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e 2.71828
- From: Elliotte Rusty Harold <elharo at metalab dot unc dot edu>
- To: docbook at lists dot oasis-open dot org
- Date: Mon, 08 Apr 2002 10:33:00 -0500
- Subject: DOCBOOK: e 2.71828
- References: <oawv9jbmm4.fsf@arroz.fake> <shwv9hf2zc.fsf@tux.gnu.franken.de><oavgp0hrhn.fsf@arroz.fake> <shsnk3dajo.fsf@tux.gnu.franken.de><oa66gw2zwg.fsf@arroz.fake> <shpub0yctv.fsf@tux.gnu.franken.de><p04330105b778f282f2b3@[192.168.254.4]>
I have a need to include the mathematical constant e, 2.71828..., the
base of the natural logarithms, in a book I'm writing. According to
the Unicode folks, they have no special character for this and none
is needed. I should just use the normal ASCII e. That's simple enough.
In typesetting a mathematical constant of this nature is normally
italicized so it's not just plain text. How should I represent this
in DocBook?
<inlineequation>e</inlineequation> is not valid because the
inlineequation element can't contain PCDATA.
The best I can figure is
<inlineequation>
<inlinemediaobject>
<textobject>
<phrase>e</phrase>
</textobject>
</inlinemediaobject>
</inlineequation>
which really seems excessively complicated. Going to MathML seems
even worse. Is this really the best I can do?
--
+-----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
| Elliotte Rusty Harold | elharo@metalab.unc.edu | Writer/Programmer |
+-----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
| The XML Bible, 2nd Edition (Hungry Minds, 2001) |
| http://www.cafeconleche.org/books/bible2/ |
| http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0764547607/cafeaulaitA/ |
+----------------------------------+---------------------------------+
| Read Cafe au Lait for Java News: http://www.cafeaulait.org/ |
| Read Cafe con Leche for XML News: http://www.cafeconleche.org/ |
+----------------------------------+---------------------------------+