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I don't understand the following behavior (in v 9.0.1) of TraditionalForm regarding insertion of parenthesis.

Let us start with the a definition for myfuncF to make boxes in traditional form:

myfuncF /: MakeBoxes[myfuncF[a_, b_], TraditionalForm] := RowBox[{"f(", Sequence @@ Riffle[Map[ToBoxes, {a, b}], ","], ")"}]

Now look at what I get as output for the following two commands:

x myfuncF[a,b] // TraditionalForm myfuncF[a,b] > 0 //TraditionalForm

first case

Notice that in the first case, an unnecessary pair of parenthesis is inserted for multiplication.

Now I modify the MakeBoxes definition by inserting a small space: (in LHS, change RowBox[{"f(",… to RowBox[{" f(",…):

myfuncF /: MakeBoxes[myfuncF[a_, b_], TraditionalForm] := RowBox[{" f(", Sequence @@ Riffle[Map[ToBoxes, {a, b}], ","], ")"}]

Run the two commands again, and look what we get:

second case

Now we get an unnecessary pair of parenthesis in the inequality!

So my questions are:

  1. How do I understand this odd behavior (what's going on behind the scenes)?
  2. What can I do to get rid of these superfluous parentheses?
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2 Answers 2

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Let us inspect the built-in behavior

ToBoxes@TraditionalForm[f[a, b]] (* TagBox[FormBox[RowBox[{"f", "(", RowBox[{"a", ",", "b"}], ")"}], TraditionalForm], TraditionalForm, Editable -> True] *)

So

myfuncF /: MakeBoxes[myfuncF[a_, b_], TraditionalForm] := RowBox[{"f", "(", RowBox@Riffle[Map[ToBoxes, {a, b}], ","], ")"}] x myfuncF[a, b] // TraditionalForm myfuncF[a, b] > 0 // TraditionalForm

enter image description here

It is because TraditionalForm don't understand you and put parentheses for sure. They are necessary in the following example

plus /: MakeBoxes[plus[a_, b_], TraditionalForm] := RowBox@Riffle[Map[ToBoxes, {a, b}], "+"] x plus[a, b] // TraditionalForm plus[a, b] > 0 // TraditionalForm

enter image description here

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myfuncF /: MakeBoxes[myfuncF[a_, b_], TraditionalForm] := RowBox[{"f", "(", RowBox[{ToString@a, ",", ToString@b}], ")"}] x myfuncF[a, b] // TraditionalForm myfuncF[a, b] > 0 // TraditionalForm

enter image description here

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