Reading about macro bundles meant to be generic (format agnostic), some of them work in plain/LaTeX, but crash when loaded on ConTeXt. The following happens with xstring.tex tex error > tex error on line 372 in file xstring.tex: ! Illegal parameter number in definition of \xs_reserved_C <to be read again> 1 \xs_newlines ->\unexpanded {}\xs_def \xs_arg_i {##1 } \xs_newmacro_ ...name \xs_myarg }\edef \xs_reserved_C {\unexpanded \expandafter {\xs_newlines }\edef \noexpand \xs_call }\edef \xs_reserved_D {... l.372 \xs_newmacro\StrRemoveBraces{}{1}{1} {% <empty file> You meant to type ## instead of #, right? Or maybe a } was forgotten somewhere earlier, and things are all screwed up? I'm going to assume that you meant ##. I've tried changing the catcode regime, but with no effect. Don't misunderstand me. I'm aware of ConTeXt capabilities and string manipulation via Lua. My question is more like: "Why doesn't xstring.tex?" Sorry if my question is outside the scope of ConTeXt developers/maintainers. Thank you very much. Jairo :)