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	["861" "Sun" "2" "March" "1997" "17:50:02" "+0100" "Werner Lemberg" "xlwy01@UXP1.HRZ.UNI-DORTMUND.DE" nil "18" "Re: Shortref mechanism" "^Date:" nil nil "3" nil nil nil nil]
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Date:         Sun, 2 Mar 1997 17:50:02 +0100
From: Werner Lemberg <xlwy01@UXP1.HRZ.UNI-DORTMUND.DE>
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Subject:      Re: Shortref mechanism
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On Sun, 2 Mar 1997, Hans Aberg wrote:

>   Actually, what is needed, is a simple extension of the TeX \def command:
>     \def\name<parameter text>{definition text}[exception text]
> If a command somehow is unable to process the parameter text, then the
> original input text (before the parsing of the parameter text began) is
> left unaffected, and the execution passes to the exception text.
>   Then stuff like optional commands could be implemented most easily, and
> perhaps the stuff you are asking for, too.

This sounds for me like an OTP (Omega Translation Process) input filter.
With Omega you can do a lot of manipulation (notably character encoding
conversion and various more or less complicated character cluster->glyph
transformations e.g. for Hebrew or Arabic) of text before TeX sees the
text. You can avoid any active characters.


   Werner