[tex-live] serious `slovak' Babel bug

Robin Fairbairns Robin.Fairbairns at cl.cam.ac.uk
Mon Jan 4 17:39:30 CET 2010


Werner LEMBERG <wl at gnu.org> wrote:

> >> Well, the `latin' language module shows how to handle it in a graceful
> >> way.
> > 
> > Not really. E.g in the following example latex simply hangs if I
> > don't uncomment the \ProsodicMarksOff [...]:
> 
> I'm not sure whether it can be done better.  However, the
> documentation mentions catcode issues, so Joe User has probably a
> better chance to identify the problem here.

ime, most "joe user" type people will turn off when encountering the
phrase "catcode issues".  they may be commonplace to many readers of
this list, but an ordinary latex-user-in-the-street wouldn't encounter a
catcode change from one year's end to the next.  (what latex books
have catcodes listed in the index? -- none that i have available to me,
and neither lshort nor "beginning latex" mentions it either.)

anyway, istm that we are reaching the limit of what babel can reasonably
do: it's an inherently 7-bit system (extended to 8 bits by inputenc/
fontenc), but we're discussing an interaction between its 7-bit hacks
and the needs of engines using unicode input.

that said, i remember being worried by the use of ^^ in tex, when i
first read about it (it seemed a syntax overload too far, even then).
given that i would have been reading that stuff more than 20 years ago,
i reckon, ^^ has had a pretty good run for its money.

r


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