¡==¿ !?

June 27, 2011 6:45 AM

What does "¡==¿" mean?

I am reading some lecture notes on stochastic dynamic programming, and the notation ¡==¿ is being used in a map/network context, like so:

• States ¡==¿ Nodes
• Controls ¡==¿ Arcs

I am guessing it means analogous to? I am reading a PDF document, so I don't imagine it has anything to do with character encoding.

posted by molecicco to Science & Nature (11 answers total)

Best answer: I am reading a PDF document, so I don't imagine it has anything to do with character encoding.

Why? PDFs do not necessarily contain every font - it is not impossible that it is using a local font and rendering incorrectly.

I don't know anything about stochastic dynamic programming, but it might actually be an encoding screw-up.
posted by Dr Dracator at 6:55 AM on June 27, 2011

Best answer: That looks exactly like an encoding error. It might have been some type of dash (— or –) or arrow (→ or ↔). Or a mathematical operator.
posted by Khalad at 6:56 AM on June 27, 2011

Best answer: A google search of "¡==¿" returns nothing, which suggests it's an encoding error of some sort.
posted by dfriedman at 6:57 AM on June 27, 2011

Response by poster: actually yeah, i found another version of the same document, and it is meant to be <>, which suggests that it maybe even a typo.

thanks!
posted by molecicco at 6:59 AM on June 27, 2011

fwiw, <> has the same meaning as !=
posted by Jacob G at 7:12 AM on June 27, 2011

It's a LaTeX encoding thing. The string "<>" in text-mode becomes "¡==¿" when compiled.
posted by joeycoleman at 7:16 AM on June 27, 2011 [6 favorites]

Best answer: oops, that was supposed to be "<==>" becomes "¡==¿"
posted by joeycoleman at 7:19 AM on June 27, 2011

"Not-equal" is probably not what you're looking for here. More likely what's missing is a symbol for "are equivalent to" or "are represented by", like a wiggly equals sign, or an equals sign with just one part wiggly.
These are, of course, standard terms within the academy.
posted by monkeymadness at 11:46 AM on June 27, 2011

There it is. joeycoleman's symbol is an equilavence which makes sense here.
posted by monkeymadness at 4:02 PM on June 27, 2011

Response by poster: Ha. that was a text problem with html. I was trying to write something close to this <>==>, but without the first close tag, because without it it looks like this <>.
posted by molecicco at 11:02 AM on June 28, 2011

Response by poster: or like joeycoleman said! and monkeymadness. sometimes i post before reading.
posted by molecicco at 11:03 AM on June 28, 2011