On Mon, 6 October 1997 18:41:17 +0100, Philip Taylor (RHBNC) <[log in to unmask]> writes: [...] > % \mathcode`\"=8000 > % \begingroup > % \catcode`\"=\active > % \gdef"{^{\prime\prime}} > % \endgroup > > >> will make trouble even if each article is enclosed in its own group and > >> there are many ways for this kind of trouble to come up. > > Isn't this the sort of construct that LaTeX implicitly proscribes? > If there were a clean LaTeX method (there probably is!) for achieving > the effect without the need for \global hacks, then all would be well. In a lot of these cases \global hacks aren't necessary! If you are using some group matching hacks using explicit braces and implicit braces/begingroup/endgroup tokens which are nested as in the following code \mathcode`\"=8000 \begingroup \catcode`\"=\active \toks0={\endgroup \def "{^\prime\prime}% } \the\toks0\relax you are able to control which assignments/definitions will be active at the end of the code without using global assignments. I have used this technique for `german.sty' since years, thus you can load this macro file inside a group and if this group is closed _all_ changes are gone (except of all register allocations which are always done globally). Additionally I have tried to spread this technique, but have missed the best way: to publish it in TUGboat :-( -bernd ____________________________________________________________________ Bernd Raichle "Le langage est source DANTE e.V., Koordinator `german.sty' de malentendus" email: [log in to unmask] (A. de Saint-Exupery)