Re: (XeTeX) trouble debugging a "Missing number" error

[Lars Huttar <lars_huttar@sil.org>]

/Hans Hagen wrote (///Wed Dec 5 14:10:12 CET 2012/):/
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> On 12/5/2012 11:19 AM, Lars Huttar wrote:
> >/ Hi all,
> />

/...

/
> /
> />/
> />/ % Abbreviations
> />/ \definestartstop
> />/    [abblist]
> />/    [before={\setupbackgrounds[text][background=verticalline]
> />/ \starttextbackground[text]
> />/ \setuptab[headstyle={\switchtobodyfont[SansB,\SansBsize]},width=20mm,location=left]
> />/ \startcolumnset[abbcolumn] \startalignment[flushleft,nothyphenated]},
> />/     after={\stopalignment \stopcolumnset \stoptextbackground
> />/ \setupbackgrounds[text][background=off]}]
> /
> you can try
>
> \unexpanded\def\StartAbbList
>    {\setupbackgrounds[text][background=verticalline]
>     \starttextbackground[text]
>  
> \setuptab[headstyle={\switchtobodyfont[SansB,\SansBsize]},width=20mm,location=left]
>     \startcolumnset[abbcolumn]
>     \startalignment[flushleft,nothyphenated]}
>
> \unexpanded\def\StopAbbList
>    {\stopalignment
>     \stopcolumnset
>     \stoptextbackground
>     \setupbackgrounds[text][background=off]}
>
> \definestartstop
>    [abblist]
>    [before=\StartAbbList,
>     after=\StopAbbList]

Thanks, I will try this.
Is the goal of this change to fix the error? To help diagnose it?
I don't really understand the use of \unexpanded.

After making this change, the behavior is unaffected... I still get the
"Missing number" error, etc.

>
> in such case best make a small example, for instance how is abblist used?


\startabblist{
\tab{\ITC{alt.}}\AE{alternate name for}\par
...
\tab{USDS}\AE{US Department of State}\par
}\stopabblist

where \AE is defined as:

   \def\AE#1{\hskip -3mm \SerifL{#1} \vskip 1mm}


> >/
> />/ E16settings.tex: I added these definitions:
> />/ \define\XLfontsize{14pt}
> />/ \define\XXLfontsize{16pt}
> />/
> />/ There are modes involved, so things are a bit more complicated, but I
> />/ believe that is the only effective difference.
> /
> and how about:
>
> \def\XLfontsize{14pt}
> \def\XXLfontsize{16pt}

I will try that, but all our font size definitions have always used
\define, and it used to work fine without errors.
On http://wiki.contextgarden.net/Command/define it says that \define is
like the TeX primitive \def, but "will print an error to the log file if
the new definition overwrites an existing command".
I checked the log file, and there is no error mentioning XLfontsize.

So the purpose of your suggestion is to remove the possibility of
reporting a duplicate definition? (There's probably more to it than that
- I'm just trying to understand.)

I tried changing \define to \def as you suggested. The result was
unchanged - same error.

Regards,
Lars

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