Superscript And Subscript Proposal

Some wiki engines offer markup for superscript and subscript text.

Proposed markups#

Superscript#

Creole: ^^This is superscripted text^^

Proposed XHTML: 

Comparison: http://www.wikimatrix.org/syntax.php?i=28

Subscript#

Creole: ~~This is subscripted text~~ or ,,This is subscripted text,,

Proposed XHTML: 

Comparison on wikimatrix: http://www.wikimatrix.org/syntax.php?i=29

Rationale#

Use cases#

• Superscript
  • Basic maths
  • Units of measurement (e.g. square meter - m²)
  • Large numbers, metric scientific notation (e.g. 1,253x10²³)
  • Ordinal numbers (e.g. 1^^st^^, 2^^nd^^, 18^^th^^ century, in French 1^^er^^, 2^^e^^, 18^^e^^ siècle)
  • Possibly for footnotes (shouldn't it be handled by another mechanism than what is considered, in that particular case, as a presentation markup)

• Subscript
  • Basic maths
  • Basic chemistry

Alternatives#

• Unicode digits
• Specialized markup languages like MathML, ChemML and LaTeX

Advantages#

• Simple way to insert superscripted/subscripted text
• The users don't have to learn a new language.
• Basic functions in most word processors
• Semantic value
• Depending on the software/keyboard layout, it might be very difficult or impossible to insert Unicode superscript or subscript digits.
• Unicode digits are limited to... digits!
• Inline with Cover the common things people need (is it?)
• NotNew, a lot of wiki engines offer markup for superscript and subscript text. HTML offers it.
• The presentation of successive Unicode digits is not always nice (see above or this source).

Disadvantages#

• Better alternatives exist
• New markups to learn, NotNew though.
• Markup characters can be hard to find on several keyboard layouts