Comma used as separator should get extra space at the end

[jwmerrill]

[kschaefe]

That doesn't make sense when the comma is a place separator. You'd need to ensure that the extra space happens only in coordinate pairs or other specific cases. Furthermore, you would want to double the space if the user types (3, 5).

[laughinghan]

Place separator meaning decimal separator, like 21/10 = 2,1? How do you deal with that in LaTeX? I think that in math mode in LaTeX comma always has a space after it

Han

On Tue, Feb 23, 2016 at 9:23 AM, Karl Schaefer notifications@github.com wrote:

That doesn't make sense when the comma is a place separator. You'd need to ensure that the extra space happens only in coordinate pairs or other specific cases. Furthermore, you would want to double the space if the user types (3, 5).

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/mathquill/mathquill/issues/524#issuecomment-187799779 .

[laughinghan]

See also https://github.com/mathquill/mathquill/issues/156#issuecomment-13172968 ?

[kschaefe]

Well, you have the place separator, such as: 3,000,000 -> usually used in money and for money math

Or the comma for the decimal separator (used in German): 3,14

Having either of those cases automatically insert a space would be incorrect.

At the minimum, this should be configurable.

[jwmerrill]

I think we should generally stick to what math mode LaTeX does in terms of typesetting decisions. On Tue, Feb 23, 2016 at 1:14 PM Karl Schaefer notifications@github.com wrote:

Well, you have the place separator, such as: 3,000,000 -> usually used in money and for money math

Or the comma for the decimal separator (used in German): 3,14

Having either of those cases automatically insert a space would be incorrect.

At the minimum, this should be configurable.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/mathquill/mathquill/issues/524#issuecomment-187825094 .

[kschaefe]

That makes sense to system-generated LaTeX, but when a user types a comma for either of my cases, they should see what they would expect to see and not have random spaces rendered. Requiring the users to know LaTeX seems like a non-starter, having to have a custom keyboard options for a comma without following space.

There a two competing features in MathQuill:

1. Normal LaTeX rendering.
2. Typed data rendering.

The first case assumes that the user has a complete (enough) understanding of LaTeX to get the formatting that they need, the latter does not. The last thing I need is to have fifth graders become flummoxed by math because of weird spacing issues.

[laughinghan]

Sorry to be clear I think we agree! The LaTeX that's imported or exported should be rendered consistently with how it would be rendered by other LaTeX renderers; the comma that is typed should be "smart" and do what the typist wants, and that may mean it's exported as not just a comma but also some LaTeX spacing modifiers (,\! or however you achieve the desired spacing in LaTeX).

[kschaefe]

Great! Yeah, we were just talking past one another.

[jwmerrill]

The trick in LaTeX is to write 3{,}000{,}000 if you don't want spaces.

FWIW, I also agree with Han about the distinction between typesetting LaTeX and interpreting keystrokes. On Tue, Feb 23, 2016 at 1:57 PM Han Seoul-Oh notifications@github.com wrote:

Sorry to be clear I think we agree! The LaTeX that's imported or exported should be rendered consistently with how it would be rendered by other LaTeX renderers; the comma that is typed should be "smart" and do what the typist wants, and that may mean it's exported as not just a comma but also some LaTeX spacing modifiers (,! or however you achieve the desired spacing in LaTeX).

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/mathquill/mathquill/issues/524#issuecomment-187841581 .