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I beg to disagree. In science subscripts are part of the symbols, just like diacritics. Superscripts, on the other hand, are part of math notation, like fracti

by etatoby 10y ago

I beg to disagree. In science subscripts are part of the symbols, just like diacritics. Superscripts, on the other hand, are part of math notation, like fractions and square roots.

dalke 10y ago
I disagree. In math there can be super-super-superscripts, as with tetration representations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetration . Does each get its own character, and when does it end? In science, consider an isotope like 180m Ta 73 This cannot be represented as a sequence of symbols because that would give: 180m 180m Ta -or- Ta 73 73 Markup is how Wikipedia represents it correct, as: 180m 73 How would you do it without markup? In addition, pretty much anything can go in superscripts, including 2^א and integral equations. The most general solution is to have a "start superscript" and "end superscript" marker, with the ability to embed superscripts, but that still doesn't solve the isotope representation problem.
- JadeNB 10y ago
 > The most general solution is to have a "start superscript" and "end superscript" marker, with the ability to embed superscripts, but that still doesn't solve the isotope representation problem. Couldn't one have something like a "start zero-width superscript" marker, so that the following subscript would not be offset?
 - dragonwriter 10y ago
 > Couldn't one have something like a "start zero-width superscript" marker, so that the following subscript would not be offset? Well, the problem is that the subscript and superscript are both aligned with the following regular text, so you really need (for the isotope representation) a "start right-aligned zero-width superscript" marker, a "start right-aligned zero-width subscript" marker (though zero-width isn't exactly right, since they should have width, its just that only the wider of the super- and sub-script in a pair should be used in spacing the text) -- there might be other notation that also needs left-aligned versions of -- plus generic start/end superscript markers that have normal width flow, plus appropriate end markers.
 - JadeNB 10y ago
 It's not surprising that an offhand suggestion doesn't magically solve all problems, but I appreciate your taking the time carefully to explain what's missing. Thanks!

by etatoby 10y ago

I beg to disagree. In science subscripts are part of the symbols, just like diacritics. Superscripts, on the other hand, are part of math notation, like fractions and square roots.

dalke 10y ago

I disagree. In math there can be super-super-superscripts, as with tetration representations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetration . Does each get its own character, and when does it end? In science, consider an isotope like 180m Ta 73 This cannot be represented as a sequence of symbols because that would give: 180m 180m Ta -or- Ta 73 73 Markup is how Wikipedia represents it correct, as: 180m 73 How would you do it without markup? In addition, pretty much anything can go in superscripts, including 2^א and integral equations. The most general solution is to have a "start superscript" and "end superscript" marker, with the ability to embed superscripts, but that still doesn't solve the isotope representation problem.

JadeNB 10y ago
> The most general solution is to have a "start superscript" and "end superscript" marker, with the ability to embed superscripts, but that still doesn't solve the isotope representation problem. Couldn't one have something like a "start zero-width superscript" marker, so that the following subscript would not be offset?
- dragonwriter 10y ago
  > Couldn't one have something like a "start zero-width superscript" marker, so that the following subscript would not be offset? Well, the problem is that the subscript and superscript are both aligned with the following regular text, so you really need (for the isotope representation) a "start right-aligned zero-width superscript" marker, a "start right-aligned zero-width subscript" marker (though zero-width isn't exactly right, since they should have width, its just that only the wider of the super- and sub-script in a pair should be used in spacing the text) -- there might be other notation that also needs left-aligned versions of -- plus generic start/end superscript markers that have normal width flow, plus appropriate end markers.
  - JadeNB 10y ago
    It's not surprising that an offhand suggestion doesn't magically solve all problems, but I appreciate your taking the time carefully to explain what's missing. Thanks!