Am 03.09.2011 08:52, schrieb Will Robertson:

>
> The culprit being largely the following line in \new@mathversion:
>
> \global\expandafter\newcount\csname c@\expandafter
> \@gobble\string#1\endcsname
>
> When the lower level of registers runs out, etex.sty's \alloc@
> redefines \newcount to use the extended pool; the execution of this
> branch throws an error when preceded by \global.

that's an interesting one :-)

> As far as I know writing \global\newcount is the same as \newcount,
> so I'll change this in the 2e code.

it looks like with \alloc@ having \global as part of its definition. 
However,I don't think that was always the case (in plain.tex all these 
definitions are local for example) maybe that's the reason why that 
global is there. But then it might be just some unnecessary piece of 
code which now starts producing trouble

frank