# vB codes: Why safer than HTML?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vb-codes-why-safer-than-html/50510>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [January 17, 2001, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vb-codes-why-safer-than-html/50510 "2001-01-17T14:54:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2002, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vb-codes-why-safer-than-html/50510/21 "2002-04-26T05:23:04Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Chronos \*  
> **L[sub]a[/sub]t[sup]e[/sup]x**

That’s L[sub]A[/sub]T[sub]E[/sub]X, an add-on to the original T[sub]E[/sub]X.

😃

And these still won’t turn out right. They _should_ be displayed with those hideously nonstandard _full-sized_ capitals that hang below the standard bottom.

I don’t know of any way (other than (La)TeX itself, or a display format such as PostScript) to correctly render those names.

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**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2002, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vb-codes-why-safer-than-html/50510/22 "2002-04-26T23:27:10Z")

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This is as close as I could get.

L[sup]A[/sup]T[sub]E[/sub]X

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**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2002, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vb-codes-why-safer-than-html/50510/23 "2002-04-27T00:25:25Z")

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.ce  
Why would you need something like Latex?  
.fi  
.in 3  
.ti 0  
We have better!

In the old days, we didn’t have those fancy TeX tools. We used …

.ce  
troff!

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**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2002, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vb-codes-why-safer-than-html/50510/24 "2002-04-27T00:30:52Z")

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Is the ‘A’ in LaTeX a super-scripted letter? Sorry. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it rendered correctly.

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**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2002, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vb-codes-why-safer-than-html/50510/25 "2002-04-27T05:48:59Z")

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No, the “A” in LaTeX shouldn’t be superscripted - it’s roughly half-sized with the top of the letter at the same level as the regular caps. That’s how it looked in a PDF document about LaTex. Like I said, “as close as I could get”.

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