At 09:05 -0500 2001/02/02, Michael John Downes wrote: >> Yes, this was my intention. If I type "×" (the times sign in >> Latin-1,2,3, and 4) I want that it works both in text and in math mode >>giving >> something sensible (i.e. \textmultiply or \times resp.) I don't want to >> have the command \times in text mode and \textmultiply in math mode >>necessarily > >The text/math ambiguity is a major problem for higher-level user >interfaces like Scientific Word. Should there not be a text-word mode, entirely dedicated at construction natural language words, a text-symbol mode for non-math symbols, and a math mode for math typesetting. >If the user enters \gamma + 1 without >first starting a math formula, then the proper way for the software to >write it is: > > \textgamma \textplus 1 > >instead of > > $\gamma + 1$ Then an expression like \gamma + 1 without first starting a math formula would simply fail as `+' and `1' are not used in froming natural language words. Also, if there is a non-math use of the times sign in Latin-x, x in [1, 4], one would have to put it in the text-symbol environment. Hans Aberg