[texhax] Correcting for math-mode kerning before commas and periods?

Sat Oct 15 21:27:23 CEST 2005

```On Sat, Oct 15, 2005 at 07:57:09PM +0200, Uwe L?ck wrote:
> According to TeXbook p. 280f., there is a primitive command \unkern,
> such that \unkern\$ should serve your desire -- since the italic correction
> is a kern (TeXbook p. 287).

\unkern does not seem to work here.  I guess this is because
of the two-stage process by which the math lists are
processed -- when the math list is read by TeX, there is yet
no kern after the S in \$S\$, so \unkern does not have any
effect.  And when TeX converts the math list into horizontal
list and inserts the kern after the S, there is already no
\unkern.

What is needed here is some way to prevent TeX from
inserting the kern after S during the conversion from math
list to horizontal list, which is quite a complex process
(see Appendix G of The TeXbook).  Unfortunately, I don't
know how to do this.  Maybe one of the many gurus on this
list can help?

--
Best regards,