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<div class="" style="word-wrap:break-word; line-break:after-white-space">Hi Alain,<br class="">
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<div class="">On 19 Dec 2020, at 6:34 am, Alain Schremmer <<a href="mailto:schremmer.alain@freemathtexts.org" class="">schremmer.alain@freemathtexts.org</a>> wrote:</div>
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<div class="">>>>> $\xrightarrow{5}$ and \boldsymbol{$5$} both compile but \boldsymbol{$\xrightarrow{5}$} does not.<br class="">
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<div>I’m surprised that \boldsymbol{$5$} works at all.</div>
<div>It should be $ \boldsymbol{5} $ *within* a math environment.</div>
<div>Or \( \boldsymbol{5} \) .</div>
<div>Otherwise you may not be getting the correct math spacing around the symbol.</div>
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<div>Note that $ … $ is *not* a font-switch indicator.</div>
<div>It means “ what is enclosed is a piece of mathematics”, and will be typeset using rules and conventions</div>
<div>appropriate for mathematical expressions; i.e., even if enclosed letters look like they form words, </div>
<div>that is *not* the intention. Each letter is a *separate* mathematical symbol.</div>
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<div class="">>>>> <br class="">
>>>> The error is:<br class="">
>>>> <br class="">
>>>> 2.tex:1309: Improper alphabetic constant.<br class="">
>>>> <to be read again> <br class="">
>>>> \reserved@d <br class="">
>>>> l.1309 \boldsymbol{$\xrightarrow{5}$}<br class="">
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<div>Of course this fails, because you are trying to apply \boldsymbol to a whole</div>
<div>environment, rather than to a single symbol.</div>
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<div>Is \xrightarrow{5} the *complete contents of the mathematical expression,</div>
<div>or only part of it ?</div>
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<div>If it is the *entire* math-expression, then have you tried the following ?</div>
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<div> {\mathversion{bold}\( \xrightarrow{5} \)}</div>
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<div>The surrounding { … } are to delimit the usage of bold mathematical symbols to just this piece.</div>
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<div>If it is *part of a larger* math-expression, then try this:</div>
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<div> $ … \boldsymbol{\xrightarrow{\boldsymbol{5}}} … $</div>
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<div>Of course you don’t want you document source to contain all those long macro names.</div>
<div>So instead you should probably be defining a home-grown macro:</div>
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<div> \newcommand{\boldto}[1]{\boldsymbol{\xrightarrow{\boldsymbol{#1}}}}</div>
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<div>and just type; $ … \boldto{5} … $</div>
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<div class="">>>>> <br class="">
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<div class="">>>>> Any way around it?<br class="">
>> <br class="">
>>> Howdy,<br class="">
>> <br class="">
>>> Are you sure \boldsymbol{$5$} compiles? I believe the \boldsymbol needs to be in math mode so $\boldsymbol{5}$ and $\boldsymbol{\xrightarrow{5}}$ work fine.<br class="">
>> <br class="">
>> Both $\boldsymbol{5}$ and \boldsymbol{$\rightarrow$} compile which is one more thing I don’t get---but which does not make me lose any sleep.
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<div>\boldsymbol is changing the math fonts for its argument.</div>
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<div class="">>> <br class="">
>> But $\boldsymbol{\xrightarrow{5}}$ definitely produces the error I mentioned. At least for me.<br class="">
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<div>It didn’t for me.</div>
<div>What is the date of your LaTeX version?</div>
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<div>Mine is as follows:</div>
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<div>LaTeX2e <2018-12-01></div>
<div>(/usr/local/texlive/2019/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/article.cls</div>
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<div class="">>> <br class="">
>> On the other hand, I just found out that $\pmb{\xrightarrow{5}}$ does work. So, I am ok.<br class="">
> <br class="">
> Howdy,<br class="">
> <br class="">
> <test.tex><br class="">
> <br class="">
> <test.pdf><br class="">
> <br class="">
> seems to work fine.<br class="">
<br class="">
Sure do but not here. I tried to put my preamble on your example but I got other errors so I quit: \pmb will do here as, in fact, \boldsymbol does work for everything ELSE.<br class="">
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<div>Do you understand what \pmb is really doing?</div>
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<div>Try Copy/Paste of the result from \pmb – Everything is tripled-up.</div>
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<div>The same piece of mathematics is typeset 3 times, slightly shifted.</div>
<div>It’s like creating an artificial bold on a golfball typewriter, without having the proper golfball for bold symbols.</div>
<div>You overstrike the symbols with tiny offsets of the head. A very ugly hack!</div>
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<div>It’s like buying a Gucci handbag from a street stall in an Asian city.</div>
<div>It may look like Gucci, using their attractive design; but the quality and workmanship is vastly inferior.</div>
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>>> As a side note you should get used to \(...\) instead of $...$ for inline math (and \[...\] instead of $$...$$ if you use that for display math).<br class="">
>> <br class="">
>> When I was writing some of my stuff on the web, I did but didn’t like it so stopped using them as soon as I stopped writing web pages.
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>> <br class="">
>> But, I am curious, are there other reasons?<br class="">
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<div>The beginning and end delimiters are clearly specified, without the need to count how many $s have been used.</div>
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<div>This allows you to more easily program selection of a whole math-expression,</div>
<div>to do any special processing required for your particular circumstances.</div>
<div>e.g., processing for web-pages, rather than for the printed page.</div>
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<div>That is, it allows for better ways to capture the structure of your document.</div>
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<div>If you think in terms of document structure, rather than just what you want to see on the page,</div>
<div>then you’ll find using LaTeX correctly becomes an awful lot easier.</div>
<div>Also use of well-named user-defined macros can make your document source a lot easier to read.</div>
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<div class="">>> <br class="">
>> Best<br class="">
>> —s <br class="">
> <br class="">
> They are macros that default to $...$ and $$...$$ but packages like amsmath can change things like spacing.<br class="">
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Thanks but I am way too old to change my habits—unless forced to.<br class="">
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Speaking of habits:<br class="">
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Since my atheist parents always had Christmas presents under a Christmas tree, and even though this may not be a new year for everybody, I wish everybody<br class="">
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A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year<br class="">
<br class="">
because "C’est l’intention qui compte."<br class="">
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—schremmer<br class="">
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<div class=""><br class="">
Dr Ross Moore<br class="">
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
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T: +61 2 9850 8955 | F: +61 2 9850 8114<br class="">
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