SMath does not recognize the 'micro' sign when it is typed in directly. Could this be changed?

The traditional keyboard shortcut for entering the lower case greek letter mu in SMath is m,ALT+G (type the lower case letter 'm', then turn it into greek).

This produces the letter μ who's code is "U+03BC" and is formally known as "GREEK SMALL LETTER MU"

I am used to typing mu directly in other applications (such as MS Excel or gmail) by using the ALT code. I hold the alt key, type "230" on the number pad, then release the alt key. I learned I could also use ALT+0181 to get the same thing.

Today I was trying to enter the units of microseconds into SMath. As much as I tried typing "ALT+230,s" into SMath it did not work. It looked correct on the screen, but it was not correctly understood to be the actual 'microsecond' unit. Some research shows that there are two characters for mu; one used for 'micro' (as would be typically used in SMath) and another for use as the lower case greek letter. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro-

SMath only accepts the lower case greek letter. This would make sense for variables (such as using the coeficient of friction, μ).

I believe SMath should be upgraded to accept the 'micro sign' (µ = alt 230 = alt 0181 = U+00B5 : MICRO SIGN) for use as the micro sign in units.

I found this site helpful in troubleshooting: https://www.babelstone.co.uk/Unicode/whatisit.html Try copy pasting these two characters in to see the difference: µμ

Smath is a great program!

On my german keyboard, AltGr+m (or Ctrl+Alt+m) also produces a µ which is different from the one produced by m Ctrl+g.
So it is very easy to produce unusable µ in SMath this way as well.

Wrote

I believe SMath should be upgraded to accept the 'micro sign' (µ = alt 230 = alt 0181 = U 00B5 : MICRO SIGN) for use as the micro sign in units.

Just use the unit built-in system μs

Wrote

SMath does not recognize the 'micro' sign when it is typed in directly. Could this be changed?
...

Hi. You're right, SMath can't recognize the difference. But MS Excel neither, or at least I cannot define in excel one that is different from the one called 'micro' in the windows' character map.

Mu-Micro.xlsx (8,22 KiB) scaricato 1344 volta(e).



Best regards.
Alvaro.

Wrote

I believe SMath should be upgraded to accept the 'micro sign' (µ = alt 230 = alt 0181 = U 00B5 : MICRO SIGN) for use as the micro sign in units.

My US keyboard alt230, alt0181 = µ
Bold to highlight

Wrote

My US keyboard alt230, alt0181 = µ
Bold to highlight

... size/color as you wish in Smath µ

These are called "Duplicated characters" by the Unicode consrtium (see https://www.unicode.org/reports/tr25/)