[DEPRECATE] Excess math elements

[Rob Beezer]

There has long been a surplus of elements for math, dating to the earliest days
of PreTeXt, when design decisions were not as well-informed.

Short version: #me, #men, #mdn have been deprecated (for a week or two now
already). No emergency action required on your part.

Long version: we now have the following.

* #m - inline, as before, no changes.

* #md - with content, "bare", unstructured, no "mrow" children. Existing
element, new capability. Just put one line's worth of LaTeX into the element.
A single equation/expression. Replacement for #me, #men.

* #md - structured with #mrow. Pretty much as before with some new twists (read
on). For multi-line display math, with alignment control. Replaces #mdn.

Aah, "what about numbering?", I hear you ask. Good question.

* The global default has always been to not number equations, it still is. But
you can now control this global document-wide default explicitly with

docinfo/numbering/@equations

set to "yes" or "no". New feature, which I think will be welcome.

* The #md element now accepts a @number attribute. It provides the old #me
v. #men behavior for one-line math. It is a convenience for a multi-line #md,
in addition to providing the old #mdn behavior. It is also an override for
the global default.

* The #mrow element has always accepted a @number attribute. It functions as
before, but is now a further override on whatever numbering behavior might be in
effect.

What do you need to do?

* Start using the new #md forms now, as you write new material.

* Right now the pre-processor is converting #me, #men, #mdn into equivalent
forms using #md. (So a lot of old, complicated code has gone away.) I do not
expect ever having to turn that off.

* In a few months, I will turn on a deprecation warning. It is going to be a
new "bulk" message. "You have 4,621 deprecated #me elements." It won't list
all 4,621 locations. You can get ahead of that now.

* If you are happy with the old document-wide default (no numbers) the
following is a recipe for bulk search-and-replace (on a branch, or with
backup!). Do these in the order given here. If your document is heavy with
numbered equations, you might find it easier/better to set the global default
and do the following a bit differently. Note: any <mermaid> elements you may
have can get caught up with fixing #me, so watch out for that.

<mdn -> <md number="yes"
</mdn> -> </md>

<men -> <md number="yes"
</men> -> </md>

<me -> <md
</me> -> </md>

TO DO:

* I think an #xref to a bare #md is working, but please report anything
amiss there.

* An #mrow can have a @tag attribute (think a "number" like (*)). It
should be possible to *add* this as a new feature to a bare #md.

Rob

[Rob Beezer]

On 11/21/25 12:21, 'Rob Beezer' via PreTeXt announcements wrote:
> *  If you are happy with the old document-wide default (no numbers) the
> following is a recipe for bulk search-and-replace (on a branch, or with
> backup!)

From Kiran Kedlaya comes the incantations to make the necessary bulk edits from
the command-line, adjusting files "in-place" with sed ("stream editor"). Again
- make backups, or work on a branch.

> sed -i 's@<mdn@<md number="yes"@g' source/*.ptx
> sed -i 's@</mdn>@</md>@g' source/*.ptx
> sed -i 's@<men@<md number="yes"@g' source/*.ptx
> sed -i 's@</men>@</md>@g' source/*.ptx
> sed -i 's@<me@<md@g' source/*.ptx
> sed -i 's@</me>@</md>@g' source/*.ptx

Rob