GNU bug report logs - #22919
calc should use square root symbol to denote square root

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Zephyr Pellerin <zephyr.pellerin <at> gmail.com>
To: bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org
Subject: calc should use square root symbol to denote square root
Date: Sat, 5 Mar 2016 19:02:34 -0800

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

[0001-sqrt-compose-should-use-the-square-root-symbol.patch (text/x-patch, attachment)]

Message #8 received at 22919 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Alexis <flexibeast <at> gmail.com>
To: Zephyr Pellerin <zephyr.pellerin <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 22919 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#22919: calc should use square root symbol to denote square
 root
Date: Sun, 06 Mar 2016 16:58:49 +1100

Whilst i like the aesthetics of using the actual square root 
symbol
rather than 'V', i use character sets and fonts that make this 
character available. Not everyone does, however, and this change 
would result in
those people getting something like the equivalent of the Unicode 
REPLACEMENT CHARACTER, � (0xFFFD), or a blank space. So i would 
like to suggest this patch not be applied without also either 
adding a way to customise which character gets used as the square 
root symbol, or logic to only display a square root glyph when 
it's certain it's available.


Alexis.

Message #11 received at 22919 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Glenn Morris <rgm <at> gnu.org>
To: Alexis <flexibeast <at> gmail.com>
Cc: Zephyr Pellerin <zephyr.pellerin <at> gmail.com>, 22919 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#22919: calc should use square root symbol to denote square
 root
Date: Mon, 07 Mar 2016 11:46:25 -0500

Alexis wrote:

> to suggest this patch not be applied without also either adding a way
> to customise which character gets used as the square root symbol, or
> logic to only display a square root glyph when it's certain it's
> available.

See eg ruler-mode-fill-column-char and how it uses char-displayable-p.

Message #14 received at 22919 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Glenn Morris <rgm <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 22919 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, zephyr.pellerin <at> gmail.com, flexibeast <at> gmail.com
Subject: Re: bug#22919: calc should use square root symbol to denote square
 root
Date: Mon, 07 Mar 2016 19:22:41 +0200

> From: Glenn Morris <rgm <at> gnu.org>
> Date: Mon, 07 Mar 2016 11:46:25 -0500
> Cc: Zephyr Pellerin <zephyr.pellerin <at> gmail.com>, 22919 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
> 
> Alexis wrote:
> 
> > to suggest this patch not be applied without also either adding a way
> > to customise which character gets used as the square root symbol, or
> > logic to only display a square root glyph when it's certain it's
> > available.
> 
> See eg ruler-mode-fill-column-char and how it uses char-displayable-p.

That might not work well on a TTY, though.

Message #17 received at 22919 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Glenn Morris <rgm <at> gnu.org>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 22919 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, zephyr.pellerin <at> gmail.com, flexibeast <at> gmail.com
Subject: Re: bug#22919: calc should use square root symbol to denote square
 root
Date: Tue, 08 Mar 2016 02:22:39 -0500

Eli Zaretskii wrote:

>> See eg ruler-mode-fill-column-char and how it uses char-displayable-p.
>
> That might not work well on a TTY, though.

In the sense that on a tty char-displayable-p may return nil when the
answer is actually t? If so, I don't think that matters.
Or vice versa? Then just throw in an "(and (display-graphic-p) ..."
We're just talking about a default, after all.

BTW, there's probably more symbols that square-root that this applies
to, so maybe a list of (symbol . character) rather than an individual
option for each one?

Message #20 received at 22919 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Glenn Morris <rgm <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 22919 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, zephyr.pellerin <at> gmail.com, flexibeast <at> gmail.com
Subject: Re: bug#22919: calc should use square root symbol to denote square
 root
Date: Tue, 08 Mar 2016 18:07:24 +0200

> From: Glenn Morris <rgm <at> gnu.org>
> Cc: flexibeast <at> gmail.com,  zephyr.pellerin <at> gmail.com,  22919 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
> Date: Tue, 08 Mar 2016 02:22:39 -0500
> 
> Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> 
> >> See eg ruler-mode-fill-column-char and how it uses char-displayable-p.
> >
> > That might not work well on a TTY, though.
> 
> In the sense that on a tty char-displayable-p may return nil when the
> answer is actually t? If so, I don't think that matters.
> Or vice versa?

The latter.  On a TTY, that function can only check whether the
terminal encoding supports the character, but it has no way of knowing
whether the terminal emulator will find a glyph in its font for the
particular character.

Message #23 received at 22919 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi <at> gnus.org>
To: Glenn Morris <rgm <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 22919 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Zephyr Pellerin <zephyr.pellerin <at> gmail.com>,
 Alexis <flexibeast <at> gmail.com>
Subject: Re: bug#22919: calc should use square root symbol to denote square
 root
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 2020 18:04:58 +0200

Glenn Morris <rgm <at> gnu.org> writes:

> Alexis wrote:
>
>> to suggest this patch not be applied without also either adding a way
>> to customise which character gets used as the square root symbol, or
>> logic to only display a square root glyph when it's certain it's
>> available.
>
> See eg ruler-mode-fill-column-char and how it uses char-displayable-p.

There was then some worry whether that would work on ttys...  but I
think that's perhaps a too-obscure use case to hinder this change, so I
went ahead and applied the patch (with Glenn's suggestions) to Emacs 28.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no

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