[pstricks] Tick labels and math mode

[Uwe Kern]

Alan Ristow <ristow at ece.gatech.edu> schrieb am 30.07.04 23:03:17:
>
> I noticed recently that tick labels on the axes are typeset as text,
> rather than math. As a result, negative numbers on the axes are preceded
> by hyphens rather than negative signs. I solved this for the y-axis by
> putting $ around the arguments of \pshlabel and \psvlabel in
> \pst@@hlabels and \pst@@vlabels, respectively.
> 
> Can anybody think of any complications that could result from this? If
> not, I would like to suggest this as a permanent change to \psaxes.
> After all, the tick labels are typically mathematical in nature, and
> since they are computed via multido it seems that they would *have* to
> be numerical (IOW, text tick labels do not seem to be an issue).

I do *not* agree.
A few months ago I had severe problems to change the font size of tick labels
in a private chart package, all experiments failed until I looked at the code details
to see that the labels were created in math mode.
>From my experience, changing math fonts (or font sizes) creates a lot of unnecessary
difficulties and complexity, especially if you need only the digits 0..9 to be compatible
with the document text.
The minus/hyphen problem can be solved (approximately) by a negativity test
and using -- instead; of course, no perfect solution, but for my eyes better than
using "correct" Times Roman math digits in a Bookman text document context
(even worse in a sans serif situation).

Therefore I would suggest to introduce a package option "mathticks" to leave the decision
to the user which mode is to be applied.

Regards
Uwe

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