<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">I am having trouble creating a good version of the composition symbol (if one exists, I'd like to know).<div><br></div><div>I find \circ alone a bit too big, so am using \mathsmaller{\circ}. In response to an earlier posting, I</div><div>expanded this to \mathbin{\mathsmaller{\circ}}, which gives a reasonable horizontal spacing. But I am observing a </div><div>different problem: the code</div><div>***********</div><div><div><div>\newcommand{\compose}{\mathbin{\mathsmaller\circ}}</div><div>**********</div></div></div><div>results in a vertical spacing which is constant, but doesn't look that way: when the</div><div>surrounding functions are lower case, it looks fine, but with upper-case function names</div><div>there is the illusion that the circle is nearly at floor level: apparently it is centered (vertically)</div><div>on the height of a lower-case letter, and so does not appear centered when the surrounding</div><div>letters are upper-case. (see attached output below)</div><div><br></div><div>In response to my earlier posting about this problem, it was suggested I use \vcenter,</div><div>but the code </div><div>************</div><div>\newcommand{\compose}{\mathbin{\vcenter{$\mathsmaller\circ}$}}</div><div>************</div><div>leads to crazy behavior: in some instances, the function following the \compose symbol is either</div><div>tabbed very far to the right, or even appears on a new line.</div><div><br></div><div>Is there a way to control this so that with upper-case function names the composition symbol </div><div>appears higher?</div><div><div> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; "><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">Zbigniew Nitecki</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">Department of Mathematics</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">Tufts University</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">Medford, MA 02155</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">telephones:</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">Office<span class="Apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-converted-tab"> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span>(617)627-3843</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">Dept.<span class="Apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-converted-tab"> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span>(617)627-3234</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">Dept. fax<span class="Apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-converted-tab"> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span>(617)627-3966</font></p><a href="http://www.tufts.edu/~znitecki/">http://www.tufts.edu/~znitecki/</a></span> </div><br></div></body></html>