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From: ef@tools.uucp (Edgar Fuss)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Re: Macro argument problem: ^^M^^M != \par
Message-ID: <EF.90Jul19171831@vladimir.tools.uucp>
Date: 19 Jul 90 15:18:31 GMT
References: <1887@murdu.oz>
Sender: news@tools.UUCP
Organization: TooLs GmbH, Bonn, W.-Germany
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In-reply-to: duty@murdu.ucs.unimelb.edu.au's message of 18 Jul 90 05:57:51 GMT

The problem is that the TeXbook ``lies a little bit'' when explaining that
an empty line (or two CRs in a row) are equivalent to a \par.
What really causes a \par is an end-of-line condition at the beginning of
a line. Since an end-of-line is equivalent to a space, you get both a space
(from the first CR)---which normally disappears because glue at the end of a
paragraph is ignored---and a \par.
I circumvent this by either typing in an explicit \par or by redisigning the
macro such that it ignores the space in the last argument.