Re: [NTG-context] problem with math: "\left" leads to "udefined symbol" --solved (sort of)

24 Jan 2017


      On 1/24/2017 4:47 PM, j. van den hoff wrote:
...
well after incrementally deleting most everything from my document I now
seem to have a reproducible example:
8<--------------------------------------------
\definesynonyms[MySymbol][MySymbols][\meaning]
   \MySymbol [whaever] {this} {  means }
\starttext
\startformula
x = \left ( 1 + 2 \right )
\stopformula
\stoptext
8<--------------------------------------------
the apparent "culprit" is the presence of the `\definesynonyms' stuff.
without it the rest (identical to your minimal example) compiles. with
it it does not... remember that I am really unexperienced with
`context': at the time (2 years ago), when I first tried this, it
worked. I now realize (after reading up on the `definesynonyms' syntax
again ...) that
in the definition a _command_ has to go into the third bracket.
seemingly at the time I was just putting a placeholder `\meaning' there
(never attempting to use it as a command acting on the explanatory text
for that symbol definition but only wanting a glossary.
the strange thing (for me) is that this worked just fine two years ago,
now it does produce a very strange error as described. question is why.
but replacing `\meaning' by `\infull' suffices to restore sane behaviour.
while I understand, that I did something stupid (putting a non-existent
command `\meaning' in the definition), I would have presumed that this
might trigger an error at that place rather than making `\left ('
suddenly an undefined control sequence. any explanation what is going on
here would be greatly appreciated.
\meaning is a primitive ... best use \UpperCase names for such commands 
... imagine that you overload \relax or \hbox or ...
...
On Tue, 24 Jan 2017 15:02:38 +0100, Hans Hagen  wrote:
...
this just works here ... so can others confirm it?
 \starttext
 \startformula
    x =  \left ( 1 + 2 \right )
\stopformula
 \stoptext
-- 

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