[texhax] verbatim environment problem

[Barbara Beeton]

justin walker is trying to get the keyboard
symbol ^ (circumflex) into a coding instruction
in typewriter style:

\begin{alltt}
  ls .[^.]*
\end{alltt}

he got an error message about $ being added ...

two suggestions involved math mode:

  ls .[$^$.]*
  ls .[$\uparrow$.]*

to which i countered

    > right diagnosis, inadequate solution.

    Gee.  No one's ever called me inadequate before :-}

er, that was the solution, not the instigator.
i wouldn't dare tack that label on someone i've
never met.  <g>

more commentary:

    > since the ^ indicates a superscript, the first
    > suggestion will yield a complaint that it's
    > incomplete.

    I don't see the complaint in the log file.  I'm using TeXShop on Mac OS X,
    and all I see is some 'underfull \hbox' babble.  No other complaints.

i'm not sure why there wasn't an error, but see below
for justin's description of the output (pdf file was
attached to his message, but not included here).

i also pointed out that

    [...] the \uparrow isn't the same shape.

and suggested a (plain tex) trick:

  ls .[\char`\^.]*

from justin:

    This may be a simple matter of fonts, but I get the following (forgive the
    PDF in-line), where the order is as above (with your version last):

    [pdf omitted]
    
    To me, the 'uparrow' in the second line looks most correct.  The third
    looks like a 'caret'; the first, like a lowered 'caret' on a '.'.

    Am I missing something?

the uparrow is in the symbol font, not typewriter.
in the first example, the circumflex appears as an
accent since it wasn't given an empty place-marker
so it would appear by itself.

the third example, however, appears exactly as it
does in my mail reader, with the exact ^ character
as it appears in the cmtt font.  admittedly, i am
using a low-resolution monospace font for reading mail,
since it's important for me to be able to distinguish
input niceties like this.  i suspect justin is using
some "fancier" font, so he's not used to seeing the
"old-fashioned" monospace teletype style.

since justin advertises himself thusly,

    Justin C. Walker, Curmudgeon-At-Large
    Institute for the Absorption of Federal Funds

i can assure him that i've practiced long and hard
to be just as curmudgeonly as he is (just ask any
of my colleagues on the tugboat production team!
<g>), though i don't seem to have found such a
reliable source of funding.
							-- bb