[Mac OS X TeX] BBEdit syntax coloring

[Bruno Voisin]

<x-flowed>> It is not recommended to use $ in tex source code because it is a tex
> primitive.
> instead use \( and \[

A problem with \(, as opposed to the "equivalent" $, is that it's 
fragile and requires protection.

Suppose you want a section named "The alpha-example", and a table of 
contents.

- If you write \section{The $\alpha$-example} then the following line is 
written to the .toc file:

\contentsline {subsection}{\numberline {3.2.}The $\alpha $-example}{22}

and nothing bad happens.

- If you write \section{The \(\alpha\)-example} then you get the error 
message:

! LaTeX Error: Bad math environment delimiter.
[...]
l.8 ...turn> to continue without it.}-example}{22}

and, after entering scrollmode, the following line is written to the 
.toc file:

\contentsline {subsection}{\numberline {3.2.}The \relax $\alpha \relax 
\GenericError { }{LaTeX Error: Bad math environment delimiter}{See the 
LaTeX manual or LaTeX Companion for explanation.}{Your command was 
ignored.\MessageBreak Type I <command> <return> to replace it with 
another command,\MessageBreak or <return> to continue without 
it.}-example}{22}

Clearly not what you want!

- If you write \section{The \protect\(\alpha\protect\)-example} then the 
following line is written to the .toc file:

\contentsline {subsection}{\numberline {3.2.}The \(\alpha \)-example}{22}

and all's well again - but not very handy!

> but anyone is free

It's for avoiding that kind of problem, I guess, that people often 
prefer to stick to $ $ constructs.

Bruno Voisin


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</x-flowed>