[OS X TeX] \(...\) vs $...$ for inline equations.

[Herb Schulz]

On 10/1/04 1:11 AM, "Jérôme Laurens" <jerome.laurens at u-bourgogne.fr> wrote:

> 
> I once had to override the \( for a private use and it was very
> efficient,
> that's all I know.
> 
> BTW, when doing such things I tried to patch the '$' character making
> it active.
> I could not achieve my goals most certainly because of my ignorance.
> Some TeXpert would certainly be successful in patching the '$'
> behaviour,
> which means that '$' is not as safe as it is claimed as compared to
> '\('.
> These are the drawbacks paid for the huge power of TeX.
> 
> We can see that there is no final answer to the question of using $ vs
> \(
> Personally, I would recommand \( just because replacement is so easy
> from \( to $,
> and can be automated by a frontend.
> 

Howdy,

Actually there is nothing special about using $. Any character with, I
believe, catcode 3 will open/close math mode. I know that \verb|...| and the
verbatim environment change all the catcodes for (known) special characters
so they will just print.

Good Luck,

Herb Schulz
(herbs at wideopenwest.com)

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