[texhax] white space problem

[Tom Schneider]

Donald:

> > I've often been puzzled when bibtex objects to having white space in
> > between references.  
> 
> *\cite* objectes to having white-space.

ok ...

> > It turns out that this happens for some journal
> > styles and not for others.
> 
> The bad ones are broken, but regular latex used to choke
> on such spaces a long time ago.
> 
> >  In particular, it happens with Cell:
> > 
> > http://www.ccrnp.ncifcrf.gov/~toms/ftp/cell.sty
> 
> Are you in a position to fix it?  If not, then it is
> best to bite the bullet and type no spaces.  Also,
> suggest to the maintainer, if any, that the cite code
> could be updated to a more recent version of latex.

Seems that I'm the person.  But I don't know how to read the code
enough to make an appropriate change.  If you know how, I'd much
appreciate it.

> > % white space problem comes from this code:
> > \def\@citex[#1]#2{\if at filesw\immediate\write\@auxout{\string\citation{#2}}\fi
> >   \def\@citea{}\@cite{\@for\@citeb:=#2\do
> >     {\@citea\def\@citea{; }\@ifundefined
> 
> Another suggestion...
> 
> \usepackage{cite}
> \renewcommand\citepunct{;\penalty5000\ }
> or
> \renewcommand\citepunct{;~}

You mean I should add this to the cell.sty?  Exactly what change
should I do?

> > This is BibTeX, Version 0.99c (Web2C 7.5.5)
> 
> And if bibtex were anything but apparent abandonware, it would have
> been changed to ignore spaces after commas many years ago.

Isn't it a key part of the LaTeX system???

Tom

  Dr. Thomas D. Schneider
  National Institutes of Health
  schneidt at mail.nih.gov
  toms at alum.mit.edu (permanent)
  http://alum.mit.edu/www/toms