Conference vaxuum::document_ft

788.0. "%TEX-W-ENDINGROUP" by PANAMA::GILLIAM () Mon Aug 10 1987 18:14

The tag translator should signal an error when one member of a group is
commented out. I think it currently signals for improperly conditionalized 
groups. Anyway, I can't think of an acceptable instance where a beginning or 
ending tag in a group could be conditionalized or commented singly. 

<FORMAT>
<COMMENT>
  .
  .
<ENDFORMAT>
<ENDCOMMENT>

Now, this is a very simple error from a user's point of view. I received a 
%TEX-W-ENDINGROUP error. The message gave neither the complete name of the 
offending TEX control sequence nor its line number in the TEX file. 

The message was something like "an '\end' command appeared...

The book has around 300 or 400 of these <format>...<endformat> sequences, so
I wasn't looking forwarding to solving the problem.

Strangely enough, all those LINETOOLONG messages that everyone complains
about indicated that the problem had to have occurred after a certain point 
in the book. (This reminded me of where I last edited the file.) 
In fact, this is the only clue I got. Otherwise, I would have had to draft
the book using the slice and dice method, until I saw the error again.

Page numbers are of no use if it's your first build. Since I had previous
successful build, the page number cited in the last LINETOOLONG message was 
somewhat helpful.

1. The text formatter should identify the control sequence with its
full name and give the line number. The line number in the TEX file would have
helped me correct the both the TEX and GNC files. 

2. The documentation says this "should not happen. Send an SPR". Anything can 
happen and this certainly wasn't worth an SPR.
 

    
    I believe that you must have had some kind of warning, at least,
    from the tag translator. I can reproduce the problem only in
    the case of 
    
    <format>
    
    <comment>
    <endformat>
    
    <endcomment>
     ...
    <format>
    
    In other words, if there is another <format> following the commented
    out <endformat>. This gives message 'can't nest <format> tags' and
    tells you the line number. (There is a bug, in that while the nesting
    is detected, the TeX file still contains the instruction that starts
    the group. This is the one that is not ended.)
    
    If there is no subsequent <format> following the comment, you would
    get an E-level message, TAGNOTEND. 
    
    I suspect that I'm missing some information. Is this in a book build?
    
    As for your ending comments:
    
    1. Even TeX can't give you the line number of the group that was
       started. I don't think it know or cares.
                                
    2. A NOTE here is the same as an SPR; if something's broken, it
       needs to be fixed. 
    
    patti