Hello,
Scott Randby <[email protected]> writes:
> It seems odd to me that Org would see multiple subscripts as being
> really one subscript.
It doesn't. LaTeX does. Org clearly translates a_b_c as two consecutive
subscript components. Then LaTeX visually merges them.
> I realize that Org is not a front-end to LaTeX. But the standards of
> other output formats are not the standards of LaTeX. Different output
> formats have different purposes. In this case, one could view Org as
> forcing text mode on the user when math mode is appropriate.
Who knows what mode is appropriate? Certainly not Org.
>> In Org, if you want to enter math mode, you need to explicitly request
>> it, e.g., with:
>>
>> a_{$1 + 1$}
>
> If this was true, then a_b would be exported to a\_b instead of
> a\(_\text{b}\).
Of course note, a\_b is not even a subscript. a\(_\text{b}\) is a robust
way to get "textual" subscript, which is the default for Org.
> Math mode is entered any time \(...\) is used, and in the a_b case,
> the user did not explicitly request it.
AFAIK, there is no way in LaTeX to get subscript without entering,
temporarily in this case, in math mode. Anyway, per \text{}, "b" is not
really in math mode, as you noticed.
Regards,
--
Nicolas Goaziou