Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!usc!sol.usc.edu!siemsen From: siemsen@sol.usc.edu (Pete Siemsen) Newsgroups: comp.text.tex Subject: How do I comment-out a block of TeX Message-ID: <29555@usc> Date: 24 Jan 91 00:29:15 GMT Sender: news@usc Distribution: comp Lines: 19 Nntp-Posting-Host: sol.usc.edu TeX or LaTeX can generate errors that are hard to track down, either because they occur deep in several layers of macros or because the cause of the error is far from the site of the message, or both. I sometimes resort to the brute-force method: chopping big chunks of the text out and seeing if the error disappears, then doing it again, until I zero in on the erroneous source. Knuth even suggests something like this in Chapter 27 of the TeXbook. The editing is a pain, however. Is there some way to comment out a block of TeX code? Yes, I can insert a percent sign at the front of every line, but I want something simpler, like C's "#if 0" and "#endif" preprocessor directives. I tried \ifnum0>1 ... \fi, but TeX barfed with "missing \fi" after 2000 or so lines. -- Pete Siemsen Pete Siemsen siemsen@usc.edu University of Southern California 645 Ohio Ave. #302 (213) 740-7391 (w) 1020 West Jefferson Blvd. Long Beach, CA 90814 (213) 433-3059 (h) Los Angeles, CA 90089-0251