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There's more to maths typesetting than meets the eye. Many conventions
used in the typesetting of plain text are inappropriate to maths. LATEX
goes a long way to help you along with the style. For example,
in a LATEX maths environment, letters come out in italics, `-'
as `-' (minus) instead of the usual `-' (dash), `*' becomes *,
' becomes ' and spacing is
changed (less around `/', more around `+').
Many of the usual LATEX constructions can still be used in maths environments
but their effect may be slightly different; eg \textbf{ } only affects letters
and numbers. `{' and `}' are still special characters;
they're used to group characters.
As usual in LATEX you can override the defaults, but think before doing
it: maths support in LATEX has been carefully thought out and is
quite logical though the LATEX source text may not be very readable.
It's a good idea to write out the formulae on paper before you start
LATEXing, and try not to overdo the use of the `\frac'
construction; use `/' instead.
Next: Environments
Up: LATEX maths and graphics
Previous: Contents
