It would be nice have user-configurable settings like this. I
definitely prefer mathbb - I think its nice to have special symbols
for things like the rationals (as \mathbb{Q}); it lets you use Q as a
variable or other object without confusion.
-Marshall
On Mar 24, 2:00 pm, William Stein <wst...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 24, 2009 at 11:22 AM, John H Palmieri
>
>
>
> <jhpalmier...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On Mar 24, 10:48 am, Jason Grout <jason-s...@creativetrax.com> wrote:
> >> William Stein wrote:
> >> > On Tue, Mar 24, 2009 at 9:58 AM, John H Palmieri
> >> > <jhpalmier...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> >> Currently the latex methods for ZZ, RR, etc. all used mathbf -- plain
> >> >> boldface -- rather than mathbb -- 'blackboard' bold. See also the (not
> >> >> currently in use) file SAGE_ROOT/devel/sage/doc/common/macros.tex:
> >> >> lots of mathbf, no mathbb.
>
> >> >> Is this an official style choice for Sage, or did it just
> >> >> spontaneously occur?
>
> >> > I "officially" chose it for the same reason I chose mathbb in all the
> >> > books/articles I wrote, which is that numerous people in publishing
> >> > convinced me that it is a better choice.
>
> >> I'm curious what the persuasive reasoning was. I've always liked mathbb.
>
> > My impression is that people (maybe Bourbaki?) decided that bold-face
> > should be used for Z, R, etc. Then people giving lectures wanted a
> > way to reproduce this, so someone invented blackboard bold for use on
> > a blackboard. And then the handwritten blackboard bold began to creep
> > into printed material, and we now have mathbb. So to me it seems sort
> > of backwards to use blackboard bold when you can use ordinary bold
> > face.
>
> > Also, Wikipedia claims that Serre disapproves of the use of blackboard
> > bold in typesetting, and Serre's opinion carries some weight...
>
> Thanks John. That's precisely the argument that influenced me long ago...
>
> William
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