From: Wolfgang Schuster <schuster.wolfgang@gmail.com>
To: mailing list for ConTeXt users <ntg-context@ntg.nl>
Subject: Re: "Missing number, treated as zero" error when using \definefont with \define'd dimension
Date: Thu, 21 Mar 2013 21:03:17 +0100 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <F1F2B466-B5ED-4516-9D7B-12B85B727682@gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <514B667F.6000202@sil.org>
Am 21.03.2013 um 20:58 schrieb Lars Huttar <lars_huttar@sil.org>:
> Hello,
>
> I reported a Missing Number error back in December (thread at
> http://www.ntg.nl/pipermail/ntg-context/2012/070471.html) but got
> sidetracked on another issue before finding a resolution.
> Now I'm back to the Missing Number error, and I have a short example
> that reproduces it:
>
> \define\largefontsize{13pt}
>
> % Works fine: \definefont[SerifL][Arial at 13pt]
> % Leads to error:
> \definefont[SerifL][Arial at \largefontsize]
>
> % "Missing number, treated as zero" error thrown on the following line:
> \starttext \SerifL{Hello} \stoptext
>
> Note that the SerifL font definition works fine (no error) if I
> hard-code in "13pt" instead of using an intervening \largefontsize
> definition. But if I hard-code the point size, it would hamper the
> modularity of our font configuration and the use of modes in which
> different size fonts are used.
>
> Maybe \define is just the wrong command to use when creating an
> identifier for a specified dimension?
> I tried changing it to \def and the error went away!
>
> I looked up the documentation of \define
> (http://wiki.contextgarden.net/Command/define) and \def, and couldn't
> find any obvious difference, except that \def is TeX and \define is
> ConTeXt. The wiki page I just linked to mentions differences between
> MkII and MkIV, but this error occurs in both (in XeTeX and LuaTeX).
>
> Can someone help me understand why I should not use \define for this
> case? (Or in general, when I should not use \define?) Or does the
> problem lie somewhere else?
Commands created with \define aren’t expandable, i.e. when the content
of \definefont is passed to Lua \largefontsize remains a TeX macro and isn’t
converted to the dimension. To get a expandable macro use \defineexpandable
to create \largefontsize (untested).
Wolfgang
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prev parent reply other threads:[~2013-03-21 20:03 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 2+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2013-03-21 19:58 Lars Huttar
2013-03-21 20:03 ` Wolfgang Schuster [this message]
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