[AUCTeX-devel] preview.sty included in GNU ELPA problematic

[Ivan Andrus]

The version of preview.sty included in the GNU ELPA has the wrong date
format.  Or at least that’s my diagnosis.  Here is the diff between
the GNU ELPA preview.sty and the TeX Live version:

--- /usr/local/texlive/2014/texmf-dist/tex/latex/preview/preview.sty    
2010-02-21 16:13:39.000000000 -0700
+++ /Users/iandrus/.emacs.d/elpa/auctex-11.87.5/latex/preview.sty       
2014-07-10 18:10:23.000000000 -0600
@@ -26,12 +26,12 @@
 \NeedsTeXFormat{LaTeX2e} address@hidden #1#2$#3:
 address@hidden #2#4 $}} address@hidden #1 #2${#1}
 \begingroup \catcode`\_=12
address@hidden@version $Name: release_11_86 $ address@hidden@empty
address@hidden@version $Name:  $ address@hidden@empty
 address@hidden@version CVS-$Revision: 1.126 $ \endgroup \else
   \def\next release_{} \lccode`\_=`.
   \edef\next{\lowercase{\endgroup
     address@hidden@version}}} \next \fi
address@hidden $Date: 2010/02/14 16:19:00 $
address@hidden $Date: 2010-02-14 16:19:00 $
 \edef\next{\noexpand\ProvidesPackage{preview}%
   [\next\space address@hidden (AUCTeX/preview-latex)]}
 \next

The first difference doesn’t seem to matter, but the second does.
Below is a shell transcript showing the problem.  If I change the
preview.sty in .emacs.d/elpa (where I install ELPA packages) to match
the TeX Live version (only the second change is needed), then the
problem goes away.

Any thoughts on how this should be fixed?  I maintain sage-mode (which
has preview functionality) and have a bug on this [1] so at the very 
least I need a work around, or a fix to suggest to users.

Thanks,
Ivan

[1] 
https://bitbucket.org/gvol/sage-mode/issue/35/sage-view-inline-output-conversion-keeps

$ cat /Users/iandrus/.sage/tmp/emacs15342Plj/sage-view_15342S2g.tex
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[active, tightpage, pdftex, displaymath]{preview}
\usepackage{amstext}
\begin{document}
\begin{preview}
\begin{math}
\newcommand{\Bold}[1]{\mathbf{#1}}x
\end{math}
\end{preview}
\end{document}

$ TEXINPUTS=.:/Users/iandrus/.emacs.d/elpa/auctex-11.87.5/latex: latex 
/Users/iandrus/.sage/tmp/emacs15342Plj/sage-view_15342S2g.tex
This is pdfTeX, Version 3.14159265-2.6-1.40.15 (TeX Live 2014) (preloaded 
format=latex)
 restricted \write18 enabled.
entering extended mode
(/Users/iandrus/.sage/tmp/emacs15342Plj/sage-view_15342S2g.tex
LaTeX2e <2014/05/01>
Babel <3.9k> and hyphenation patterns for 79 languages loaded.
(/usr/local/texlive/2014/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/article.cls
Document Class: article 2007/10/19 v1.4h Standard LaTeX document class
(/usr/local/texlive/2014/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/size10.clo))
(/Users/iandrus/.emacs.d/elpa/auctex-11.87.5/latex/preview.sty
(/Users/iandrus/.emacs.d/elpa/auctex-11.87.5/latex/prtightpage.def))
! Missing = inserted for \ifnum.
<to be read again>
                   -
l.3 \usepackage
               {amstext}
? ^D
! Emergency stop.
<to be read again>
                   -
l.3 \usepackage
               {amstext}
No pages of output.
Transcript written on sage-view_15342S2g.log.

$ TEXINPUTS=.: latex 
/Users/iandrus/.sage/tmp/emacs15342Plj/sage-view_15342S2g.tex
This is pdfTeX, Version 3.14159265-2.6-1.40.15 (TeX Live 2014) (preloaded 
format=latex)
 restricted \write18 enabled.
entering extended mode
(/Users/iandrus/.sage/tmp/emacs15342Plj/sage-view_15342S2g.tex
LaTeX2e <2014/05/01>
Babel <3.9k> and hyphenation patterns for 79 languages loaded.
(/usr/local/texlive/2014/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/article.cls
Document Class: article 2007/10/19 v1.4h Standard LaTeX document class
(/usr/local/texlive/2014/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/size10.clo))
(/usr/local/texlive/2014/texmf-dist/tex/latex/preview/preview.sty
(/usr/local/texlive/2014/texmf-dist/tex/latex/preview/prtightpage.def))
(/usr/local/texlive/2014/texmf-dist/tex/latex/amsmath/amstext.sty
(/usr/local/texlive/2014/texmf-dist/tex/latex/amsmath/amsgen.sty))
(./sage-view_15342S2g.aux)
Preview: Fontsize 10pt
Preview: Tightpage -32891 -32891 32891 32891
[1] (./sage-view_15342S2g.aux) )
Output written on sage-view_15342S2g.dvi (1 page, 180 bytes).
Transcript written on sage-view_15342S2g.log.