At 18:59 +0200 2001/05/17, Lars Hellström wrote:
>>The \epsilon and \varepsilon are definitely semantically different in
>>(pure) math,
>
>Are they? Please give a verifiable example!

Here are two examples:
  $\epsilon\varepsilon R$
  $\varepsilon R$

Today one would probably write one of
  $\epsilon\in R$
  $\varepsilon\in R$
(perhaps with $R$ in black-board bold).

Also remember, if \epsilon and \varepsilon were semantically the same, as
in language, then you could interchange them freely in formulas. Cf. the
word "sin": If it is in English, altering it to say boldface does not
change the semantics. But if you do that in math it is probably the sine
function applied to some other math object (like matrices or something).

  Hans Aberg