Subject: bug#25594: 25.1.91; TeX input method is missing \sqrt macro

From: "Tyler Smith" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2020 15:39:38 -0500

On Mon, Jan 20, 2020, at 3:14 PM, Stefan Kangas wrote:
> Lars Ingebrigtsen <[email-masked]> writes:
> 
> > That seems a reasonable thing to add, and it's in patch form below.  But
> > what makes me hesitate to add it is that there's a commented-out
> > "\\sqrt[3]" in the file...  Does this mean that this should be
> > "\\sqrt[2]"?  Why is it commented out in the first place?  Don't
> > latin-ltx people like squares?  And roots?
> >
> > So if anybody else who uses this input method could weigh in here, that
> > would be nice.
> 
> No one has commented within 25 weeks.
> 
> AFAIK, TeX has the \sqrt command for a basic square root, and \sqrt[3]
> for the cubic root.  That suggests that the proposal is fine (we can
> leave the sqrt[3] commented out as is for now IMHO).

FWIW, `\sqrt[3]` in LaTeX produces the ∛ symbol, so it would appear that line could be uncommented. I don't think there is a Unicode symbol for the square root that includes the `2`, just the 'naked' √. So there wouldn't be any point in adding support for `\sqrt[2]`.

I have no idea why that would have been commented out to begin with, and use cube roots so rarely that it doesn't make much practical difference to me if it is included or not.

Best,

Tyler

> >
> > diff --git a/lisp/leim/quail/latin-ltx.el b/lisp/leim/quail/latin-ltx.el
> > index 93b1250a35..aed34d1265 100644
> > --- a/lisp/leim/quail/latin-ltx.el
> > +++ b/lisp/leim/quail/latin-ltx.el
> > @@ -703,6 +703,7 @@
> >   ("\\ldq" ?\“)
> >   ("\\rdq" ?\”)
> >   ("\\defs" ?≙)				; per fuzz/zed
> > + ("\\sqrt" ?√)
> >   ;; ("\\sqrt[3]" ?∛)
> >   ("\\llbracket" ?\〚) 			; stmaryrd
> >   ("\\rrbracket" ?\〛)
>