[pdftex] bug with closing square brackets in description environment

[gnwiii at gmail.com]

On 3/23/06, Hauke Tschach <ht05r at ecs.soton.ac.uk> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> if in the following code the "\rbkt" is replaced by just "]",
> latex fails to produce a dvi file.
>
> Hauke
>
> \documentclass{article}
>
> \newcommand{\rbkt}{]}
>
> \begin{document}
>
> \begin{description}
>   \item[$a[a\rbkt$] here the problem arrises:  just $]$ does not work.
> \end{description}
>
> \end{document}

If this was a bug, LaTeX would own it.  It is more a question of the
intrinsic trickiness of brackets in LaTeX than a bug.  You have to
hide the ].  This is usually done with "{..}", as in:

             \item[{$a[a]$}]

but your method works as well.

Another example where brackets must be "hidden" is given in
http://www.latex-project.org/cgi-bin/ltxbugs2html?pr=latex/1849

--
George N. White III <aa056 at chebucto.ns.ca>
Head of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia