[texhax] typset mistranslates the anglbrackets

[Uwe Lück]

Am Dienstag, den 19.03.2013, 11:02 -0700 schrieb William F Hammond:
> Philip TAYLOR <P.Taylor at Rhul.Ac.Uk> writes:
> > . . .
> > Unknown in Plain TeX; is it possible that these names
> > are provided only by a format or package ?
> > . . .
> 
> I neither use nor recommend plain, but for plain I see
> several approaches, particularly for the question of how
> wide the brackets are.  I think the linguistic example mentioned
> might be handled with use of \tt for each linguistic object.

I wondered what "linguistic example" referred to, Phil's <Am.E>, 
or graphemes ...  But finally it makes me think of usage of 
angled brackets in formal grammar, Backus-Naur notation

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backus%E2%80%93Naur_Form

as Knuth employs it to describe TeX's syntax on pages 268ff. 
of The TeXbook ...  However, \tt is bad then, Knuth uses \rm 
inside the brackets, and the brackets themselves are from 
the math font.

> This is plain:
> 
> \def\lt{{\tt <}}
> \def\gt{{\tt >}}
> \def\ltm{{$<$}}
> \def\gtm{{$>$}}
> \def\ltb{{$\langle$}}
> \def\gtb{{$\rangle$}}
> \centerline{\bf ascii less-than}
> \vskip 12mm
> 
> I can put {\tt <whatever>} in angle brackets inside a tt zone.

What Knuth used for the syntax notation in The TeXbook
is plain too, manmac.tex:

    \def\<#1>{\leavevmode\hbox{$\langle$#1\/$\rangle$}} % syntactic
quantity

Using Bill's \ltb and \gtb, this is:

    \def\<#1>{\leavevmode\hbox{\ltb#1\/\gtb}}

E.g.,

    \<syntactic quantity>

(tested!)

Knuth's \<...> is a variant of \angled{...} and <...> 
I mentioned before.

Cheers,

    Uwe.