Re: LaTeX question

In article <Q_51i.6994$eY1.2790@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"Johnny" <nomailthanx@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I'm afraid, Nathan, I have been directed towards so much, and so many
different documents, and so many different preferable starting-points, if
only through the links suggested on this generous NG, that I cannot but
malfunction.
The symbol { was, for me, not so long ago 'curly brackets', not braces.
Thanks, though, for your advice. I must say I remain confused, what with
Maarten having told me not to use $ in display equations, and you -
apparently contradictorily, having it directly before the 'M' in my
equation line.

I only made the changes to your sample that would make it produce no
errors. I wasn't concerned with the details of formatting, just the
basic syntax of LaTeX.

Enclosing your math in dollars signs, like $a+b$, produces math that
is suitably sized for use within running text, like this sentence.
Enclosing math in \[ \] produces displayed math, which is formatted
differently (automatically centered, space above and below, some
symbols are larger, etc.), for use between paragraphs, like this:

\[
M = \left[\begin{array}{cc}
1 & 0 \\
0 & 1 \\
\end{array}\right]
\]

I didn't know (or care) whether you wanted in-line or displaystyle
math for your matrix, because the problems I was correcting are more
general than that, and would apply to *any* matrix, where in-line or
displayed.

And honestly, this is covered in the first three pages of
Mathmode.pdf, which you should have read.

You've got to understand that there a huge amount of
information coming at a novice LaTeX-user like myself, as regards the
standardisation of the commands, so what seems obvious and fundamentally
standard to the regular user might just have fallen through the net for the
likes of myself.

And you've got to understand that your manner of asking questions is
not very efficient or conducive to earning goodwill from the people
you are asking to devote their time and energy. Two very important
documents were pointed out to you (lshort.pdf and Mathmode.pdf), and
your continued questions make it very clear you haven't read them.

Please note that "skimming for the answer to a specific question" is
*not* the same as "reading"! You aren't experienced enough to know
what your problems are, so you can't very well expect to find them on
your own until you learn the basics. Read the introductory material
and test out the examples they give, so that you can see them in
action.

A further problem is that when you report your problems here, you do
so in a manner that makes it difficult for people to help. As has
been mentioned a couple of times, you need to post minimal examples
that demonstrate the problem and be *very* precise about what the
problem is... "they don't look right" is not precise enough, because
we can't read your mind.

Not only do minimal examples help us pinpoint the problem more
quickly, but very often, the whole process of constructing a minimal
example will help you discover the error all on your own, which is
much more valuable than having to run to the experts every time you've
got an extra { somewhere.

Nathan

--
Nathan Sanders
Linguistics Program
Williams College
http://wso.williams.edu/~nsanders/
.

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