Re: [AUCTeX] TeX-auto-generate confused by comments

[Ikumi Keita]

Dear Tristan,

>>>>> Tristan Miller <address@hidden> writes:
> Dear all,
> In a separate thread I was advised to run TeX-auto-generate to generate
> style hooks for the custom classes I'm using.  I discovered that this
> command seems to get confused by comments in the optional argument to
> \RequirePackage.  For example, take the following class file:

> \NeedsTeXFormat{LaTeX2e}
> \LoadClassWithOptions{article}
> \ProvidesClass{foo}[2017/09/07 v0.1 test class]
> \RequirePackage[
> backend=biber, % here is a comment
> ]{biblatex}

> Running TeX-auto-generate on this class file results in the following
> style file, which fails to account for the use of biblatex:

> (TeX-add-style-hook
>  "foo"
>  (lambda ()
>    (TeX-run-style-hooks
>     "latex2e"
>     "article"
>     "art10"))
>  :latex)

> However, removing "% here is a comment" and re-running
> TeX-auto-generate results in the following, which looks more correct:

> (TeX-add-style-hook
>  "foo"
>  (lambda ()
>    (TeX-add-to-alist 'LaTeX-provided-package-options
>                      '(("biblatex" "backend=biber" "")))
>    (TeX-run-style-hooks
>     "latex2e"
>     "article"
>     "art10"
>     "biblatex"))
>  :latex)

> Am I correct in assuming that this is a bug?  I know that a lot of
> people use comments like this to explain the purpose of (sometimes very
> obscure) package options.

IMHO, a style file generated by `TeX-auto-generate' should be considered
as just a "start point" to begin your customize with.  The function does
nothing more than mere regexp matchings and is not a real TeX parser
after all.  Generally speaking, you have to edit the generated file as
you described and move it from "auto" directory to "style"
directory. (e.g. from "~/.emacs.d/auctex/auto/" to
"~/.emacs.d/auctex/style/")

Having said that, it seems to my eyes that `LaTeX-auto-cleanup' in
latex.el is written to be capable of parsing optional package options
which contain comments like that... Well, tuning the regular expression
for "RequirePackage" would do the trick.  Find the part
---------------------------------------------------------------
(defvar LaTeX-auto-class-regexp-list
  '(;; \RequirePackage[<options>]{<package>}[<date>]
    ("\\\\Require\\(Package\\)\\(\\[\\([^#\\.%]*?\\)\\]\\)?\
{\\([^#\\.\n\r]+?\\)}"
...
---------------------------------------------------------------
in latex.el of AUCTeX and replace "[^#\\.%]*?" with "[^\]\\]*", the same
as the corresponding segment of regexp for usepackage.  Then save it and
byte-compile.  After that, restart emacs and try `TeX-auto-generate'
on "foo.cls" again.  I expect that the generated style file is
----------------------------------------------------------------------
(TeX-add-style-hook
 "foo"
 (lambda ()
   (TeX-add-to-alist 'LaTeX-provided-package-options
                     '(("biblatex" "backend=biber" "")))
   (add-to-list 'LaTeX-verbatim-macros-with-braces-local "url")
   (add-to-list 'LaTeX-verbatim-macros-with-braces-local "path")
   (add-to-list 'LaTeX-verbatim-macros-with-delims-local "url")
   (add-to-list 'LaTeX-verbatim-macros-with-delims-local "path")
   (TeX-run-style-hooks
    "latex2e"
    "article"
    "art10"
    "biblatex"))
 :latex)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
and serves your purpose.  The lines concerned with "url" and "path" are
redundant and dispensable in this particular case, but must be harmless.

Regards,
Ikumi Keita