I've tried with a wrapper and it seems to work fine. However, changing definitions "on the fly" to make xstring usable seems to break things in ConTeXt... Whatever. I guess I will have to find out other command redefinitions in ConTeXt. Thank you very much, Phelype. Jairo :) El mar., 7 de jul. de 2020 a la(s) 13:54, Phelype Oleinik ( phe.h.o1@gmail.com) escribió:

Hi Jairo,

ConTeXt's \unexpanded is e-TeX's \protected, so the error boils down to something like: \edef\x{\unexpanded{#}}, which works in Plain but not in ConTeXt.

Usually packages that claim to be generic have to cope with that. xstring would need to do (in a ConTeXt-specific loader): \let\xstring@unexpanded\normalunexpanded and \let\xstring@unexpanded\unexpanded in Plain and LaTeX loaders, then then use \xstring@unexpanded in the code. But `xstring` doesn't claim (that I found, at least) to be compatible with ConTeXt, so it's understandable: though if it is compatible with Plain, it wouldn't be hard to adapt to ConTeXt.

That said, you can load `xstring` if you do: \let\unexpanded\normalunexpanded \input xstring.tex \let\unexpanded\protected but the internals of the package will probably be comprimised by the misuse of (ConTeXt) \unexpanded.

Phelype

On Tue, Jul 7, 2020 at 3:40 PM Jairo A. del Rio wrote:

...

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 :)

___________________________________________________________________________________

...

If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!

maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://context.aanhet.net archive : https://bitbucket.org/phg/context-mirror/commits/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net

___________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!

maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://context.aanhet.net archive : https://bitbucket.org/phg/context-mirror/commits/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net

___________________________________________________________________________________

On Tue, Jul 7, 2020 at 5:19 PM Wolfgang Schuster wrote:

Bad idea because ConTeXt also changes the meaning of \protected (you can use \normalprotected to get the primitve).

Oops, forgot about that one.

A better version is

\pushmacro\unexpanded \let\unexpanded\normalunexpanded \input xstring \popmacro\unexpanded

Nice, didn't know about \push/\popmacro. Thanks! Phelype

On Tue, Jul 7, 2020 at 6:21 PM Jairo A. del Rio wrote:

Thank, Wolfgang! Both methods work, but both fail with the following example:

\pushmacro\unexpanded \let\unexpanded\normalunexpanded \input xstring \popmacro\unexpanded \starttext \StrGobbleLeft{bcdef}{4} \stoptext

The log says:

tex error > tex error on line 6 in file ./tests.tex: ! This can't happen (prefixed command)

<argument> \unexpanded {

f}

\xs_execfirst #1#2->#1

However, some others work.

As I said, the internals of `xstring` still use \unexpanded which, after you do \popmacro\unexpanded, will mean e-TeX's \protected, rather than \unexpanded, which are quite different. To be on the safe side, you'd need to wrap every `xstring` command in \pushmacro\unexpanded \let\unexpanded\normalunexpanded <xstring stuff> \popmacro\unexpanded to make sure that \unexpanded means what `xstring` expects. The *proper* way to make `xstring` work in ConTeXt would be something like Circuitikz does: \ifcsname normalunexpanded\endcsname \let\pgfcircutil@unexpanded\normalunexpanded \else \let\pgfcircutil@unexpanded\unexpanded \fi then use \pgfcircutil@unexpanded in the code, which will always have the same meaning. That, of course, requires an update to `xstring`. Phelype

On 7/8/2020 12:00 AM, Jairo A. del Rio wrote:

Yep, now it finally works. Certainly it requires a few more lines. I was going to rewrite some TikZ code which was too dependent on LaTeX and xstring was the last stone on the shoe. Thank you a lot, Phelype and Wolfgang (I didn't know about push/popmacro either and now it's in my to-do readings).

We can have a module that takes care of some things, like \usemodule[system-aliasing] \registeralias\unexpanded\normalunexpanded % preset \registeralias\expanded \normalexpanded % preset \registeraliasfile{rubish.tex} % any file with that name \registeraliasfile{generic/*.tex} % a bit more explicit after which \input rubish.tex \input generic/foo.tex (or whatever way it's loaded) will (hopefully) work ok. But as a module, not in the core, because we don't want additional overhead for third party stuff, but ok on user demand. Of course one cannot expect the context dev to keep a list of files that need such a treatment. Hans

Jairo :D

El mar., 7 de jul. de 2020 a la(s) 16:31, Phelype Oleinik (phe.h.o1@gmail.com mailto:phe.h.o1@gmail.com) escribió:

On Tue, Jul 7, 2020 at 6:21 PM Jairo A. del Rio mailto:jairoadelrio6@gmail.com> wrote: > > Thank, Wolfgang! Both methods work, but both fail with the following example: > > \pushmacro\unexpanded > \let\unexpanded\normalunexpanded > \input xstring > \popmacro\unexpanded > \starttext > \StrGobbleLeft{bcdef}{4} > \stoptext > > The log says: > > tex error > tex error on line 6 in file ./tests.tex: ! This can't happen (prefixed command) > > > <argument> \unexpanded { > > f} > > \xs_execfirst #1#2->#1 > > However, some others work.

As I said, the internals of `xstring` still use \unexpanded which, after you do \popmacro\unexpanded, will mean e-TeX's \protected, rather than \unexpanded, which are quite different.  To be on the safe side, you'd need to wrap every `xstring` command in     \pushmacro\unexpanded     \let\unexpanded\normalunexpanded     <xstring stuff>     \popmacro\unexpanded to make sure that \unexpanded means what `xstring` expects.

The *proper* way to make `xstring` work in ConTeXt would be something like Circuitikz does:     \ifcsname normalunexpanded\endcsname       \let\pgfcircutil@unexpanded\normalunexpanded     \else       \let\pgfcircutil@unexpanded\unexpanded     \fi then use \pgfcircutil@unexpanded in the code, which will always have the same meaning.  That, of course, requires an update to `xstring`.

Phelype ___________________________________________________________________________________ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!

maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl mailto:ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage  : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://context.aanhet.net archive  : https://bitbucket.org/phg/context-mirror/commits/ wiki     : http://contextgarden.net ___________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!

maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://context.aanhet.net archive : https://bitbucket.org/phg/context-mirror/commits/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___________________________________________________________________________________

-- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands tel: 038 477 53 69 | www.pragma-ade.nl | www.pragma-pod.nl -----------------------------------------------------------------