As to Ross's further comments:

On 12Mar2012, at 7:09 PM, Ross Moore wrote:

> <<snip>>

> Please do *not* define single-letter commands for your own
> macros. There are many with already have a meaning in TeX,
> or (La)TeX with system-wide packages loaded for supporting
> particular accents, languages and character sets.
> e.g.
>  \B  \C  \G  \H  \L  \M  \O  \P  \S  \T  \U 
> and maybe some others.

Not in the habit of using the above, so I checked them out. \C \O \P and \S are useful (to me), and even if they were not, I would not redefine them (\renewcommand) for personal use. As to the others, \B \T and \U generate ``Undefined control sequence'' error messages. \H seems to do `strange' things!!!


> Even more of the lowercase ones have a meaning.

I believe it!


> Why does this matter?
> Think about collaborating with a foreign author,
> or just requiring to typeset an author's name, affiliation
> or foreign title, within a bibliography entry.

Not so sure about the above! My practice has been: 

Whenever I want to introduce a personal command via \newcommand, I enter the details in the preface and then do a typeset. If there are any complaints, such as the "already defined'' one, then I back off and revise the my command's name. So far that has not caused problems, or, at least, I'm not aware of any problems --- yet!  :-)

As to collaborating with other authors, I'm not in that ball park yet, but I've often thought about how user-defined devices would be handled. Methinks a great deal of discussion would be required. For a team effort, a good approach  might be to eliminate personal quirks, but I suspect that could be contentious.

However, Ross's use of the adjective 'foreign' puzzles me. How come you (Ross) did not write: "... with any author.''? As to bibliographies, I'm not into the BibTeX league yet, and have found \begin{thebibliography} and \bibitem serve me well --- so far.


> Using  \NN  is better, in that the name conveys the
> "double-struck" aspect of the symbol that you want it for.

Not very keen on that solution, but I will keep it in mind. ;-) Pleased to know that \C and \O can be used. 


> However, you still need to be careful of \AA  and  \SS and maybe some others.

I can see the usefulness of \AA but I've often wondered why \LaTeX bothers with \SS. 


> Hope this helps,
> 
> 	Ross

Advice from Herb and Ross always helps. Thanks!  :-)


Don Green Dragon
fergdc at Shaw.ca