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Message-ID:  <4EFF960F.6010407@morningstar2.co.uk>
Date:         Sat, 31 Dec 2011 23:09:03 +0000
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From: Joseph Wright <joseph.wright@MORNINGSTAR2.CO.UK>
Subject: How to describe category codes: documentation and \char_show_value_catcode:n
To: LATEX-L@listserv.uni-heidelberg.de
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Status: R

Hello all,

I was asked recently about the documentation of category codes in the
LaTeX3 docs. Currently, we say things like "category code 12 ('other')"
when describing what codes are active. We also provide
\char_show_value_catcode:n, which is just a wrapper around
\showthe\catcode. However, for setting catcode we use symbolic names,
for example \char_set_catcode_other:N.

While knowing catcode meanings is a required TeX programming skill, it
seems more in keeping with the LaTeX3 approach to talk about these by
their meaning. That raises two questions

 1) How should we refer to catcode in documentation, both in terms of
    the text and the formatting (for example, do we want to say
    something line 'category code <other>')?
 2) What should we do for \char_show_value_catcode:n? 'show_value' is
    not the right name for showing a symbolic meaning. I guess we just
    use \prg_case_int:nnn to actually show the meaning.
-- 
Joseph Wright