Re: [PyX-devel] minor bug with greek symbol theta

[Faheem M. <fa...@em...>]

On Mon, 3 May 2004, Andre Wobst wrote:

> Hi,
>
> On 03.05.04, Faheem Mitha wrote:
> > > > c.text(0, 0, "$\theta$")
> >
> > The $\theta$ behaviour does seem to me to violate the principle of least
> > surprise. Since the expression is in standard LaTeX syntax, would it not
> > be better to generate the theta symbol as would be expected, and use other
> > syntax to generate a tab (if desired)?
>
> First I have to tell you, that PyX does *not* invent a new language.
> To my mind this is a major feature compared to other (programmable)
> graphic solutions (even sometimes those languages might be very nice
> for certain tasks -- like in metapost). Thus our string handling is
> not at all TeX centered but its the standard behaviour of the Python
> language. While we could try to be sophisticated and parse the strings
> for control characters, this would render the string handling very
> obscure and is not at all an option!

Yes, I agree it is best to not invent a new language and just use Python
as is. Much more stable and robust.

> In Python there are raw strings, which are very usefull to write TeX
> expressions. Make use of them, that's perfect. Beyond that I don't
> think this issue is subject to any discussion.

I see. Thanks for the information. I'll use raw strings instead.

I need to learn more before I can make informed comments/suggestions. I
apologise for this uninformed one, and for any offense it may have caused.
Take care.

                                                                Faheem.