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Feature request: Configurable spacing before operators (ASCIIMath & LaTeX)

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Assessment

Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Newbie friendliness
48/100
Issue type
Feature
Clarity
Mostly clear
Activity status
Quiet
Tech stack
rust
Domain
accessibility

Research direction

Start by tracing where ASCIIMath and LaTeX output spacing around operators is produced and how output settings are represented. Define the configuration behavior for spacing before and after comparison operators, then verify that both output modes consistently honor it with focused tests.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

enhancement

It would be useful to allow users to configure whether a space should be inserted before operators (+ - * : =) in ASCIIMath and LaTeX output. Currently LaTeX (and ASCIIMath-Fi) have space before operators, ASCIIMath do not.
It is difficult to find many good and consistent examples:

https://asciimath.org - Do not use space before operators

https://www.augenbit.de/wiki/index.php?title=LaTeX-Manual_Sekundarstufe_1 - Do it in LaTeX, sometimes in ASCIIMath. "Spaces and line breaks can be inserted or omitted as desired for structure and readability"

https://www.statped.no/ressurser-og-verktoy/ressurser/matematikk-med-punktskrift/notasjon/skrivemater - Use space in ASCIIMath: "We find that some students do not follow the spacing rules when writing mathematics themselves. As long as they understand what they have written and are writing the mathematics correctly, we do not recommend correcting this."

When it comes to spaces before and after comparison signs, some use only before, others both before and after.

Dominant language
Rust
Stars
114
Forks
85
Avg merge
1d 13h
Merged PRs (30d)
75

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