Re: [NTG-context] die if a module is missing

Hans Hagen writes:

John Devereux wrote:

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Wolfgang Schuster writes:

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Am 12.03.2009 um 15:06 schrieb John Devereux:

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Michael Bynum writes:

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This has burned me too. It would be nice if the errors were more prominent, perhaps repeated at the end of the output? Mike While we are on the subject, is it possible to make it "die" when incorrect (non-existent) options are passed to a context command? Is there any way at all of knowing if the option did anything (even by examining the log?) No, this is not possible and even such a feature would increase the compile time a lot, e.g. I used list with valid names in a earlier version of my letter module and it was 30% slower than the current version and now imagine what happens if you check each key in a assignment list.

OK. It seems strange (coming from a programming background).

If it is only the compile time, then a command line switch might be an option. (But it sounds like it is inherently hard to do, now).

i can probably implement some kind of checking (runtime switch, or maybe even switch at format generation time) but i will do so only when i've completely split of the mkiv code

Hi Hans, I really don't want to create work if you think it is not worthwhile. But - as a non-texpert - I do think it is a problem. It is compounded by: - Many command options are not documented, so one experiments a lot - Excess whitespace not only invalidates options, it does so silently. The combination is *very* unexpected, and I don't think it is that well known. At any rate I used context for 5 years without realising something pretty fundamental! (Is it even mentioned in the manual?) Anyway, the option then has no effect, so one tries a few more... Thanks, -- John Devereux