Date: 05 May 93 16:39:39+0000
From: laurent@MATH.TORONTO.EDU
Sender: TeX-Euro  Distribution List for European TeX Users 
Subject: email-sp
To: Multiple Recipients of <TEX-EURO@DHDURZ1.BITNET>



   *********** email-sp ***********

 > Werenfried Spit                          tel: 96-386 4550
 > Departament de F%sica Tehrica       e-mail: spit@vm.ci.uv.es
 > Universitat de Val[ncia                     spit@evalun11.bitnet


Dear W. Spit,

     I notice from your address that you do not like "F\'isica
... de Val\'encia", since you have unsuccessfully tried to use a
non-ascii accented i and e.  Are you aware that there is a very
pracical compromise for Spanish, namely "F'isica ... de
Val'encia"?

     By practical I mean readable, typable, portable by email,
and acceptable to TeX.

     TeX does need to swallow a few macros before it can
interpret "F'isica in Val'encia" correctly, but they are so
succinct that you can put them in a header --- see below.

     This header called email-sp improves on spaccent.sty of
Pablo A. Straub <straub@cs.UMD.EDU> available since 1991, and
posted on ftp moose.cs.indiana.edu. Notably, email-sp is
compatible with mathematics and with case change by
\uppercase,\lowercase, see (**) below.

     Look for updates on ftp  matups.matups.fr where you can
incidentally compare the more elaborate French version
email-fr.sty.

                        Laurent Siebenmann

                         <lcs@matups.matups.fr>



 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
 %%  email-sp (header form) Larry S.19-4-93 <lcs@matups.matups.fr>
 %%  Succinct Spanish-English typing: '<letter> for \'<letter>,
 %%  EXCEPT that (i) 's and 'S give apostrophes (for English)
 %%  (ii) 'n or \~n  gives <ntilde>; 'N  or \~N  gives <Ntilde>.
 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
 \count255=\catcode`@\catcode`@=11\catcode`\'=13\let\EX@\expandafter
 \def\EX@@{\EX@\EX@\EX@}\def\g@bble#1{} \let\FL@\futurelet
 \def'{\ifmmode\EX@\@prime\else\EX@\@pprime\fi}%
 \def\@prime{\sp\bgroup\prim@s}\def\@pprime{\FL@\next\rq@}
 \def\pr@m@s{\ifx'\next\let\nxt\pr@@@s \else
   \ifx^\next\let\nxt\pr@@@t\else\let\nxt\egroup\fi\fi \nxt}%
 \def\rq@{\ifx\next'\rq\EX@@\rq\EX@\g@bble\else\EX@\rq@@\fi}
 \def\rq@@{\ifcat a\noexpand\next\EX@\rq@@@\else\EX@\rq\fi}
 \def\rq@@@#1{\ifnum\lccode`#1=`s\EX@\rq #1%
   \else\ifnum\lccode`#1=`n\~#1\else\'#1\fi\fi}
 \let\emailinput\input \def\IW@{\immediate\write16}
 \def\macroinput#1 {\catcode`\'=12\currinput#1 \catcode`\'=13}
 \edef\input{\IW@{}\IW@{ !!!! With email-sp macros use
    \string\macroinput}  \IW@{ !!!! or \string\emailinput\space
    for \string\input\space} \errmessage{}} \catcode`@=\count255
 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%


Notes on email-sp:

 --- email-sp is for Spanish in the the ASCII world of email and
ftp and telnet. The restriction to 7bit characters gives
portability. Other features are immediate TeXing, easy typing,
and readability.

 --- email-sp typing can replace eight-bit typing. The converse
is impossible since email is 7bit and the only universal standard
is 7bit ASCII.

 --- Why are 'n and 'N proposed as typing for <ntilde> and
<Ntilde>?  It seems impossible to use ~n for <ntilde>!  Indeed
\uppercase{~n} should then give the same as ~N.  But longstanding
TeX custom reserves ~N  for <unbreakable space>N, as in
R.~Nixon!

 --- primes in math are OK  (**)

 --- \uppercase{'e} is <Eaccute> etc. (**)

 --- English Apostrophe (rare): type O'{}Hara.

 --- French Apostrophe: To type small amounts of French with
email-sp note that the line

 \catcode`\/=13 \def/{\ifmmode\string/\else\string'\fi}%

would make / an apostrophe in prose. This allows efficient
typing: L/'eternel vs L'{}'eternel.