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

[Wolfgang Schuster <wolfgang.schuster@gmail.com>]

Am 05.12.2012 um 16:46 schrieb 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.

Putting many command and setup in the before and after keys for \definestartstop
isn’t the nicest way to create start/stop command, Hans used a two step method
and put all setups and separate commands which are now used by \definestartstop.

Defining command with \unexpanded\def\…{…} instead of \def\…{…} can prevent
you from unwanted side effects when you use command in headings etc.

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

The information you provided aren sufficient to reproduce the error,
according to the message there is a problem with columnsets but there
is no way to tell why you get it.

>> 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}

Can you provide a working minimal example which does produce the error.

>>> /
>> />/ 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.

There is no difference between \define and \def in MkII but for MkIV
there is a difference because \define is \unexpanded\def and the new
command \defineexpandable corresponds to the normal \def.

Wolfgang
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