GNU bug report logs - #48524
13.0.11; AUCTeX should not use LaTeX error message for non-LaTeX modes

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: jfbu <jfbu <at> free.fr>
To: bug-auctex <at> gnu.org
Subject: 13.0.11; AUCTeX should not use LaTeX error message for non-LaTeX modes
Date: Wed, 19 May 2021 18:16:32 +0200

Hi,

In tex-buf.el I see for example

        ("Use of [^ ]* doesn't match its definition." .
         "It's probably one of the picture-drawing commands, and you have used
    the wrong syntax for specifying an argument. If it's \\@array that
    doesn't match its definition, then there is something wrong in an
    @-expression in the argument of an array or tabular
    environment---perhaps a fragile command that is not \\protect'ed.")


And this is triggered for example by this Plain tex file

    \def\foo1{}
    \foo.
    \bye

But in the source for pdftex pdftex.web see at about line 9480

    @ @<Report an improper use...@>=
    begin print_err("Use of "); sprint_cs(warning_index);
    @.Use of x doesn't match...@>
    print(" doesn't match its definition");
    help4("If you say, e.g., `\def\a1{...}', then you must always")@/
      ("put `1' after `\a', since control sequence names are")@/
      ("made up of letters only. The macro here has not been")@/
      ("followed by the required stuff, so I'm ignoring it.");
    error; return;
    end

I am of the opinion that AUCTeX should use the original Knuth
error messages.

Even for LaTeX the above error message is now really dated,
but this is not topic of this ticket.

I understand this is some work to extract from pdftex.web the
errors (perhaps someone in the last 30+ years or so has done so,
regarding the Knuth original messages, as pdftex adds some of its
own) and I am opening this bug ticket only for reference as for many
many years each time I have had errors playing around with 
TeX I have always been slightly annoyed to see LaTeX specific
error messages. As a result, I most of the time execute etex or pdftex
in a Terminal bypassing auctex.

    ! Use of \foo doesn't match its definition.
    l.27     \foo.
                  
    ? h
    If you say, e.g., `\def\a1{...}', then you must always
    put `1' after `\a', since control sequence names are
    made up of letters only. The macro here has not been
    followed by the required stuff, so I'm ignoring it.


Best,

Message #8 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: jfbu <jfbu <at> free.fr>
To: bug-auctex <at> gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#48524: 13.0.11; AUCTeX should not use LaTeX error message for
 non-LaTeX modes
Date: Wed, 19 May 2021 23:34:45 +0200

Le 19/05/2021 à 18:16, jfbu a écrit :
> I understand this is some work to extract from pdftex.web the
> errors (perhaps someone in the last 30+ years or so has done so,
> regarding the Knuth original messages, as pdftex adds some of its
> own) and I am opening this bug ticket only for reference as for many

As auctex launches pdftex with -interaction=nonstopmode, the
additional help messages displayed by TeX/LaTeX end up in the log file.

So it is only a matter here to fetch the messages from the log,
rather than using the specific ones incorporated into tex-buf.el

This mechanism is already in place where tex-bug.el does not have
an entry matching the message:

    ERROR: Extra \or.

    --- TeX said ---
    l.37 \iftrue\expandafter\fi\or
                                  
    --- HELP ---
    From the .log file...

    I'm ignoring this; it doesn't match any \if.

So, it should not be complicated.

The problem is to avoid in Plain TeX runs (or ConTeXt ? I am not familiar with it) to have the auctex generated error help go into LaTeX considerations which are not relevant to Plain TeX.

Jean-François

Message #11 received at 48524 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Ikumi Keita <ikumi <at> ikumi.que.jp>
To: jfbu <jfbu <at> free.fr>
Cc: 48524 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#48524: 13.0.11;
 AUCTeX should not use LaTeX error message for non-LaTeX modes
Date: Thu, 27 May 2021 21:09:09 +0900

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Hi Jean,

>>>>> jfbu <jfbu <at> free.fr> writes:
> I am of the opinion that AUCTeX should use the original Knuth
> error messages.

> Le 19/05/2021 à 18:16, jfbu a écrit :
> As auctex launches pdftex with -interaction=nonstopmode, the
> additional help messages displayed by TeX/LaTeX end up in the log file.

> So it is only a matter here to fetch the messages from the log,
> rather than using the specific ones incorporated into tex-buf.el

> This mechanism is already in place where tex-bug.el does not have
> an entry matching the message:

>     ERROR: Extra \or.

>     --- TeX said ---
>     l.37 \iftrue\expandafter\fi\or
>                                        --- HELP ---
>     From the .log file...

>     I'm ignoring this; it doesn't match any \if.

> So, it should not be complicated.

> The problem is to avoid in Plain TeX runs (or ConTeXt ? I am not
> familiar with it) to have the auctex generated error help go into
> LaTeX considerations which are not relevant to Plain TeX.

It seems that a similar topic was discussed before[1]. Tassilo's idea
that AUCTeX allows the form (REGEX . FUNCTION) in addition to (REGEX .
STRING) as entries in `TeX-error-description-list' would need some work,
so the attached rough hack might be of some interest for you.

[1] https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=21595

Bye,
Ikumi Keita

[patch.gz (application/gzip, attachment)]

Message #14 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: jfbu <jfbu <at> free.fr>
To: bug-auctex <at> gnu.org
Cc: 48524 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#48524: 13.0.11; AUCTeX should not use LaTeX error message for
 non-LaTeX modes
Date: Wed, 2 Jun 2021 13:52:41 +0200

Hi Keita,

Le 27/05/2021 à 14:09, Ikumi Keita a écrit :
> Hi Jean,
> 
>>>>>> jfbu <jfbu <at> free.fr> writes:
>> I am of the opinion that AUCTeX should use the original Knuth
>> error messages.
> 
>> [...]
> 
>> The problem is to avoid in Plain TeX runs (or ConTeXt ? I am not
>> familiar with it) to have the auctex generated error help go into
>> LaTeX considerations which are not relevant to Plain TeX.
> 
> It seems that a similar topic was discussed before[1]. 

Indeed.  I was very articulate back then, I feel I have lost my
vocabulary since.

Tassilo's idea
> that AUCTeX allows the form (REGEX . FUNCTION) in addition to (REGEX .
> STRING) as entries in `TeX-error-description-list' would need some work,
> so the attached rough hack might be of some interest for you.
> 
> [1] https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=21595
> 

Sorry for late, I have now applied the patch and it seems
to do exactly what I was expecting.

I.e. this TeX file

\def\foo1{}
\foo.
\bye


triggers this error window on  C-c `

ERROR: Use of \foo doesn't match its definition.

--- TeX said ---
l.2     \foo.
             
--- HELP ---
From the .log file...

If you say, e.g., `\def\a1{...}', then you must always
put `1' after `\a', since control sequence names are
made up of letters only. The macro here has not been
followed by the required stuff, so I'm ignoring it.


which is the actual text in the log file originating in pdftex
sources, copied over from Knuth original TeX.

Note : I applied the patch on my git clone, after
having pulled to get the latest commits, HEAD was
at 93d66d1a Adapt for Texinfo mode

For some reason I had to delete from the patch
the change to tex-jp.el

$ git apply patchlatexerrors
error: patch failed: tex-jp.el:538
error: tex-jp.el: patch does not apply


I suspect some encoding problem on my side (the buffer
indicated a "1" in bottom left) from gunzip


Best,

Jean-François
 

Message #20 received at 48524 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Ikumi Keita <ikumi <at> ikumi.que.jp>
To: jfbu <jfbu <at> free.fr>
Cc: 48524 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#48524: 13.0.11;
 AUCTeX should not use LaTeX error message for non-LaTeX modes
Date: Thu, 03 Jun 2021 14:55:21 +0900

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Hi Jean,

>>>>> jfbu <jfbu <at> free.fr> writes:
> Note : I applied the patch on my git clone, after
> having pulled to get the latest commits, HEAD was
> at 93d66d1a Adapt for Texinfo mode

> For some reason I had to delete from the patch
> the change to tex-jp.el

> $ git apply patchlatexerrors
> error: patch failed: tex-jp.el:538
> error: tex-jp.el: patch does not apply

> I suspect some encoding problem on my side (the buffer
> indicated a "1" in bottom left) from gunzip

Sorry, my bad. The patch had wrong encoding. I learned that typing "W s"
on magit diff hunk (magit-patch-save) uses emacs facility to save patch
so it saves in my default encoding, not utf-8.

> Sorry for late, I have now applied the patch and it seems
> to do exactly what I was expecting.

Thanks for confirmation. The proposed patch has a small incompatibility
with the current AUCTeX that the customize option
`TeX-error-description-list' can no longer have a fallback entry that
matches any error, but I expect that there are few users who customized
it. I included a news entry which warns the incompatibility in the
attached patch.

Does anyone have comments or opinions?

Regards,
Ikumi Keita

[0001-Use-own-error-description-for-LaTeX-mode-only.patch.gz (application/gzip, attachment)]

Message #23 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: jfbu <jfbu <at> free.fr>
To: bug-auctex <at> gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#48524: 13.0.11; AUCTeX should not use LaTeX error message for
 non-LaTeX modes
Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2021 11:55:45 +0200

Le 03/06/2021 à 07:55, Ikumi Keita a écrit :
>> Sorry for late, I have now applied the patch and it seems
>> to do exactly what I was expecting.
> Thanks for confirmation. The proposed patch has a small incompatibility
> with the current AUCTeX that the customize option
> `TeX-error-description-list' can no longer have a fallback entry that
> matches any error, but I expect that there are few users who customized
> it. I included a news entry which warns the incompatibility in the
> attached patch.
> 
> Does anyone have comments or opinions?

Hi, only to confirm patch applied cleanly.
I tested it with LaTeX and with Plain (with pdftex engine) and it appears
to work as expected, at my locale.  I don't have experience with
customizing TeX-error-description-list so can't comment on the fallback
entry un-customizability.  Here is a situation
causing pdftex to abort abruptly after an initial error, and
then "No help available" is shown.
----
ABCD

\def\foo{\begingroup\foo}

\foo

\bye
----
(the "No help available" context will appear if producing PDF not DVI
as it is triggered by an error

==> Fatal error occurred, no output PDF file produced!

generated by pdftex only in pdf mode)


Best,
Jean-François

Message #26 received at 48524 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Ikumi Keita <ikumi <at> ikumi.que.jp>
To: jfbu <jfbu <at> free.fr>
Cc: 48524 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#48524: 13.0.11;
 AUCTeX should not use LaTeX error message for non-LaTeX modes
Date: Fri, 04 Jun 2021 15:14:07 +0900

Hi Jean,

>>>>> jfbu <jfbu <at> free.fr> writes:
>> Does anyone have comments or opinions?

> Hi, only to confirm patch applied cleanly.
> I tested it with LaTeX and with Plain (with pdftex engine) and it appears
> to work as expected, at my locale.  I don't have experience with
> customizing TeX-error-description-list so can't comment on the fallback
> entry un-customizability.  Here is a situation
> causing pdftex to abort abruptly after an initial error, and
> then "No help available" is shown.
> ----
> ABCD

> \def\foo{\begingroup\foo}

> \foo

> \bye
> ----
> (the "No help available" context will appear if producing PDF not DVI
> as it is triggered by an error

> ==> Fatal error occurred, no output PDF file produced!

> generated by pdftex only in pdf mode)

Thank you for confirmation again. I renamed a new variable slightly and
pushed the commit to git repo.

I'll close bug#21595 and bug#21517 in addition to this bug.

Regards,
Ikumi Keita

Message #31 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: jfbu <jfbu <at> free.fr>
To: bug-auctex <at> gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#48524: 13.0.11; AUCTeX should not use LaTeX error message for
 non-LaTeX modes
Date: Fri, 4 Jun 2021 08:51:56 +0200

Le 04/06/2021 à 08:14, Ikumi Keita a écrit :
> Thank you for confirmation again. I renamed a new variable slightly and
> pushed the commit to git repo.
> 
> I'll close bug#21595 and bug#21517 in addition to this bug.
Hi Keita,
Thanks for taking the time doing this,
Best,
Jean-François

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