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## Naming conventions

• Math alphabet commands all start with \math...: examples are \mathbf, \mathcal, etc.
• The text font changing commands with arguments all start with \text...: e.g. \textbf and \textrm. The exception to this is \emph, since it occurs very commonly in author documents and so deserves a shorter name.
• Names for encoding schemes are strings of up to three letters, all upper case. The LaTeX3 project reserves the use of encodings starting with T (standard 256-long text encodings), M (standard 256-long math encodings), S (standard 256-long symbol encodings), OT (standard 128-long text encodings) and OM (standard 128-long math encodings). Please do not use the above starting letters for non-portable encodings. If new standard encoding emerge then we shall add them in a later release of LaTeX.

Encoding schemes which are local to a site should start with L.

• Font family names should contain up to five lower case letters. Where possible, these should conform to the Filenames for fonts font naming scheme.
• Font series names should contain up to four lower case letters.
• Font shapes should contain up to two letters lower case.
• Names for symbol fonts are built from lower and upper case letters with no restriction.

Whenever possible, you should use the series and shape names suggested in The LaTeX Companion since this will make it easier to combine new fonts with existing fonts.

Where possible, text symbols should be named as \text followed by the Adobe glyph name: for example \textonequarter or \textsterling. Similarly, math symbols should be named as \math followed by the glyph name, for example \mathonequarter or \mathsterling. Commands which can be used in text or math can then be defined using \ifmmode, for example:

   \DeclareRobustCommand{\pounds}{%
\ifmmode \mathsterling \else \textsterling \fi
}
Note that commands defined in this way must be robust, in case they get put into a section title or other moving argument.

Next: If you need to Up: Miscellanea Previous: Accented characters

Rainer Schoepf
Thu Jul 31 16:42:26 MEST 1997