[tex-live] Babel: You can't use `spacefactor' in vertical mode. (Maybe related to glossaries package.)

[Zdenek Wagner]

2013/5/21 Dr Nicola L C Talbot <n.talbot at uea.ac.uk>:
> On 21/05/13 10:27, Denis Bitouzé wrote:
>>
>> Le mardi 21/05/13 à 10h09,
>> Zdenek Wagner <zdenek.wagner at gmail.com> a écrit :
>>
>>> Yes, there was one complaint
>>
>>
>> Indeed, here:
>>
>>    http://tug.org/pipermail/tex-live/2013-May/033531.html
>>
>>> and it seems to me that the source of the
>>> bug is not in babel itself. Line 54 is the first occurence of a macro
>>> with a "protected" name, namely \@ifpackawith. This is correct and
>>> LaTeX should understand it because at the time of processing
>>> \usepackage the catcode of @ is set to 11. I have seen just the log
>>> file, not the sources, and the log file clearly revealed that babel
>>> was successfully loaded by usepackage but then loaded again by \input
>>> in the middle of a document. The author claims he does not do it but
>>> as my experience says, improper use of a fragile macro can force LaTeX
>>> to read a file although the user does not wish it. I therefore suspect
>>> a weird clash between packages. If you can send me the document, I
>>> will try to find the source of the problem.
>>
>>
>> Here is a MCE that shows that the error is probably related to
>> glossaries, hence Nicola in Cc: Nicola, the complete thread can be read
>> here:
>>
>>    http://tug.org/pipermail/tex-live/2013-May/033603.html
>>
>> %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
>> \documentclass[english]{article}
>> \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
>> \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
>> \usepackage{babel}
>> \usepackage[xindy]{glossaries}
>> %
>> \makeglossaries
>> \newacronym{ar}  {AR}  {anti-reflection}
>> %
>> \begin{document}
>> \gls{ar}
>> \newpage
>> \printglossary
>> \end{document}
>> %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
>>
>> Note that:
>>
>> 1. The error is:
>>
>> ! You can't use `spacefactor' in vertical mode.
>> @->spacefactor
>>                 @m
>> l.54 \@
>>         ifpackagewith{babel}{debug}
>> ?
>> ! Missing $ inserted.
>> <inserted text>
>>                  $
>> l.54 \@
>>         ifpackagewith{babel}{debug}
>> ?
>> Runaway argument?
>> switch.defrelax fi def bbl @for##1##2##3{@for##1:=##2do {ifx
>> ##1 at emptETC. ! Paragraph ended before stripldf was complete.
>> <to be read again>
>>                     par
>> l.160
>>
>> [...]
>>
>> 2. It appears with (an up to date) 2013 TL but not with TL 2012.
>>
>> 3. If \newpage is removed, the "spacefactor" error is dropped and only
>> the subsequent one appears:
>>
>> (/usr/local/texlive/2013/texmf-dist/tex/generic/babel/babel.sty
>> Runaway argument?
>> switch.defrelax fi def bbl @for##1##2##3{@for##1:=##2do {ifx
>> ##1 at emptETC. !
>> Paragraph ended before stripldf was complete.
>> <to be read again>
>>                     par
>>
>> 4. If "xindy" glossaries option is removed, there are no more errors
>> from second run (reinserting "xindy" option make the errors reappear
>> from second run).
>>
>> Cheers.
>>
>
> The \findrootlanguage code was designed to parse babel.sty to detect the
> root language (rather than the dialect) that is currently in use. This is so
> that makeglossaries can pass the correct language setting to xindy, as xindy
> doesn't recognise dialects. The babel.sty code used to be easy to parse, but
> the recent babel update means the \findrootlanguage code no longer works. To
> remove the error message, you can just do:
>
Well but keep in mind that there two things that must not be done with packages:

1. Loading a package via \input after \begin{document} because catcode
of @ is 12 and loading will almost always fail. You can overcome this
problem by \makeatletter and \makeatother.

2. Loading a package that has already been loaded. Packages may
provide hooks for other packages or intercept some hooks. If you
reload the package, strange things may happen. You may be happy with
some documents but one day strange errors will occur.

You should always use documented interface only because you never know
when the package author decides to change some internals. If you need
something not provided, you should first write a feature request.

> \def\findrootlanguage{%
>   \def\rootlanguagename{\languagename}%
> }
>
> or, if you're using a dialect and want to use makeglossaries, you can
> explicitly set the root language name:
>
> \def\findrootlanguage{%
>   \def\rootlanguagename{english}%
> }
>
> I'll fix glossaries so that it just uses \languagename, and I'll add a
> dialect mapping to makeglossaries.
>
> Regards
> Nicola Talbot
>
> --
> Dr Nicola Talbot
> http://theoval.cmp.uea.ac.uk/~nlct/
> http://www.dickimaw-books.com/



--
Zdeněk Wagner
http://hroch486.icpf.cas.cz/wagner/
http://icebearsoft.euweb.cz