I want to parse markdown emphasis automatically in XeLaTeX. This basically means converting asterisks either side of a word into the \emph{word} that LaTeX uses. I know that more complex Markdown parsing is impossible, but this seems quite simple. Unfortunately, I don't know how to go about replacing something that is not a command.
I understand that \bf and \it are now obsolete in LaTeX and that \textbf and \textit are proper, as they produce more sophisticated (in particular, cumulative and properly kerned) changes to font style. I have read the  and I understand the rules and their reasons, as well as the several other commands that are affected.  However, I find it convenient to use LaTeX for notetaking during lectures, and in that rushed environment, shortening a command by any number of keystrokes helps keep me from falling behind. \bf and its two-letter kin are still very useful to me for that reason, and once a presentation is finished I can go through and replace all appearances of \bf et al. with \textbf et al.  My question is this: is there a plan eventually to replace the short font style commands like \bf with the implementations of \textbf etc. some day, or should I expect \bf always to remain in existence but obsolete, for reasons of backward compatibility with original TeX? Original TeX has been greatly improved on in countless ways, but in the heat of transcription I sometimes miss its conciseness.
Short story with competitors complaining to government about a new very popular synthetic food Tool for straightening a bent metal bar of the gate? Someone's car hit our metal bar gate, so one of the rods is bent as shown in the photo. What kind of a tool can I use to bend this back, so it's straight? Thank you! I have been taught to use the if I had form in conditional clauses referring to the past:     If the president had asked me, I would have told him the same thing.   As far as I can tell though, the would have construct is sometimes used in conditional clauses as well, so it wouldn't be incorrect to say:     If the president would have asked me, I would have told him the same thing.   What is the difference between the two and the proper use of the latter? How do I create a very long delay with Redstone? I'm working on a web application that needs to prints silently -- that is without user involvement.  What's the best way to accomplish this?  It doesn't like it can be done with strictly with Javascript, nor Flash and/or AIR.  The closest I've seen involves a Java applet.  I can understand why it would a Bad Idea for just any website to be able to do this.  This specific instance is for an internal application, and it's perfectly acceptable if the user needs to add the URL to a trusted site list, install an addon, etc. How to prevent non-alphanumeric input in javascript? After installing NVIDIA driver, X isn't showing I recently installed the NVIDIA 319 driver from the Jockey window, and now X won't load! I'm stuck with a blinking cursor. I used to have the 304 drivers installed.  How do I fix this? My reputation suddenly raised by 10k! A real solution to ambiguous tags Introduction Even within a site's relatively focused range of topics (it's unlikely anybody on SO will think  refers to the solar system's star), some tags are inherently ambiguous. There are currently two unsatisfying options:  Declare that the tag is only to be used for one of the possible meanings, write a tag wiki explaining it, and link from there to the newly created tags for the other meanings, and keep cleaning up the tag whenever someone ignores the tag wiki popup explaining the tag. Use alternative tags for all meanings (e.g. cd-command and compact-disk, instead of cd), and keep removing the undesired tag whenever it pops up again. And it will. The  is not deterring users from creating unnecessary or redundant tags.  Blacklisting tags is a complicated ritual occurring once in a blue moon, at most, and involves a dragon, a team member, and sacrifices to be burnt. It also makes those other, unambiguous tags not easier to discover, if it were applied to ambiguous tags. I don't consider this to be a viable option in this case. Proposal Here's the proposed : Just like a tag can be declared a synonym of another tag, basically changing all references to the synonym to references to that other, canonical tag, it should be possible to make it a disambiguation tag (or ambiguous tag) for multiple other tags. It's a logical progression from &quot;You entered a term with the same meaning as this other term&quot; to &quot;You entered a term with the same meaning as one of these other terms, please choose the correct meaning&quot;. Use of the tag should force the user to choose one of the alternatives presented:  &quot;, did you mean  or ?&quot; &quot;, did you mean , , or ?&quot; &quot;You entered 'vm', did you mean  or ?&quot; &quot;You entered 'sas', did you mean  or ?&quot; &quot;You entered 'kvm', did you mean  or ?&quot; &quot;You entered 'mono', did you mean  or ?&quot; &quot;You entered 'dsl', did you mean  or ?&quot;  Not all of these examples might be good (I'm not sure e.g. about the first two SO examples), but that's not really the point here anyway — they should just convey how this could be used. Note how some of these tags would probably never be used if users had to type them, and yet everything shorter is ambiguous. This could probably be mostly solved by extending the synonym/tag wiki excerpt dropdowns shown when a user enters the tags, proposing the alternatives for an ambiguous tag entered by the user (like a synonym suggestion, but with multiple options). If ignored, the user could still be shown an error message like with blacklisted tags, but by designing the selection dialog well, it should be possible to prevent that in most cases.  Related topics   This topic is related, but the user seems to have accepted the inclusion of tag wiki excerpts in the tag suggestions drop-down as sufficient.   This requires extensive discussion and team involvement (i.e. the status quo)   This topic has no real solution, except manual retagging. As a moderator, how do I handle a potentially inappropriate profile picture? What can I do when getting "We are no longer accepting questions/answers from this account"? If you are reading this, you may have been affected by one of our post quality bans. If so, it is important that you  to understand what has happened and how to regain the permissions that you lost. While trying to ask a question, one could see:  We are no longer accepting questions from this account. See  to learn more.  Likewise, for answers:  We are no longer accepting answers from this account. See  to learn more.   Why am I getting this message? Are deleted posts taken into account too? Is a question/answer ban the same as a suspension? How do I avoid getting a question ban? How long do I have to wait before I can post again? What can I do to release the ban? How can I reactivate my account? Can I simply create a new account? I'll just ask somewhere else on the SE network, and they'll migrate my question to the correct site! Will a ban on one Stack Exchange site affect my standing on other sites in the network? Does this apply to meta sites too? My account is in good standing. Why am I still blocked? Do vulnerability and resistance cancel out? I have a strange issue with Windows 10  When I open .nef files they load fine. However after a second or two the contrast changes noticeably. I tried Windows 10 Photos and Picasa Image Viewer.   What am I trying to accomplish? I just want to open files quickly to check for focus and composition before importing into Lightroom  Lightroom does not have this issue   Here is the example opening with Windows 10 Photos    And here is after a second when it 'fully' loads    Picasa Photo Viewer after it loads a bit. It initially opens fine but then it goes all purple How can I access the "Open command window here" option in Windows without holding shift? Can I install Kali tools on Ubuntu? What are acceptable reasons for flagging as "Requires Moderator attention"? After reading , I feel I don't quite understand this function. What are the guidelines for flagging a question as &quot;Requires Moderator attention&quot;? How is the passage of time handled in Pokemon? Consider the examples:    "My name is Ricky."   He said his name is Ricky.    The tense is not backshifted in #2 because his name is and will always be Ricky. Also consider:    Ricky says: "I live in Paris."   Ricky said that he lives in Paris.    The tense is not backshifted in #4 because he still lives in Paris.  For examples #2 and #4, it is possible to not backshift the tense because the reporting words are still true at the time of reporting, but what will you say about the following examples:        I asked what his name is.   I asked where he lives.      Here, is it correct for #5 and #6 to not backshift the tense?  If #5 and #6 are correct, then under what conditions is it correct to not backshift the verb like that? I posted what I think is a clever answer to:    But then I noticed the question was posted a while ago on Mar 2.  I wanted to see what the chance of the user logging back in and seeing my answer, but the  says the user was seen on Feb 19.  I thought this was supposed to be the date they last logged in? How could they have asked a question on Mar 2 if they haven't logged in since February?  Thanks Get the subdomain from a URL Getting the subdomain from a URL sounds easy at first.  http://www.domain.example   Scan for the first period then return whatever came after the "http://" ...  Then you remember  http://super.duper.domain.example   Oh. So then you think, okay, find the last period, go back a word and get everything before!   Then you remember  http://super.duper.domain.co.uk   And you're back to square one. Anyone have any great ideas besides storing a list of all TLDs?