The symbol log(a,x) is currently presented as log_a, which is fine. Yet if the author wants to address the logarithm function itself, he would want a log_a (without the argument "x"). But if he simply writes "log(a)", this is presented as log_a(). One possiblitiy is that, using my symbol "dot", the author writes log(a,dot), which is presented as log_a(.). Yet this is not so nice and uncommon in text books. The better solution would be to change the presentation of this symbol such that in the case where it comes with just one argument, then this argument is interpreted as the base and the hence the symbol is presented as log_a without brackets.