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Date:         Mon, 28 Sep 92 16:59:44 EDT
From: Michael Barr <barr@TRIPLES.MATH.MCGILL.CA>
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Subject:      Re: Converse of \nonumber
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J\"org Knappen wrote:

> David Mermin said some time ago in the column ``reference frame'' of
> Physics Today: ``every equation must be numbered''. The argument (very
> neatly presented) goes that no-one including the author themself knows
> which equation will be referenced -- by the author, or by some reader of
> the paper.

No mathematician would have said that.  The argument he gave would
have supported equally well the proposition that each equation
should be displayed.  I suspect our papers would double in length
and be unreadable besides if we did that.  We display formulas
either because they are important or because they don't fit on one
line in the text.  Maybe we sould number every formula of the former
kind, but I don't.  If later on someone wants to refer to it, 'e can
copy it, but don't ask me to clutter up my paper on the offchance.

If it was the same column I read, Mermin also said that you should
end all displays with the appropriate punctuation.  I don't ever do
that, although some journals insist and go through and change my
papers to conform.  So you have a commutative diagram with a dot or
comma stuck somewhere in the middle of nowhere, not only looking
stupid but worse, causing the reader to wonder if it has some
significance.  Thus it violates the prime directive: leave your
readers in no doubt what is intended.  After all, the main purpose
of thes punctuation marks is to show that there is a pause.  Well,
there is no pause more definitive than a display.  Besides that, a
full stop pales into insignificance.

Now I have a question for the organizers of this thread.  How do
they feel about the possibility of having new fonts included as part
of the standard distribution of LaTeX 3?  The fonts I have in mind
are the new segment and arrowhead fonts used by Kris Rose in xypic.

Michael Barr