Matthew Bromberg wrote:
For most mathematical documents, the convention is that a bold font on a variable name represents a vector or a matrix. These should not be in italics! They should be in the same font as the normal text. That is the standard used in most mathematical text that I'm aware of. Unfortunately in the new Lyx ctrl-B generates a \boldsymbol{} command instead of the old default \mathbf{}. This is very wrong I'm afraid. Most variables in math mode, once they are bold should be in a non-italic font.
This is not wrong. The change to use \boldmath for Ctrl-b has been well discussed. \boldmath fixes some bugs or call it missing features from \mathbf, see the math manual for an explanation. You can create upright math symbols also with \boldmath, but now this is consistent: Highlight the character set it to upright (Alt-c r), then make it bold or whatever you like. When you really only need upright bold math, then change the binding of Ctrl-b using LyX 1.6's new binding dialog. Note that the math toolbar also provides \mathbf, so its your decision what to use.
In some cases, for some greek variables used as vectors and matrices, one might need \boldsymbol, but for the vast majority of mathematical notation that is not the behavior you want. If you write a scientific document that uses a lot of vectors and matrices, the change is disastrous.
Well I'm a scientist too and can live with this. The change has been made due to various bug reports about \mathbf on the lyx-users list.
Another potential issue as well is the fact that the bold command ctrl-B no longer toggles bold, instead it makes it more bold.
This is another issue, please report this at bugzilla.lyx.org regards Uwe
