# Quick symbols broken?

FWIW the complete train-wreck that I see now (zero correct symbols, and some slots displayed as blank) looks like the "raw data" is in UTF-8 format, but my browser is displaying it as 8-bit ASCII.

This strategy might fix iit:
image telling me to call the Eagle.

Done.

I was going to start a thread, but then I saw this one, and think it's related. While looking at posts today all my θ inside tex $$θ$$ (theta, if its not showing right) in old posts are showing as some sort of i-hat.

tiny-tim
Homework Helper
I was going to start a thread, but then I saw this one, and think it's related. While looking at posts today all my θ inside tex $$θ$$ (theta, if its not showing right) in old posts are showing as some sort of i-hat.

i'm getting similar problems, see eg https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=729674
ah, i see the new forum Ï† !

(and the restored Â± and âˆ€)

thanks, Greg!

when i posted that, it made sense!

the first one was φ (but copied from the Quick Symbols, not from my signature), and i'm not sure what the other two were

i see there's now a small null symbol instead of φ: ø …

it is better than the old large one, but can we please have a proper φ back?

P.S why is there a ς‚ symbol in the Quick Symbols box?

it's actually two symbols joined together: ς ‚ … what is it used for??

Mentor
Part of the mess is because some people used UTF-8 coded Greek letters in LaTeX formulas. If you want theta in LaTeX you should enter it as \theta, not as θ.

Whenever you see several funny characters instead of one, it is UTF-8 being displayed as ISO-whatever. UTF-8 characters can span over several bytes, with the highest bit set to show next byte contains next part of the character code. When treated as ISO it ends in browser displaying things like "âˆ€" or "ς ‚" Tim mentioned.

Part of the mess is because some people used UTF-8 coded Greek letters in LaTeX formulas. If you want theta in LaTeX you should enter it as \theta, not as θ.

Whenever you see several funny characters instead of one, it is UTF-8 being displayed as ISO-whatever. UTF-8 characters can span over several bytes, with the highest bit set to show next byte contains next part of the character code. When treated as ISO it ends in browser displaying things like "âˆ€" or "ς ‚" Tim mentioned.

Yah that was it, I tired viewing in different encodings and I saw it fine. I didn't know that about tex though, I'll use the \theta from now on, thanks

Fredrik
Staff Emeritus
Gold Member
This is the most recent thread I found about the quick symbols. I would like to suggest a few changes. This is the list of symbols that's used right now.

Ω σ μ ε τ ω
κ α β γ δ η
θ λ π ρ ζ χ
ψ ∞ Θ √ Δ ς
∂ ∑ ∏ ∇ ≈ ≠
≤ ≥ ∫ → ← ∴
ø ° ∠ ƒ ⇔ ∃

For me, the biggest omission by far is ×. I use it all the time to say things like "A×B" or "4×1 matrix". I'd say that it's about twice as useful as all the other symbols combined. And I'm pretty sure it used to be on this list. I would also like to see ·, ℝ, ℂ, ±, ħ. Maybe also ℚ, ℤ but those two are less important. The symbols that seem the least useful to me are ƒ, ∠, ∴, ς, ←, ∃ and maybe also ⇔.

If ∃ is on the list, shouldn't ∀ (for all) be there too? I think ∀ is more useful than ∃. But I don't think I would use either of them. I'll just write out the words (99% of the time) or use LaTeX (1 %) of the time. The logical symbols ¬ (not), ∧ (and) and ∨ (or) could perhaps be useful too, but probably not to me. I would just use LaTeX, ##\lnot,\land,\lor##.

I'm pretty confused by some things that are said earlier in this thread. Do you guys not see the same things that I do? Someone referred to these as "alpha" and "sigma": Ïƒ Î± To me the "alpha" is an uppercase I with a ¨ (two dots) on top, followed by a weird f, and the "sigma" is an uppercase I with a ^ on top, followed by a ##\pm##.

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Mentor
Someone referred to these as "alpha" and "sigma": Ïƒ Î± To me the "alpha" is an uppercase I with a ¨ (two dots) on top, followed by a weird f, and the "sigma" is an uppercase I with a ^ on top, followed by a ##\pm##.

That clearly means that problem with displaying some of the symbols is related to their UTF-8 representation being treated not as a single entity, but as several separate characters.

(Whatever it means in this particular case - can be a bug in HTML, can be a bug in a browser, can be something else, it is just obvious what is being mistreated).

SteamKing
Staff Emeritus
Homework Helper
There's a new problem with the Advanced Reply Box which has cropped up in the last couple of days.

The Big Sigma which used to appear at the Right Hand Side of the Menu Bar has disappeared and Quick Symbols apparently cannot be accessed anymore, at least I can't access them. This feature worked for me a couple of days ago, and now, Poof!

I'm using Win 7 Home Premium with Firefox V28.0 as my browser.

Fredrik
Staff Emeritus