I am indexing a big latex project (with xindy). I use biblatex for the bibliography and the command \footcite for the references.  Sometimes, I write long prenotes which contain some words to be indexed. The logical procedure is to put the index command before of after the \footcite command and not in the prenote. But in practice as my prenotes are very long it's sometimes difficult to notice the square backets of the prenote... And it causes a lots of bug during the compilation.  For example :  \footcite[blabla blabla\index[n]{something} blabla.][postnote]{Reference}   It takes a lot of work to correct all the errors. But maybe there is a trick to bypass compilation bugs or loose less time.
LaTeX seems to be having problems handling nested optional arguments. I've included a minimal code example that generates the error:  \documentclass[12pt,oneside]{book} \begin{document}  \newcommand{\termbad}[2][]{#2#1} \newcommand{\termgood}[2][]{#2#1}  \newcommand{\up}[1]{#1} \newcommand{\dd}[1][]{#1}  \termgood{\up{Tart}}{Pop} \termbad[\up{Tart}]{Pop}      \termgood{\dd[Tart]}{Pop} \termbad[{\dd[Tart]}]{Pop} %\termbad[\dd[Tart]]{Pop}   \end{document}   If you run this code, it works. If you remove the % in the second to last line, it fails with:  Runaway argument?  Tart{Pop} \par \par \end {document}  !File ended while scanning use of \dd.   After further tinkering, I have discovered the problem: LaTeX is reading the ] for the inner optional argument as the end of the outer optional argument and then passing a malformed argument in. So it is passing in \dd[Tart as the optional argument to \termbad instead of \dd[Tart].  This still feels like a bug to me. Nesting braces in arguments works, brackets should as well. The following are workarounds:   Enclose the inner optional argument in braces (as in the line before %). Redefine your inner function to require its argument instead of using optional arguments. Redefine your outer function to require its argument instead of using optional arguments.   Any one of the three works around the issue.  (Reposted here; question was originally posted to stackexchange and then closed instead of being migrated.)
Propose a privilege to sit in the 500 reputation mark custom button visibility list view What does f-stop mean? I was chatting with a friend after I saw his photos in Russia (Petersburg). He is a white British dude who has been to many, many, many countries. On the other hand, I am a pure Arab who looks like a typical Middle Easterner or North African, who has also been to many countries, but never to Russia or its neighbors.  Anyway, it seemed like he really liked Russia, so I told him it will be in my list. He told me "you do not belong".  At first, I wasn't sure what he did mean. He started explaining and told me stuff like "you will be hassled for no reason in some parts of the city" and "the police will stop you every few hundred meters asking for money". He made sure to make me believe that's all because I do not belong.  Can someone clarify this? Of course, some of this is hyperbole to help convey the point, but to what extent?  Note: The friend is . If you think the question is wrong, feel free to downvote him ;) how to glob every hidden file except current and parent directory I want to glob every hidden file and directory, but not the current (.) and parent directory (..).  I am using bash.  Observe current behaviour:  $ ls -a .  ..  ...a  ...aa  ..a  ..aa  .a  .aa  .aaa  a $ echo * a $ echo .* . .. ...a ...aa ..a ..aa .a .aa .aaa   I would like .* to behave like this  $ echo .* ...a ...aa ..a ..aa .a .aa .aaa   There is the shell option dotglob  $ shopt -s dotglob   that works in a way; now I can use * to glob everything (hidden or not) but not . and ..  $ echo * ...a ...aa ..a ..aa .a .aa .aaa a   but now I can't differentiate between hidden or not. Also, .* still globs . and ..  $ echo .* . .. ...a ...aa ..a ..aa .a .aa .aaa   Is there a way to make .* not expand to . and ..? Example of $\deg(fg)<\deg(f)+\deg(g)$ launch sms application with an intent Are the PUT, DELETE, HEAD, etc methods available in most web browsers? Service or services? I've read many articles that use the term 'emergency services ' and ' location services' .   Why not service instead? Why must it be plural? Thank you Solve $\lim_{x\to 0} \frac{\sin x-x}{x^3}$ I'm trying to solve this limit     $$\lim_{x\to 0} \frac{\sin x-x}{x^3}$$   Solving using L'hopital rule, we have:  $$\lim_{x\to 0} \frac{\sin x-x}{x^3}= \lim_{x\to 0} \frac{\cos x-1}{3x^2}=\lim_{x\to 0} \frac{-\sin x}{6x}=\lim_{x\to 0} \frac{-\cos x}{6}=-\frac{1}{6}.$$  Am I right?  I'm trying to solve this using change of variables, I need help.  Thanks  EDIT  I didn't understand the answer and the commentaries, I'm looking for an answer using change of variables. prevent "action" if top of page I have a manual list of stuff that are sometimes separated by an hrule(or my own custom ruler) for visual purposes.  Sometimes the hrule ends at the top or bottom of a page which makes it useless.  Is there a way to prevent it from being added if it is at the top or bottom of a page?    MWE of problem:  \documentclass{book} \usepackage{tikz} \begin{document} \newcommand\rulesep{%   \par % make sure we end a paragraph   \vskip5pt % space above the rule   \leaders\vrule width \textwidth\vskip0.4pt % rule thickness is 0.4pt   \nointerlineskip % disable interline glue here   \vskip5pt % space below the rule } \def\dotikzcircle#1{\begin{tikzpicture}\draw(0,0)circle(#1);\end{tikzpicture}} \rulesep \noindent This is a test\noindent \rulesep \noindent End of test \rulesep \dotikzcircle3 \rulesep \begin{center}\dotikzcircle3\end{center} \rulesep \begin{center}\dotikzcircle3\end{center} \rulesep \dotikzcircle1 \rulesep \dotikzcircle2 \rulesep \dotikzcircle3 \rulesep \dotikzcircle4 \rulesep \dotikzcircle5 \rulesep  \end{document} How can I get help on terminal commands? I often see things like     read man xyz   For more information read xyz's man page.   see info xyz    so I wonder:   How can I get help on terminal commands generally? What exactly are these man and info pages?   How can I find and view them? combinatorics: sum of product of integer compositions Make a substitution to express the integrand as a rational function and then evaluate the integral  $$\int {\frac{2}{x\sqrt{x+1}}}\, dx$$  What is the substitution that I have to make? Truncated trivariate normal - conditional expectation Parenthesize what I have highlighted I've heard Google's algorithm is based on PageRank, and that it has something to do with the links to your site. Can someone explain it, and more importantly, how I can increase my site's PageRank? What is $\int_{-\pi}^\pi \cos(nx)\cos(mx)\,dx$? I've done a clean install of 18.04 and I can't open desktop folders, not even the desktop trash can. Anybody else had this issue? I click on the desktop folders (double click) and nothing happens.  Strange enough, I can open  them when using Nautilus and going to home\stackinator\desktop\ or whatever the path is (can't remember at this point). Sort order in Windows Explorer The behaviour described below occurs on Windows-7 systems and on Windows XP. We operate in a dual-language environment - English and Hebrew.  When in Windows Explorer we sort files by name, the order in which they are listed is not what we would expect. Here is a list of file names as sorted by Windows Explorer (all of the files have a .pdf suffix):   1G110033H-PP 19C050G-PP-ORB 19C050H-PPRM 19C100H-PPRM 19C-MBPS-PP 19C-MBPS-PP-1 29AAC050-PP 29AAC100-PP 29AAC100-PPUL   29B004064-PP 101AC050-PP 101AC100-PP 101B100-PPE 1091003G-PPFSUL 10108033G-PPSA 10125033H-PPM     It looks to me that first the items are sorted according to the position of the first alphabetic character in the name, and then, within those groups, they are sorted in "normal" alpha-numeric order.  That is, all the files with an alpha character in the first position are on top of the list, followed by those with the first alpha character in the second position, followed by those with the first alpha character in the third position, and so on.  An alternate way of looking at this is that, in a file name composed of numbers and letters, the sort treats the first group of numbers in the name as the major sort node, with the rest of the name being the secondary sort node.  Now that I understand the sequencing logic, it's not a big problem, but I was wondering why this happens?