My code was not production ready. I accept David's correction. With David's correction, do the LaTeX experts here see any fundamental reason why this would not work? Jonathan On Fri, Apr 21, 2017 at 5:44 PM, David Kastrup <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Jonathan Fine <[log in to unmask]> writes: > >> Hi >> >> Early on, LaTeX sets basic character codes. Perhaps if, at the same >> time, it also executed >> >> \catcode`<13 >> \expandafter\let\expandafter<\string < >> >> then Benedikt 's problem would go way. Or could more easily be solved. >> >> I don't see any fundamental reason why this would not work. > > I did not expect this suggestion from the author of ActiveTeX. > > ERROR: Missing = inserted for \ifnum. > > --- TeX said --- > <to be read again> > < > l.3 \message{\ifnum2< > 3 good\else bad\fi} > --- HELP --- > From the .log file... > > I was expecting to see `<', `=', or `>'. Didn't. > > > Were you thinking of > > \edef<{\string<} > > instead? > > -- > David Kastrup