Lyx User wrote:
Is there a special unary minus in the math panel somewhere?
No.
Or does it actually exists in latex? I did a search, but could not find anything better than just using '-'. I think intervals such as $[-\infty, \infty)$ don't look very nice. I could use some negative space, though I was wondering whether someone figured this out for me already.
Where do you need negative spaces? If the minus doesn't follow on a number or letter, it doesn't have surrounding space.
(To avoid the space in general, set a LaTeX-brace around it, e.g. type "a\{- b" in LyX or "$a{-}b$" in LaTeX.)
The problem in "$[-\infty, \infty]$" is, that the minus is too long. To avoid this, you can put the minus in mathematical text (that means \textrm (shortcut M-m m) in LyX). To have a middle size minus, write two minuses in \textrm. You can also use a half space (C-space in LyX) after the minus, I attached several possibilities.
regards Uwe
#LyX 1.3 created this file. For more info see http://www.lyx.org/ \lyxformat 221 \textclass article \language english \inputencoding auto \fontscheme default \graphics default \paperfontsize default \spacing single \papersize Default \paperpackage a4 \use_geometry 0 \use_amsmath 1 \use_natbib 0 \use_numerical_citations 0 \paperorientation portrait \secnumdepth 3 \tocdepth 3 \paragraph_separation skip \defskip medskip \quotes_language english \quotes_times 2 \papercolumns 1 \papersides 1 \paperpagestyle default \bullet 1 1 34 -1 \end_bullet \bullet 2 2 35 -1 \end_bullet \bullet 3 2 7 -1 \end_bullet
\layout Standard
\begin_inset Formula $a{-}p=a-p$
\end_inset
\layout Standard
\begin_inset Formula $[-\infty,\infty]$
\end_inset
\newline
\begin_inset Formula $[\textrm{-}\infty,\infty]$
\end_inset
\newline
\begin_inset Formula $[\textrm{-}\,\infty,\infty]$
\end_inset
\newline
\begin_inset Formula $[\textrm{--}\infty,\infty]$
\end_inset
\newline
\begin_inset Formula $[\textrm{--}\,\infty,\infty]$
\end_inset
\the_end
