Hi all,
I have been toying around with a couple of ideas which might be worth
investigating for the LaTeX printer. First off, different bracket
styles depending on the nesting level. So it might go:
{ [ ( ( ) ) ] }; exactly how to do this I am unsure. It depends on how
easy it is to maintain the nesting level. Ideally {} and [] should
only be used for adjacent brackets, for example:
(x*(y+3)+4)^3 doesn't really require nested brackets, but:
[a*exp(z*I)] does.
This is the kind of thing that I might be tempted towards the evils of
regular expressions to achieve. Hopefully, however there is a much
more elegant solution.
Secondly, constant expanding. If one has a fraction <x>/k where k is a
constant it is often nice to pull the constant out front when
printing, giving 1/k * <x> where <x> is an arbitrary expression. This,
again sacrifices horizontal space for better readability (a larger
font size can be used for <x>). I am yet to look into how hard this
would be to achieve, however.
Finally, an option to use exp() as opposed to {e}^{<x>}. This is most
useful when outputting the solutions to differential equations, which
often raise e to quite a large fraction/expression. Using exp() leads
to better readability (due to the larger font size and greater
spacing). I propose the following: we have a configuration option to
choose between {e}^{x}, exp(x) and auto, where auto uses heuristics to
decide (as soon as you get to needing brackets or fractions exp() is
often nicer).
Be interested to know what you all think -- and if you have any
implementation hints.
Regards, Freddie.
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