[OS X TeX] Where does the assumption that large counts are phone numbers arise?

Mon Feb 12 21:16:15 EST 2024

I think you can change localization and detection of e-mails/numbers in the settings. Reminds me of when they renamed a gene because Excel kept assuming they were dates.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/6/21355674/human-genes-rename-microsoft-excel-misreading-dates
[https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/RNC3KA-mwAMW_R_lP0iktWH3M7Q=/0x0:3000x2000/1200x628/filters:focal(1500x1000:1501x1001)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/8986109/acastro_170726_1777_0013.jpg]<https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/6/21355674/human-genes-rename-microsoft-excel-misreading-dates>
Scientists rename human genes to stop Microsoft Excel from misreading them as dates<https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/6/21355674/human-genes-rename-microsoft-excel-misreading-dates>
Microsoft Excel: 1 — Human Genetics: 0.
www.theverge.com
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9325790/
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/corehtml/pmc/pmcgifs/pmc-card-share.jpg?_=0]<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9325790/>
Gene Updater: a web tool that autocorrects and updates for Excel misidentified gene names<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9325790/>
Opening and processing gene expression data files in Excel runs into the inadvertent risk of converting gene names to dates. As pathway analysis tools rely on gene symbols to query against pathway databases, the genes that are converted to dates will ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

https://theconversation.com/excel-autocorrect-errors-still-plague-genetic-research-raising-concerns-over-scientific-rigour-166554
[https://images.theconversation.com/files/417952/original/file-20210826-16-1smeoxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C179%2C2000%2C1000&q=45&auto=format&w=1356&h=668&fit=crop]<https://theconversation.com/excel-autocorrect-errors-still-plague-genetic-research-raising-concerns-over-scientific-rigour-166554>
Excel autocorrect errors still plague genetic research, raising concerns over scientific rigour<https://theconversation.com/excel-autocorrect-errors-still-plague-genetic-research-raising-concerns-over-scientific-rigour-166554>
New research shows gene name autocorrection remains a problem for genomics articles. Here’s why it’s a wake up call for research reproducibility.
theconversation.com

________________________________
Från: MacOSX-TeX <macosx-tex-bounces at email.esm.psu.edu> för William Slough <wslough at gmail.com>
Skickat: den 13 februari 2024 03:01
Till: TeX on Mac OS X Mailing List <macosx-tex at email.esm.psu.edu>
Ämne: Re: [OS X TeX] Where does the assumption that large counts are phone numbers arise?

Just to add another voice, it seems that this is Apple's way of being "helpful."  It looks like this is caused by something they call "Data Detectors" which can be toggled on or off, but only in some applications. There is such a toggle in TeXShop under Edit | Substitutions but this doesn't appear to have any effect within the PDF viewer.

Curiously, I get different behaviors in the PDF file produced by your MWE depending on whether I use the TeXShop PDF viewer or separately open the PDF file with Safari. With Safari, it still detects these numbers as phone numbers but it doesn't start up FaceTime.

In the "misery loves company" department, there are more than a few people on the Internet complaining about (seemingly) not being able to turn off Data Detectors in Safari!

Bill Slough

On Mon, Feb 12, 2024 at 7:50 PM Markus Klyver <markusklyver at hotmail.com<mailto:markusklyver at hotmail.com>> wrote:
Seems like a localization issue.

https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/change-the-system-language-mh26684/mac
Change the language your Mac uses<https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/change-the-system-language-mh26684/mac>
On your Mac, change the language shown in menus and dialogs and in many apps.
support.apple.com<http://support.apple.com/>

________________________________
Från: MacOSX-TeX <macosx-tex-bounces at email.esm.psu.edu<mailto:macosx-tex-bounces at email.esm.psu.edu>> för Ross Moore <ross.moore at mq.edu.au<mailto:ross.moore at mq.edu.au>>
Skickat: den 13 februari 2024 02:45
Till: TeX on Mac OS X Mailing List <macosx-tex at email.esm.psu.edu<mailto:macosx-tex at email.esm.psu.edu>>
Ämne: Re: [OS X TeX] Where does the assumption that large counts are phone numbers arise?

Hi Doug.

It has nothing to do with TeXshop, IMHO.

You can see it happening in my Mail .app.

[Screenshot 2024-02-13 at 12.40.22 pm.png]

That popup, which appeared after clicking the number, is asking to add the tel.# into Contacts.

Be assured I did not do so. :-)

Surely it is a system bug/feature — dunno how to stop it.

Very amusing post; thanks!

Ross

On 13 Feb 2024, at 11:03 am, Doug McKenna <doug at mathemaesthetics.com<mailto:doug at mathemaesthetics.com>> wrote:

I'm running TeXShop 4.7 on MacOS 12.1, using pdfTeX, Version 3.141592653-2.6-1.40.22 (TeX Live 2021).

I'm writing a math paper that references a sequence of combinatorial counts. The sequence gets large pretty fast.

Here is a MWE:

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\documentclass[letterpaper,11pt]{article}
\begin{document}
For $n=1\dots 7$ the counts are $0, 4, 40, 2244, 185920, 106912792, 90124167440$.

In PDF output, click on either of the two final (non-phone) numbers.
\end{document}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

When viewing the PDF after typesetting, I just discovered that clicking on either of the last two counts brings up the FaceTime app on my Mac. After my initial WTF confusion, I then discovered that hovering the mouse for a while over either large count in the PDF raises a little hint box showing the count prefixed with "tel: ".

These are not telephone numbers, and it's annoying for someone to have assumed they are, allegedly for my convenience.

Where in all the pdfTeX machinery is this assumption being made, if at all? Is it in the PDF file itself, or is it in the MacOS PDF display library that TeXShop is using? Does this only occur on MacOS?

Can I affirmatively do something in my TeX code that creates the PDF to prevent this false positive?

Doug McKenna
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