Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by BaRRaKID 1529 days ago
This is probably an edge case, but I work in lab software that uses chemical symbols and having sub and super characters saves lots of headaches. I can just store "CO₂" in a database, query it, and display it back as a simple string, or display values in scientific notation like 1,3×10³, without having to use any formatting.

But to be honest I'm not sure what the parent comment wants to see added because at the moment having all the letters from A-Z, numbers from 0-9, and plus minus and equals signs as both subscript and superscript seems to be enough.
1 comments
cygx 1529 days ago
Upper-case subscripts are missing, for one: I'm not allowed to talk about the normal force F_N in plain text email. Superscript and subscript Greek letters would also be nice to have, eg in context of relativity.
link
blacklion 1529 days ago
Why not Devanagari then? This Europe-centric point of view bother me.

Also, I've seen a lot of different symbols as subscripts in mathematical and physical articles, like squares, triangles, arrows, etc.

link
cygx 1529 days ago
Why not Devanagari then? This Europe-centric point of view bother me.

Sure: As I mentioned in another comment, I'd add markers to enable arbitrary super and subscripting.

However, the question I responded to was asking what specifically people were missing in practice, and the examples I gave are things I personally would have used if they had been available.

link