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It appears that some abbreviation inherited from Latin, e.g., i.e., have different inter-space prescription in different languages for different reasons (good and bad ones). No space space in English, tiny space in German, a regular space in French. Is there a language-independent command we can use which will get this right just as, e.g., \chaptername gets the names of chapters right? If not, what is the best way to implement in [La]TeX our own ad hoc command ?

Spherical Triangle
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  • Welcome! This is off-topic for this site, I think. It doesn't have anything to do with TeX, does it? However, they are abbreviations, basically, so they don't need the spaces. – cfr Aug 20 '15 at 02:16
  • I think is limit off-topic. In Journal abbreviations, there are space between the abbreviated words. – Spherical Triangle Aug 20 '15 at 02:21
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    question for http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/3911/correct-spelling-italicization-of-e-g-i-e – alfC Aug 20 '15 at 02:29
  • It is Latin id est, so there are some reasons for the space. But the form i.e. is preferred. – Przemysław Scherwentke Aug 20 '15 at 02:30
  • @JeromeBenoit I've never seen abbreviations where there were spaces in which the abbreviations consisted of single letters representing each word. But my discipline doesn't really use abbreviations for journals much. What do you mean by limit off-topic? It is off-topic unless it is about TeX or friends, which it isn't, so it is ;). – cfr Aug 20 '15 at 02:54
  • Abbreviations without inter-space are also abbreviation without points. It limit-off-topic as spelling is for [La]TeX. – Spherical Triangle Aug 20 '15 at 03:01
  • That's all: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Latin_abbreviations – Sigur Aug 20 '15 at 05:04
  • LaTeX doesn't know all possible abbreviations and it doesn't try to guess the meaning of possible abbreviations, which is why it doesn't insert whitespace after a dot, unless you insert it yourself, so e. g. will have whitespace after the e, but e.g. does not. –  Aug 20 '15 at 05:16
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    Typographic rules differ between countries. German typography, e.\,g., prescribes a small space in between [Duden, Richtlinien für den Schriftsatz]. – AlexG Aug 20 '15 at 07:20
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    @AlexG I am glad you mentioned this. It also shows this question is on topic because TeX should be capable of inserting the white space. I wasn't aware of these conventions. I was going to write something about possible space after the last dot, but your comment is much more convincing. –  Aug 20 '15 at 11:51
  • @MarcvanDongen Duden also says that no line break may occur at \,. Does La(TeX) automatically ensures this or do we have to put the abbreviation into \mbox? – AlexG Aug 20 '15 at 12:07
  • The German typography prescription sounds very good. And, as @AlexG claimed, it shows that the question is on-topic. – Spherical Triangle Aug 20 '15 at 15:31
  • @AlexG I don't know anything about how language-dependent (babel ?) formatting is implemented. You'd have to look under the hood. –  Aug 20 '15 at 16:40
  • @cfr Please read the most recent comments. This question may very well be on topic. –  Aug 20 '15 at 16:41
  • @MarcvanDongen I think the question is off-topic. That is not to say that a related question might not be (1) on-topic, (2) useful and (3) interesting. If the question said 'Look, in language X, i.e. should have no space, while in Y it should have a small one and in Z a large one, is there a language-independent command I can use which will get this right just as e.g. \chaptername gets the names of chapters right?' it would be on-topic. But why there is no space in, presumably English, or whether there should be a space in language X is off-topic. – cfr Aug 20 '15 at 19:24
  • @cfr Why not try teasing out the backgrounds about the question first before deciding the question is off-topic? –  Aug 20 '15 at 20:23
  • @MarcvanDongen Sometimes that seems the most reasonable approach. Sometimes it doesn't. Thankfully, I only get one vote. This question could edited to ask something on-topic. That would be a different question, but it might well be related. But it is not at all clear that the question you are interested in is the question the OP is interested in. I'm not sure how important your question might be, but it is clearly on topic. (I'm not sure how important it is just because it isn't clear to me that a language-agnostic command for standard abbreviations would be especially useful.) Why not ask it? – cfr Aug 20 '15 at 20:46
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    Write macros for these, if you must use them (they are better avoided), and then you can redefine them according to your publisher's style and national/linguistic custom. E.g., \newcommand{\eg}{e.\,g.}. Even better: \newcommand{\eg}{for example} – musarithmia Aug 20 '15 at 22:37
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    Better use babel's \addto\captions<language>{\def\<abbrvname>{<abbrvformatted>}} (example: \addto\captionsgerman{\def\ie{d.\,h.}}). Moreover, this could be enhanced by the abbrevs package from the frankenstein bundle or simply the acronyms package or abbr (and oldish hybrid package that also works in Plain). – Ruben Aug 20 '15 at 22:46
  • @Ruben It should be \addto\extras<language>, probably. – egreg Aug 21 '15 at 07:58
  • Nobody with a sane mind would use e.g. in a german text. So the discussion if there is a space in between is useless. However, as stated before, the abbreviation z\,B. needs a thin space. On the other hand, abbreviations of that kind are allowed, but discouraged as everybody expands the letters to the words anyway. Same goes for d\,h. (das heißt) and others, but not for acronyms like CD or LASER or NATO. – Johannes_B Aug 21 '15 at 09:55

1 Answers1

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babel (which is the standard multi-language managment system in pdfLaTeX) provides an interface to implement those kinds of rules. Add definitions into the language specific \extras, e.g.

\addto\extrasenglish{\def\ie{i.e.\@}}
\addto\extrasgerman{\def\ie{i.\,e.\@}}%or maybe d.\,h. instead of i.\,e.
\addto\extrasngerman{\def\ie{i.\,e.\@}}%or maybe d.\,h. instead of i.\,e.
\addto\extrasfrench{\def\ie{i.~e.\@}}
\addto\extrasspanish{\def\ie{v.~g.\@}}

for latin "i.e." and call \ie, of course, in your manuscript when you want to use this particular abbreviation.

Ruben
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  • In Spanish i.e. should be used as in french ( i.~e.), but is not very common, so {\em id~est} or esto~es could be better, whereas e.g. is not used at all. The equivalent should be v.~ g. (latin verbi gratia or Spanish verbigracia) or p.~ ej. ( por ejemplo ). – Fran Aug 21 '15 at 11:28
  • @Fran Are the explicite two spaces in your last two examples on purpose? – Johannes_B Aug 21 '15 at 11:42
  • @Johannes_B Sorry, no, I meant v.~g and p.~ej. – Fran Aug 21 '15 at 14:46
  • Another way: You can define language’s versions inside the command definition like this. But I think that Ruben’s solution is the best. – fauve Aug 21 '15 at 17:12