[XeTeX] odd dots in math when using russian for math

[Will Robertson]

On 2009-10-01 03:14:02 +0930, Andrew Moschou 
<andmos at gmail.com> said:

> I know about \dimexpr. But call me old fashioned, I prefer to do things the
> older way sometimes but not always (If you look carefully, you will see a
> \numexpr). Actually, now that I think about it, I think that should be a
> \dimexpr?:
> 
>   \ifnum\dimen@ <\numexpr\ht\z@ -\ro at length\relax
> 
> Hmm, maybe not, \dimen@ is accidentally multiplied by 65536 and \numexpr of
> the length forces the value to be multiplied by 65536 so I think it actually
> works out :-), is that right?

I think so, yeah. I've used mixed dim/num comparisons before in similar ways.

When you've got pieces like this:

    \advance\ro at length -\dp\z@
    \advance\ro at length 0.5\ht\z@
    \advance\ro at length 0.5\dp\z@

it always screams out at me to be written as

    \ro at length=\dimexpr \ro at length-\dp\z at +0.5\ht\z at + 0.5\dp\z@ \relax

But only a matter of preference, of course!

>> Or perhaps I should be encouraging you to try out expl3...)
> 
> Oh, no, no, no.

Is this when I get to call you old-fashioned? :)
I'm interested in hearing others' thoughts on/experiences with it.

> Yep, I posted to that thread.

And paying better attention than I.

Will