147 lines
8.5 KiB
TeX
147 lines
8.5 KiB
TeX
\chapter{Special characters}
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\label{sec:special-characters}
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\section{Spaces}
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The special character used most frequently is a simple space between words.
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\LaTeX{} creates it whenever the source code contains spaces or single newlines (by hitting the enter key once) between other characters.
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The word space is not the only one, though\,---\,there are a few more types of spaces.
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\Cref{lst:spaces} illustrates how they are used.
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\example{lst:spaces}{special-characters/spaces}{Unterschiedliche Leerzeichen in \LaTeX}
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\paragraph{English Spacing}
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In documents written in English, \LaTeX{} uses traditional English Spacing by default. That is, double spaces after each sentence.
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We can prevent this by using the command \mintinline{tex}|\frenchspacing| above the first paragraph.
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With \mintinline{tex}|\nonfrenchspacing|, we can reset the behavior.
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When using English Spacing, \LaTeX{} tries to recognize abbreviations and to use normal spaces after those.
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We should still check this and\,---\,where necessary\,---\,enforce word spaces (\mintinline[showspaces]{tex}{.\ }) or sentence spaces (\mintinline[showspaces]{tex}{\@. }).
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\section{Hyphens and dashes}
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There are different kinds of horizontal lines being used as punctuation,
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most frequently the hyphen (-), the en dash (–) and the em dash (—).\footnote{They are named after the letters N and M,
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that occupy roughly the same space.
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The letter M is also about as wide as it is tall, and the amount is called a \emph{Geviert} in German, hence the German terms \emph{Halbgeviertstrich} and \emph{Geviertstrich} for the two dashes.}
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These three characters are created in \LaTeX{} by different numbers of consecutive hyphens in the source code,
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as shown in \cref{tbl:bars}.
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\begin{longtable}{@{}llp{7.8cm}@{}}
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\toprule
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Code & Character & Usage \\
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\midrule
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\mintinline{tex}|-| & Hyphen & a small-sized stroke \\
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\mintinline{tex}|--| & En dash & a range mark (8\,--\,10\,am) or an interruptor at sentence level – the latter surrounded by spaces and used in most European languages (including British English) \\
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\mintinline{tex}|---| & Em dash & an interruptor at sentence level\,---\,mostly used in American English and without or with thin spaces \\
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\bottomrule
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\caption{Hyphens and dashes in \LaTeX}
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\label{tbl:bars}
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\end{longtable}
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The hyphen is obviously also used for hyphenation, but for this purpose, we should not insert it explicitly in our source code.
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In most places, \LaTeX{} does the hyphenation automatically if we are using the correct \texttt{babel} package.\footnote{c.\,f. \cref{sec:language}.}
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In case something goes wrong, we can intervene using the codes from \cref{tbl:separators}:\footnote{Those also require the \texttt{babel} package.}\todo{Is it because of the English document that the last example does not work?}
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\begin{longtable}{@{}lp{11cm}@{}}
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\toprule
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Code & Erläuterung \\
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\midrule
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\endhead
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\mintinline{tex}|\-| & Exclusive hyphenation: The word may only be hyphenated at this position (can also be used multiple times within one word\,---\,all of those positions are then allowed). \\
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\mintinline{tex}|"-| & Additional hyphenation: The word may be hyphenated here, as well as at the default positions. \\
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\mintinline{tex}|-| & Exclusive hyphen: Is only used for compound words and prevents the automatic hyphenation for the rest of the word (which is typographically desirable). \\
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\mintinline{tex}|"=| & Non-exclusive hyphen: Is used for long compound words when the text wrapping would not work without additional automatic hyphenation. \\
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\mintinline{tex}|""| & Cut-off point without a hyphen: Allows something like a \textsc{url} to wrap without inserting a potentially misleading hyphen. \\
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\mintinline{tex}|"~| & Non-wrapping hyphen: Keeps the hypen together with the following word, very useful in German: \emph{Vorlesungszeit und "~raum} \\
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\bottomrule
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\caption{Exceptions for hyphenation}
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\label{tbl:separators}
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\end{longtable}
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\section{Quotation marks}
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Quotation marks can generally be created using the codes from \cref{tbl:quotation-marks}.
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The decisive factor is the appearance, not the semantics, which is why the French Guillemets are used the wrong way around in German
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(the \emph{french left quotation mark} on the right and vice versa).
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\begin{table}[H]
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\center
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\begin{tabular}{lcccc}
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\toprule
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Language & \multicolumn{2}{c}{First level} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{Second level} \\
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\cmidrule(lr){2-3} \cmidrule(lr){4-5}
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& Code & Result & Code & Result \\
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\midrule
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English (\acro{A.\,E.}) & \mintinline{tex}|``...''| & ``…'' & \mintinline{tex}|`...'| & `…' \\
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English (\acro{B.\,E.}) & \mintinline{tex}|`...'| & `…' & \mintinline{tex}|``...''| & ``…'' \\
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German & \mintinline{tex}|\glqq...\grqq| & \glqq…\grqq & \mintinline{tex}|\glq…\grq| & \glq…\grq \\
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German (alternatively) & \mintinline{tex}|\frqq...\flqq| & \frqq…\flqq & \mintinline{tex}|\frq…\flq| & \frq…\flq \\
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\bottomrule
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\end{tabular}
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\caption{Quotation marks}
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\label{tbl:quotation-marks}
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\end{table}
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We can also get more flexibility using the \mintinline{tex}{csquote} package, which provides the \mintinline{tex}|\enquote{<quote>}| command.
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It chooses the correct quotation marks depending on the language being used; also, nested \texttt{enquote}s automatically switch back and forth between first and second level.
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When enabling the \mintinline{tex}|autostyle=true| option on package import, \mintinline{tex}|\foreignquote{<language>}{<quote>}| selects varying quotation marks for each quotation.
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\section{Diacritics}
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If we are able to insert letters with diacritics via our keyboard\,---\,e.\,g., the German Umlauts or common accents\,---\,we can also do this within our source code:
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The characters will remain intact in the output.
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If not, we can also create the diacritics via escape codes.
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\Cref{tbl:diacritics} shows just a few examples\,---\,the letters can of course be swapped out, but there is still a huge amount of different diacritics.
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\begin{table}[H]
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\center
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\begin{tabular}{lccclccclcc}
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\toprule
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\verb|\`{o}| & -- & \`{o} & $\quad$ & \verb|\c{c}| & -- & \c{c} & $\quad$ & \verb|\d{u}| & -- & \d{u} \\
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\verb|\'{o}| & -- & \'{o} & & \verb|\k{a}| & -- & \k{a} & & \verb|\r{a}| & -- & \r{a} \\
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\verb|\^{o}| & -- & \^{o} & & \verb|\l{}| & -- & \l{} & & \verb|\u{o}| & -- & \u{o} \\
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\verb|\"{o}| & -- & \"{o} & & \verb|\={o}| & -- & \={o} & & \verb|\v{s}| & -- & \v{s} \\
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\verb|\H{o}| & -- & \H{o} & & \verb|\b{o}| & -- & \b{o} & & \verb|\t{oo}| & -- & \t{oo} \\
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\verb|\~{o}| & -- & \~{o} & & \verb|\.{o}| & -- & \.{o} & & \verb|\o| & -- & \o \\
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\bottomrule
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\end{tabular}
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\caption{Diakritika}
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\label{tbl:diacritics}
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\end{table}
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\section{More special characters}
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Some special characters, like the percent sign, are reserved as part of the \LaTeX{} syntax and cannot be used as normal characters.
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These and many, many more can be created by their own commands.
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Please note that some of them only work in maths environments (c.\,f. \cref{sec:maths}), others might require additional packages.
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\begin{table}[H]
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\center
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\begin{tabular}{cll}
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\toprule
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Zeichen & Code & Bemerkung \\
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\midrule
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?`/!` & \verb|?`/!`| & \\
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\textasciicircum & \verb|\textasciicircum| & \\
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\textasciitilde & \verb|\textasciitilde| & \\
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\textasteriskcentered & \verb|\textasteriskcentered| & \\
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\textbackslash & \verb|\textbackslash| & \\
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%\textbar & \verb|\textbar| & \\
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%\textbullet & \verb|\textbullet| & \\
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\textcopyright & \verb|\textcopyright| & \\
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\textdagger & \verb|\textdagger| & \\
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%\textdaggerdbl & \verb|\textdaggerdbl| & \\
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\textellipsis & \verb|\textellipsis| & \\
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\textless/\textgreater & \verb|\textless/\textgreater| & \\
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\textperthousand & \verb|\textperthousand| & \\
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\textsection & \verb|\textsection| & \\
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$\delta, \pi, \Sigma$ & \verb|\delta, \pi, \Sigma|, … & only in maths environments \\
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\euro & \verb|\euro| & requires the \texttt{eurosym} package \\
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\textteshlig & \verb|\textteshlig| & requires the \texttt{tipa} package \\
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\textmusicalnote & \verb|\textmusicalnote| & requires the \texttt{textcomp} package \\
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\bottomrule
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\end{tabular}
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\caption{Some special characters}
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\label{tbl:special-characters}
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\end{table}
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Whenever you need a certain symbol and don’t know its name, \emph{Detexify}\footnote{\url{http://detexify.kirelabs.org/classify.html}} comes to the rescue: You can draw the symbol and get all necessery information.
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From cuneiforms to technical symbols, there is absolutely \emph{everything}, as you can see scrolling through the \emph{Comprehensive \LaTeX{} Symbol List}.\footnote{\url{http://tug.ctan.org/info/symbols/comprehensive/symbols-a4.pdf}}
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