# Problem with \leq displaying as \leqslant

I assume it has something to do with my custom macro package, but I'm not really sure. I've just noticed that all of my \leq display as \leqslant the only thing that I could think would effect it is the beginning of my macro.sty:

\ProvidesPackage{macro}
\RequirePackage{amssymb,amsmath,amsthm,fancyhdr,mathabx}
\RequirePackage{graphicx}
\usepackage[top=.75 in,bottom=.75 in, left=.75 in, right= .75 in]{geometry}


But this all seems pretty harmless. I'm on Ubuntu 10.04, coding in emacs, compiling by pdflatex (pdfTeX 3.1415926-1.40.10-2.2) through auctex. I'll be happy to provide any more information, or the rest of my macro document if it would help. My headings are pretty generic:

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{macro}
\author{}
\title{Abstract Algebra Homework 5}\begin{document}

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In this regard mathabx is not “harmless” as its purpose is to provide and changes lots of symbols. In particular, it changes the \le symbol (see page 6 of the manual). It also provides \varleq, which looks closer to the Computer Modern \le.

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Okay, I had added mathabx for \bigtimes. I'll see if my professors complain about the slanted leq. – JSchlather Oct 29 '10 at 3:12
@liberalkid to only include the big operators you can include mathabx with the mathx option. If that does not work for you (because you want other symbols as well), you can do always redefine \leq as \varleq (\renewcommand\leq\varleq). – Caramdir Oct 29 '10 at 3:34
Fantastic, thanks. – JSchlather Oct 29 '10 at 3:46

Caramdir provided a very good TeXnical answer; let me give a short aesthetical one: I'd just be happy and stick with the \leqslant version since it looks much better, in my opinion. This is of course personal taste, but I like that it's closer to what I do in handwriting.

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As a note to whoever might find it useful, the Euler math (package euler or eulervm) also slants the less-than-equal or greater-than-equal symbols. This is used e.g. in classicthesis which I am using. I just spent a long time trying to figure it out as I haven't included mathabx in my code. Duh ...

If you still like to use your font (e.g. the above-mentioned euler) but want the classic less-equal symbol, you can pull it out, by putting this in your preamble:

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% taken from mathabx.sty. Version: May 18, 2005.
% Author: Anthony PHAN.
% matches the mathabx'' family.
% LaTeX input/style file
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\DeclareFontFamily{U}{matha}{\hyphenchar\font45}
\DeclareFontShape{U}{matha}{m}{n}{
<5> <6> <7> <8> <9> <10> gen * matha
<10.95> matha10 <12> <14.4> <17.28> <20.74> <24.88> matha12
}{}
\DeclareSymbolFont{matha}{U}{matha}{m}{n}
\DeclareFontSubstitution{U}{matha}{m}{n}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\varleq}{3}{matha}{"A8}
\DeclareMathSymbol{\vargeq}{3}{matha}{"A9}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%


And maybe also make it used:

\renewcommand{\leq}{\varleq}
\renewcommand{\geq}{\vargeq}


Likely, there are easier ways. Maybe it would be a better idea to get it out of the default font.

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