[texhax] Awful looking output

[Uwe Lück]

At 19:10 15.10.09, Uwe Lück wrote:
>Sorry, my below was a /question/: sure that TeX does any kerning in $WH$? 
>(/?/)

In the meantime I studied Appendix G of the TeXbook closely. According to 
Rule 14 kerning is applied indeed. So the fault for Michaels lament is the 
kerning table of the math italic font, as others said. Michael, choose 
another one!

Cheers,

     Uwe.

>At 13:20 14.10.09, Uwe Lück wrote:
>>At 06:30 13.10.09, Oleg Katsitadze wrote:
>>>On Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 01:13:32PM -0400, Michael Barr wrote:
>>> > Try this:
>>> > $HW=WH$
>>> >
>>> > Don't TeX's kerning tables usually do a better job than this.
>>>
>>>Well, that's the kerning for the math italic font.
>>
>>At 02:44 14.10.09, Reinhard Kotucha wrote:
>>>On 13 October 2009 Michael Barr wrote:
>>>  > All this is true, but the point was that you should not put math 
>>> formulas
>>>  > in \mathit (which is for italic text) or, at any rate, you should 
>>> not have
>>>  > to do so.  It is arguable that it was the WH that was wrong since there
>>>  > was not enough space and it looked like text, not math mode.  Whatever,
>>>  > TeX is supposed to work out the spacing automatically and doesn't.
>>>
>>>No.  Kerning tables have nothing to do with TeX at all.  They are font
>>>specific.  TeX uses whatever is in the .tfm files, regardless where
>>>they come from.
>>
>>Are all of you sure that TeX uses any kerning table in $HW=WH$. Please 
>>look at Appendix G of the TeXbook, "Generating Boxex from Formulas".
>>
>>My impression is that TeX does /not/ do any kerning here -- because it 
>>would be a bad idea. Kerning is good within words and only there. Kerning 
>>between two letters that are to represent a product or a composition 
>>would be confusing, making the misleading impression the two letters 
>>formed an /atomic/ name with an own meaning, similar to, e.g., "mod" or 
>>(in category theory) "ker".
>>
>>On the other hand, I think there /is/ something awful here: the way TeX 
>>deals with slanted symbols and fonts. Same problem with $\overline{H}$ 
>>and that you sometimes have to deal with italic corrections (setting them 
>>with plainTeX or avoiding them with LaTeX). TeX treats a slanted symbol 
>>as a /box/ (|box|), a /rectangle/ (|rectangle|). This is why $WH$ is 
>>wider than $HW$ (slanted "W" has its leftmost "dot" at its top, "H" at 
>>its bottom). Wouldn't it be nicer if it treated it as a /parallelogram/? 
>>(/parallelogram/ indeed!) Trying to set them as close as possible?
>>
>>Cheers,
>>
>>   Uwe.
>>
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