Re: Embedded LaTeX does not work with Unicode quotes

[Nick Dokos <ndokos@gmail.com>]

Marcin Borkowski <mbork@wmi.amu.edu.pl> writes:

> Hi list,
>
> I have this: „$n\eps\le b$”, and it seems not to be recognized as a
> LaTeX fragment.  The manual says:
>
> ================
> To avoid conflicts with currency specifications, single `$' characters
> are only recognized as math delimiters if the enclosed text contains at
> most two line breaks, is directly attached to the `$' characters with no
> whitespace in between, and if the closing `$' is followed by whitespace,
> punctuation or a dash.
> ================
>
> When I C-u C-x = on the closing quote, I get
>
> ================
> ...
>                syntax: . 	which means: punctuation
> ...
> ================
>
> so I don't know why it is not recognized as punctuation.  Consequently,
> it is exported verbatim (with `\$') into LaTeX, and also (obviously) C-c
> C-x C-l does not fontify it.  When I change ” into " (the ASCII #x22
> quote), everything is ok.
>

The $...$ construct is recognized by a regexp which, while complicated,
is not complicated enough to recognize everything that's marked
"punctuation" in the syntax tables. Look for org-latex-regexps in org.el
(and note that the regexp for "$" is about twice as long as the next
longest regexp - the one for "begin"). The others (for \(...\), \[...\]
and $$..$$) are fairly trivial.

> My questions:
>
> 1. Isn't it a bug?
>

Yes, probably - but looking at the regexp, I cringe: I don't want to even
try deciphering it, let alone change it - life's too short...

> 2. If not, what can I do to in my config so that it is recognized
> properly?
>
> PS. I just recalled that using \(...\) should help, and indeed it does.
> Still, I'm curious about the answer to my questions (now that I
> remembered a workaround, especially #1).
>
That is indeed the best solution.

-- 
Nick