Haha, good point. They are unnecessary, because of the existence of tools like unicodelookup. I guess I was still thinking in terms of “people are familiar with HTML entities so we could just stick a note telling people to use those if possible” (and thus they would be convienient, but not necessary). Of course if we go ahead and actually link to unicodelookup this is even easier for those who aren’t familiar with them! I guess I didn’t think that through; linking to unicodelookup does seem to be the better solution. In any case, the point is that if we implement a LaTeX thing we should stick in a note providing an alternative for when such power isn’t needed.
EDIT: Also there’s a good chance I wasn’t much thinking at all and just mimicking MO/math.se/WP which all do suggest using HTML entities as simpler system...
I should clarify that I am not opposed to HTML entities. They’ve been around long enough for the bugs to have been ironed out, and unlike JavaScript, they do not cause memory leaks or infinite loops or other challenges to the efficient management of computational resources if the people who maintain my browser did not do everything exactly right.
Right—to be explicit, then, I agree they are not strictly necessary, still think they would be convenient as things are currently, but also that if the help included a link to unicodelookup or a similar utility (which, if LaTeX is implemented, it should do as part of a “please don’t abuse this feature” note), this advantage mostly goes away and they become pointless after all.
Haha, good point. They are unnecessary, because of the existence of tools like unicodelookup. I guess I was still thinking in terms of “people are familiar with HTML entities so we could just stick a note telling people to use those if possible” (and thus they would be convienient, but not necessary). Of course if we go ahead and actually link to unicodelookup this is even easier for those who aren’t familiar with them! I guess I didn’t think that through; linking to unicodelookup does seem to be the better solution. In any case, the point is that if we implement a LaTeX thing we should stick in a note providing an alternative for when such power isn’t needed.
EDIT: Also there’s a good chance I wasn’t much thinking at all and just mimicking MO/math.se/WP which all do suggest using HTML entities as simpler system...
I should clarify that I am not opposed to HTML entities. They’ve been around long enough for the bugs to have been ironed out, and unlike JavaScript, they do not cause memory leaks or infinite loops or other challenges to the efficient management of computational resources if the people who maintain my browser did not do everything exactly right.
Just trying to understand your position.
Right—to be explicit, then, I agree they are not strictly necessary, still think they would be convenient as things are currently, but also that if the help included a link to unicodelookup or a similar utility (which, if LaTeX is implemented, it should do as part of a “please don’t abuse this feature” note), this advantage mostly goes away and they become pointless after all.