[OS X TeX] A matter of degree (C or F)

[Peter Dyballa]

Am 28.05.2009 um 19:36 schrieb Alain Schremmer:

> — I have no interest in, and even less time for, the intricacies of  
> encoding. (I don't even know what I am using.)

You certainly pay attention to which kind of petrol, diesel, or gas  
you fill into your car. Or fill your stomach with. The same natural  
relationship is appropriate for LaTeX input (and font) encodings. I  
think the Latin input encodings even use a workaround for °:  
\ensuremath{^\circ} when the \textdegree macro is used.

Not paying attention to input encoding means not paying attention to  
non-7-bit characters, meaning: avoiding them in any case.

> — textcomp certainly looks like a very powerful package and I had  
> forgotten about it but won't (famous last words)

The texcomp package is too eminent that almost no-one is using it.  
For me textcomp (and choice of encodings) is part of any LaTeX  
document. It's like underwear and shoes (actually sandals) and sun  
glasses (as protection against summer sun shine) as basis of my other  
clothes.

--
Greetings

   Pete

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary  
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
		-Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania.