[pdftex] Proposal for new feature.

[Heiko Oberdiek]

On Wed, Apr 13, 2005 at 02:35:35PM +0000, John R. Culleton wrote:

> All very true. But the file below produced a valid pdf. It
> skipped over the errors and kept on going. 
> 
> ----------------------------------- 
> Now is the time for all good
> men 
> \foo
> #
> & 
> to come to the aid of their party.  
> \bye
> ----------------------------------- 
> 
> This is using the --batch switch proposed by HH. Unfortunately it

? pdftex -interaction=batchmode test

> didn't indicate the point of the error, except by an extra space
> between two words. So I am still looking for a switch that will
> stop the compilation, like pdftex's -stop-on-error but create a
> valid pdf up to that point, like texexec --batch.  The newbie
> could view the resultant pdf, note where it stopped, and then
> search for an error just after that point. 

There is no error marking in the output. It is impossible.
* An error can be unrelated to any output.
  Example: A macro is defined and the error occurs
  during the execution.
* And if TeX would insert stuff at error time. Where the stuff
  should go? The main vertical list that perhaps will not
  processed because of the error? ...
  And a separate page with the error message is perhaps not
  your goal. And even then, what about errors because of
  missing fonts? ...

> \bye is indeed a macro, but a fairly robust one. It might
> destroy the completion of of another macro or break in the middle
> of a box, but a readable pdf should still appear. 

It can be redefined.
Perhaps the execution of the TeX-Primitive \end would make sense
to stop the compilation.

Yours sincerely
  Heiko <oberdiek at uni-freiburg.de>
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