to tilde or not to tilde in Russian math

[Boris Veytsman]

A very interesting discussion about the punctuation after the
displayed equations.

I'd like to add I've just browsed through the ultimate source on Russian
typography,  Gilenson's  Spravochnik Tehnicheskogo Redaktora (The Tech
Editor's Handbook), 1971.  Now Russian rules *are* different from the
Western one.  The most prominent example of the difference is the line
breaks in equaions:  according to the Russian rules if you break on a
sign, you repeat it, like

     a + b + c + d + e =
     = gh.

Anyway, the Russian rules are the followng:

1. The punctuation is added to the formulae if appropriate.

2. If the formula ends in one line symbol (letter, digit, etc), no
   space between the symbol and the punctiation

3. If the formula ends in multiline expression (fraction, tall
   delimiter etc), then 2 points space is used between the expression
   and the punctuation - this is equivalent to \, space in TeX.

Seems reasonable to me, but I am used to Russian math typography.

-- 
Good luck

-Boris

"The trouble with doing something right the first time is that nobody
appreciates how difficult it was."
		-- Walt West