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Avoiding parentheses in Formatted or box structures

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg59641] Avoiding parentheses in Formatted or box structures
• From: "David Park" <djmp at earthlink.net>
• Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2005 06:50:33 -0400 (EDT)
• Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

I'm producing some formatted output. The following is a simplified version that illustrates the problem I am having.

ClearAll[f]
Format[f[x_Symbol]] := SequenceForm[g, x]
Format[f[x^n_]] := SequenceForm[g, x^n]

The first line of output is what I desire. No extra parentheses. But when we multiply these expressions by a constant we obtain an extra set of parentheses, which I don't want.

{f[x], f[x^3]}
a %

{gx, gx^3}
{a (gx), a (gx^3)}

So I tried the following Format statements.

ClearAll[f]
f[x_Symbol] := g\[InvisibleApplication]x
f[(x_)^(n_)] := g\[InvisibleApplication](x^n)

Now I don't get parentheses when I multiply the expression by a constant, but I do get them after the g. The InvisibleApplication does not carry through.

{f[x], f[x^3]}
a%

{g[x],g[x^3]}
{a g[x], a g[x^3]}

I want

{gx, gx^3}
{a gx, a gx^3}

Is it possible to obtain that? I've also tried RowBox structures without success. The example in the Book on RowBox, for example, produces an extra set of parentheses when multiplied by a constant.

step1 = RowBox[{SubscriptBox["a", "1"], SubscriptBox["b", "2"]}] // 
    DisplayForm
k step1

David Park
djmp at earthlink.net
http://home.earthlink.net/~djmp/ 

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: Avoiding parentheses in Formatted or box structures
    • From: ted.ersek@tqci.net