Content deleted Content added
→ldots or cdots: Reply |
|||
Line 93:
:::In your contrived example the correct thing to do is either <math>-x^6 \pm \cdots</math> or <math>-x^6 \pm \ldots</math>. Personally I tend to use ldots when the operation is addition, but \cdots looks a lot better following \pm for some reason. --[[User:JayBeeEll|JBL]] ([[User_talk:JayBeeEll|talk]]) 00:47, 16 July 2025 (UTC)
:::In your example, you should not omit the operation. As JBL says, use {{tmath|\pm}}. In your other example, I'd go for the lower dots when using commas, even if the entries are centered. I have never seen this come up though. Anyway, if you want to consistently use 'ldots' on some page or other, that's probably fine; there are some authors who do that, and according to Wikipedia (with questionable sourcing) it's standard in Russian mathematical typesetting. –[[user:jacobolus|jacobolus]] [[user_talk:jacobolus|(t)]] 04:06, 16 July 2025 (UTC)
:::It case it isn't clear ... I wouldn't ever escalate this to an edit war or any formal dispute, because I know that my approach is only one of several. I continue this discussion only because I find the topic interesting that there are these multiple ways. And maybe I can learn something.
:::Because I'm contriving the example, I could make it a three-sided coin where the next term is either added, subtracted, or omitted. Or it could be addition vs. subtraction vs. a binary operation {{math|*}} signifying some other binary operation under discussion. Maybe then we'd put the ellipsis (centered or lowered) starting after a term rather than after a binary operator. Or maybe you have syntax that generalizes {{tmath|\pm}} that would handle that too!
:::But even with just addition and subtraction... conceptually the random choices being made are to extend the sequence with {{tmath|{}-x^4}}, then {{tmath|{}+x^5}}, then {{tmath|{}-x^6}}, etc. so it seems wrong to me to place the ellipsis into the middle of one of those extending steps.
:::But that's all contrived stuff. ''The part that actually interests me'': If we expand to include areas outside of mathematics, is there a general rule for how high to put the ellipses? In this more general context I wonder how my preference to put the ellipses at the level roughly where the start of the omitted text would be balances with the preference to put the ellipsis at the level where the last of the previous not-omitted text is. Perhaps the answer is boring (at least for English): is it that only in mathematics do we ever use anything other than ldots? —[[User:Quantling|<span class="texhtml"><i>Q</i></span>uantling]] ([[User talk:Quantling|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Quantling|contribs]]) 14:14, 16 July 2025 (UTC)
| |||