Fun with Superscripts
Posted: March 3rd, 2023, 12:04 pm
I'm not sure if the Snug is the best place for this - but it has arisen from the contributions to "The solution to 42" in the Snug
Looking at these contributions, its clear that some contributors know how to display Superscripts correctly - while others of us don't.
So I set out to try to discover the secret knowledge. Back in May 2019 this matter was raised, and the conclusion was that changes were required - but only the "Gods of Stooz & Clariman can do this". But clearly it can be done - how?
I played around in many dead ends, but my only limited success came with the use of Alt codes directly in Lemon Fool contributions.
I was using Windows 10 on a PC. Set the keypad to Num Lock, and, holding the Alt key down, type 0178 on the numeric keypad, then release the Alt key - you should get superscript 2. and to get superscript 3 you should use 0179.
There are numerous sites which list the Alt key combinations (including the above two), so I thought that I could continue for 4,5,6 etc - which have published codes 8308, 8309, 8310 etc. But this doesn't work - I get the letters t,u,v. So does TLF only use a subset of the Alt Codes?
OK - off on another track. I had already tried creating text with superscripts using the normal constructs within Microsoft Word - then cutting and pasting into TLF - but the superscript gets lost. How about using Word with the Alt Codes? You do this by typing the Code in Hex, followed by the letter x with the Alt key depressed and released. So I tried it with hex code B2 (decimal 0178) - and correctly displayed superscript 2. I also tried it with hex code 2074 (decimal 8308) and got superscript 4. I now cut and pasted this into TLF - and the correct formats appeared.
So using TLF directly I was able to write:-
X² + Y³
And Using Word with a cut and paste into TLF I was able to display
Z⁴
Apologies if all of you already knew how to do this
Looking at these contributions, its clear that some contributors know how to display Superscripts correctly - while others of us don't.
So I set out to try to discover the secret knowledge. Back in May 2019 this matter was raised, and the conclusion was that changes were required - but only the "Gods of Stooz & Clariman can do this". But clearly it can be done - how?
I played around in many dead ends, but my only limited success came with the use of Alt codes directly in Lemon Fool contributions.
I was using Windows 10 on a PC. Set the keypad to Num Lock, and, holding the Alt key down, type 0178 on the numeric keypad, then release the Alt key - you should get superscript 2. and to get superscript 3 you should use 0179.
There are numerous sites which list the Alt key combinations (including the above two), so I thought that I could continue for 4,5,6 etc - which have published codes 8308, 8309, 8310 etc. But this doesn't work - I get the letters t,u,v. So does TLF only use a subset of the Alt Codes?
OK - off on another track. I had already tried creating text with superscripts using the normal constructs within Microsoft Word - then cutting and pasting into TLF - but the superscript gets lost. How about using Word with the Alt Codes? You do this by typing the Code in Hex, followed by the letter x with the Alt key depressed and released. So I tried it with hex code B2 (decimal 0178) - and correctly displayed superscript 2. I also tried it with hex code 2074 (decimal 8308) and got superscript 4. I now cut and pasted this into TLF - and the correct formats appeared.
So using TLF directly I was able to write:-
X² + Y³
And Using Word with a cut and paste into TLF I was able to display
Z⁴
Apologies if all of you already knew how to do this