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authorNorbert Preining <norbert@preining.info>2019-09-02 13:46:59 +0900
committerNorbert Preining <norbert@preining.info>2019-09-02 13:46:59 +0900
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+Replied: Fri, 24 Mar 1995 15:08:00 +0000
+Replied: "Michael Downes <MJD@MATH.AMS.ORG> R A Bailey <R.A.Bailey@qmw.ac.uk>, baskerville@tex.ac.uk"
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+ Fri, 24 Mar 1995 08:30:35 -0500 (EST)
+Date: Fri, 24 Mar 1995 08:30:35 -0500 (EST)
+From: Michael Downes <MJD@MATH.AMS.ORG>
+Subject: Re: amslatex
+In-reply-to: <16618.9503201129@galois.maths.qmw.ac.uk>
+To: R A Bailey <R.A.Bailey@qmw.ac.uk>
+Cc: MJD@MATH.AMS.ORG, baskerville@tex.ac.uk
+Message-id: <796051835.339546.MJD@MATH.AMS.ORG>
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+
+> I am writing a series of tutorials on doing Maths in LaTeX which are
+> appearing in Baskerville, the magazine of the UK TeX Users Group.
+> In No. 2 I introduced \emptyset. This provoked a query from a reader,
+> to which I replied in No. 3. My reply was not very polite about the
+> AMS, so I will send you the article right after this so that, if you want
+> to, you can respond with a letter to the editor or a short note.
+
+I'm glad that you brought this question to my attention because it seems
+to be a simple misunderstanding that can be easily cleared up. :-) The
+question is, to be precise,
+
+ Why does "The LaTeX Companion" show a version of the symbol \emptyset
+ in Table 8.7 (p 219) that is a circle with a diagonal line through it,
+ in contradiction to the actual symbol that most LaTeX users will get
+ from the \emptyset command, i.e. a slashed zero?
+
+and
+
+ Why does "The LaTeX Companion" show a slashed zero for the command
+ \varnothing in Table 8.20, which purports to show the symbols provided
+ in the extra math fonts of the AMSFonts distribution?
+
+Your conjecture was that the AMS had done something to swap around the
+usual symbol for \emptyset with the other symbol that is provided in the
+msbm font. As it turns out, however, that conjecture is false; a search
+of all the files in the AMSFonts and AMSLaTeX distributions reveals that
+there is not even so much as a mention of \emptyset anywhere. And if you
+look at the AMSFonts User's Guide, you'll see that the symbol shown in
+the symbol tables for \varnothing is not the slashed-zero but the other
+one.
+
+The crucial point seems to be that "The LaTeX Companion" used Lucida
+math fonts (if I recall correctly) and therefore the math symbols shown
+in *all* of the Tables 8.3--8.20 are actually Lucida math symbols, and
+*not* symbols from the fonts (cmsy, cmex, msam, msbm) that most LaTeX
+users will see.
+
+I therefore offer two counter-conjectures:
+
+1. One of the authors of "The LaTeX Companion" is of like mind with you
+that the AMS \varnothing symbol (plump circle with diagonal line) is
+actually the preferred symbol of mathematicians for `empty set' and
+explicitly swapped the definitions of \emptyset and \varnothing in the
+preamble of "The LaTeX Companion".
+
+2. The makers of the Lucida symbol fonts intentionally placed a
+right-thinking empty-set symbol in the font position that is occupied in
+the cmsy font by the slashed-zero symbol. And they put a slashed-zero
+symbol in the font position that corresponds to the font position
+in the msam font of the plump-circle-with-diagonal symbol.
+
+I'd wager on the second conjecture. It would probably be a good idea if
+you pointed out to the authors of "The LaTeX Companion" that their use
+of the Lucida math fonts has led to some confusion and they ought to do
+something for future reprintings to counteract the natural tendencies of
+the Lucida fonts with respect to the two symbols in question :-)
+
+Regards, Michael