Bug or feature? Strange counter behaviour in macro

[Carsten Fechtmann <fecht@zarm-technik.de>]

Hello everyone,

first off: I am new to ConTeXt (even if not so new to LaTeX)
and would like to transfer some of my old macros to ConTeXt...

I am well aware, that this means re-programming (most) of them.
So be it.

Furthermore, I am not sure if this is really the right way (read  
ConTeXt Way) to do it.
It just looked like a good idea at the time ...

However, I just hit a snuff with the following:

If one places \NewIssue[Some Time] somewhere in the text, it should  
result in a new (issue / timestamp) to be generated, which can then  
placed in a list of issues / changes.

I also want to be able to make use of the last value Issue to be  
placed in the header, same goes for the last timestamp

Now this is how I went out to do this in ConTeXt (maybe wrongly so?)
following the manual and some examples on contextwiki

%---------------  code below  -----------------------
\definesynonyms[Issue][issues][\IssueText][\IssueDate]
\setupsynonyms[Issue][criterium=all]

\newcounter\IssueCounter

\definenumber[IssueNumber]

\def\TempIssueText{%			
%% This was the (seemingly) only way to get any value beside 0
%% 	from \getnumber within doAddIssue
%% Original place for
\incrementnumber[IssueNumber]
	Issue~\getnumber[IssueNumber]:
}
\def\NewIssue{\dosingleargument\doNewIssue}
\def\doNewIssue[#1]{%
	\increment\IssueCounter  % This one works correctly.
%% Alternative place for
%\incrementnumber[IssueNumber]

%% if placed here instead of in \TempIssueText
%% a DIFFERENT, but still wrong result comes out
%% that is: Debug shows the right progression,
%% but ALL "Issue x" Numbers are set to the last one
	Debug: \IssueCounter / \getnumber[IssueNumber]%
%% but alas I can't seem to make this work with the following lines :-(
	\doifempty{#1}{\Issue[\IssueCounter]{\TempIssueText}{\currentdate}}
	\doifnotempty{#1}{\Issue[\IssueCounter]{\TempIssueText}{#1}}
%% Note: Using \dofiemptyelse gives the same result,
%% I just wanted to make sure here that I am /really/ not calling it  
twice,
%% somehow, by being able to disable each case, separately and  
definitely.
	-- \IssueCounter / \getnumber[IssueNumber]
	\crlf
}
% -- -- -- -- -- --
\starttext
\NewIssue[January 9, 2008]
\NewIssue[January 10, 2008]
\NewIssue 			% January 11, 2008

List of issue \# and dates:

\placelistofissues \blank

\IssueDate{\IssueCounter} % produces correct result in either case

\stoptext
%---------------  code above  -----------------------

  Result as printed out by original version
----------------------------------------------
  Debug: 1/ 0 – 1/ 0
  Debug: 2/ 0 – 2/ 0
  Debug: 3/ 0 – 3/ 0

  List of issue # and dates:
  Issue 2: January 9, 2008
  Issue 4: January 10, 2008
  Issue 6: January 11, 2008

  January 11, 2008
------------------------------
So while \IssueCounter is updated correctly and used with the right  
values,
\getnumber[IssueNumber] always sees / reports the original value
However, the value in \placelistofissues are twice what they should be?!

This is changed if one places \incrementnumber[IssueNumber] INSIDE of  
\doAddIssue
Here, \getnumber[IssueNumber] does report the right value (same as  
IssueCounter)
However, in that case the result looks like this:

  Result as printed out by alternative version
----------------------------------------------
Debug: 1/ 1 – 1/ 1
Debug: 2/ 2 – 2/ 2
Debug: 3/ 3 – 3/ 3

List of issue # and dates:

Issue 3: January 9, 2008
Issue 3: January 10, 2008
Issue 3: January 11, 2008

January 11, 2008
------------------------
In short, while now the value of \getnumber[IssueNumber] is correct  
before and after,
its value in \placelistofissues is always the last value, i.e. equal  
to the total number of issues.

And this does NOT even change, when one replaces
	Issue~\getnumber[IssueNumber]:
	Issue~\IssueCounter:
in \TempIssueText

So for some reason, \TempIssueText is called twice ? How? Where?

Unfortunately, my ConTeXt.foo is not yet good enough to make it over  
the TeX.bar here
as I haven't found a way to make this work (preferably with  
\IssueCounter
as all this \XXXnumber stuff does not seem to work the way I think it  
should, anyway...)

And yes, ANY help with this is very welcome by now

Sincerely
Carsten

P.S: Context version is 2007.01.12 15:56 / TeXlive / OS X

___________________________________________________________________________________
If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!

maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
webpage  : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net
archive  : https://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/
wiki     : http://contextgarden.net
___________________________________________________________________________________