2.15.1 Top new questions this week

2.15.1.1 Should I use ~ or \mbox?

http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/305086/should-i-use-or-mbox

~ stands for a non-breaking space, and \mbox{<text>} creates a box with text in it that cannot be broken (since its a "box"). 
I understand that \mbox has broader application than ~ (e.g. when  ...
 

- asked by ebo (31 votes), answered by egreg (42 votes)

2.15.1.2 Why is a discardable item not discardable?

http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/304937/why-is-a-discardable-item-not-discardable

I have the following code 
\output={\plainoutput \message{outputpenalty=\the\outputpenalty}} % for debugging 
\hrule 
\vskip21.9cm plus1pt % plus1pt because to avoid underfull vbox until output 
one  ...
 

- asked by wipet (19 votes), answered by wipet (11 votes)

2.15.1.3 What is the programming term for the command invoking '\' in latex?

http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/304609/what-is-the-programming-term-for-the-command-invoking-in-latex

I don't think it would be called a delimiter. Is there a specific term for this character? 
Just to clarify, I'm talking the slash here: 
\frac{1}{2}
 

- asked by Akiva (14 votes), answered by Christian Hupfer (24 votes)

2.15.1.4 Question Mark Without a Dot

http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/304500/question-mark-without-a-dot

What would be a neat way of typing a question mark without a dot? I thought I could use such a punctuation for questions in the middle of a sentence (and so justify continuing lowercase after the  ...
 

- asked by A. Alp Uzman (13 votes), answered by Steven B. Segletes (11 votes)

2.15.1.5 Is there any reason not to use \let to redefine a deprecated control sequence to the currently recommended one?

http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/304311/is-there-any-reason-not-to-use-let-to-redefine-a-deprecated-control-sequence-to

I understand that \bf and \it are both deprecated in the current version of LaTeX. To the best of my knowledge, the correct control sequences replacing them are \bfseries and \itshape. 
Is there any  ...
 

- asked by A Feldman (11 votes), answered by Mico (16 votes)

2.15.1.6 Text transforming functions

http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/304496/text-transforming-functions

Generally, I tend to see LaTeX commands as subroutines rather than functions. I was wondering if LaTeX allows the definition of functions for, say, transforming text by replacing substrings. 
I  ...
 

- asked by X. A. Corbal (10 votes), answered by Steven B. Segletes (11 votes)

2.15.1.7 String comparison

http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/304321/string-comparison

\documentclass{article} 
\usepackage{xifthen, xstring} 
\newcommand{\IfOne}[3]{ 
\if\TokenIsIn#1 
#2 
\else 
#3 
\fi 
} 
\newcommand{\IfTwo}[3]{ 
\ifthenelse{\equal{\TokenIsIn}{#1}}{#2}{#3} 
...
 

- asked by Miheer (7 votes), answered by egreg (3 votes)