[texhax] quotation marks with babel in LuaLaTeX

[Heiko Oberdiek]

On Mon, Sep 19, 2011 at 11:50:01AM +0100, Philip TAYLOR (Webmaster, Ret'd) wrote:

> why does the following --
> 
> 	\documentclass {scrartcl}
> 	\usepackage {fontspec}
> 	\setmainfont {Linux Libertine O}
> 	
> 	\begin{document}
> 	??????  "` "'
> 	\end{document}
> 
> produce this diagnostic from XeLaTeX --
> 
> 	! Package babel Error: You haven't loaded the option ngerman yet.
> 	
> 	See the babel package documentation for explanation.
> 	Type  H <return>  for immediate help.
> 	 ...
> 	
> 	l.3 \select at language{ngerman}
> 
> since I have neither requested Babel nor have I given any
> indication that any portion of the text might be in German.

Yes, indeed very annoying. It's a command from a previous document with
babel and language ngerman. In my opinion all commands that are written
in auxiliary files should be protected by \providecommands that provide
dummy definitions for the case the package is removed from the document.

Yours sincerely
  Heiko Oberdiek