# [texhax] Math notation

Philip G. Ratcliffe philip.ratcliffe at uninsubria.it
Thu May 11 11:04:10 CEST 2006

> > I had not been aware that there is an ISO Standard.  Thanks for the
> > hint.
> >
> > The \textrm{d}x notation is used in Germany for decades.  There are
> > *very* few exceptions.  However I've *never* seen this notation in any
> > book written in English.

You don't read physics books then; I just picked up the first two on my disk
and both use it.  The class file distributed by Elsevier for their journals
and proceedings contains the following two lines:

\if at symbold\else\def\d{\,\mathrm{d}}\fi
\def\e{\mathop{\mathrm{e}}\nolimits}

of course, that's probably not a good idea since it overwrites the LaTeX
definition of \d (which is an "under dot").

> > Lars, maybe it looks annatural for you because you are not accustomed
> > to it (yet).  To me, the American notation looks unnatural.
> >
>
> so it's acultural thing then

Indeed (although I suppose you meant to type "a cultural" and not
"acultural", which might have certain appeal, depending on the side of the
Atlantic to which you belong ;-), the American Institute of Physics style
manual seems to prefer an italic "d" and does explicitly mention italics for
"e".

> since it's not widely used here, I do not promote the notation in
> my LaTeX
> book.

Cheers,  Phil

P.S.  I personally always use the upright form for "d", "e" and "i" (except
when American journals force me to do otherwise) and so avoid Michale Doob's
wonderful little typographical problem.