[OS X TeX] arabic numbering with hebrew in babel

[Michael Sharpe]

> On Jun 8, 2015, at 2:51 PM, Art Werschulz <agw at comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> I’m in the process of (co-)writing a textbook.  Said book will have a solutions manual, and so I’m using the answers package.  Chapters having exercises in the book begin with \chapterwithexercises, rather than \chapter.  This new control sequence is defined via
> 
> \usepackage{answers}
> \Newassociation{soln}{solution}{answers}
> \newcounter{chapterans}
> \newcommand\chapterwithexercises[1]{
>    \chapter{#1}
>    \setcounter{chapterans}{\value{chapter}}
>    \addtocounter{chapterans}{-1}
>    \Writetofile{answers}{}
>    \Writetofile{answers}{\protect\setcounter{chapter}{\arabic{chapterans}}}
>    \Writetofile{answers}{\protect\chapter{#1}}
> }
> 
> THe resulting file answers.tex has 
> 
> \setcounter{chapter}{0}
> \chapter{Sets}
> \begin{solution}{1.6.1}
>      (a), (b), (d), (f) and~(h) are true.
> 
>      Note that (c) is false because the set $T$ is not contained in
>      itself; (e) is false because there is no element in $T$ that is
>      the set containing the elements $3,5, \text{and}~44$; (g) is
>      false for a similar reason to (e) and (i) is false because $T =
>      T$ and therefore cannot be a proper subset of itself.
> 
> \end{solution}
> 
> and suchlike.
> 
> This works fine, until I bring babel into the picture.  We’re going to have a few lines of Irish Gaelic and Hebrew in the book’s dedication.  
> 
> The file answers.tex now has material such as
> 
> \setcounter{chapter}{\@@number{1}}
> \chapter{Sets}
> \begin{solution}{\protect \beginL \protect \beginL 2\endL .\protect \beginL 6\endL \endL .\protect \beginL 1\endL }
>      (a), (b), (d), (f) and~(h) are true.
> 
>      Note that (c) is false because the set $T$ is not contained in
>      itself; (e) is false because there is no element in $T$ that is
>      the set containing the elements $3,5, \text{and}~44$; (g) is
>      false for a similar reason to (e) and (i) is false because $T =
>      T$ and therefore cannot be a proper subset of itself.
> 
> \end{solution}
> 
> When I run this through pdflatex, I get the following
> 
> ! Improper \spacefactor.
> <recently read> \spacefactor 
> 
> l.37 \setcounter{chapter}{\@@number{1}}
> 
> ? 
> 
> ! Package calc Error: `\@m ' invalid at this point.
> 
> See the calc package documentation for explanation.
> Type  H <return>  for immediate help.
> ...                                              
> 
> l.37 \setcounter{chapter}{\@@number{1}}
> 
> ? 
> [3]
> Chapter 1.
> ! Improper \beginL.
> <argument> Exercise \protect \beginL 
>                                     \protect \beginL 2\endL .\protect \begi...
> l.39 ...nL 6\endL \endL .\protect \beginL 1\endL }
> 
> ? 
> 
> after which I give up.
> 
> Suggestions on how to fix this?  Thanks!

One possibility is to create a separate page with the dedications making use of babel, and keep babel out of your main document source. You'd then include the dedications page using \includegraphics.

Michael