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From: aryeh@eddie.mit.edu (Aryeh M. Weiss)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Re: How to get out if wrong filename?
Message-ID: <1991Mar21.150225.2566@eddie.mit.edu>
Date: 21 Mar 91 15:02:25 GMT
References: <22069@yunexus.YorkU.CA> <gkL5y1w163w@shark.cs.fau.edu>
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> When I supply the wrong file name, TeX keeps say ``give me a 
> correct filename:'' If I know

At the risk of starting a discussion on what the ``correct'' behavior
should be, I do not think that a program as sophisticated as TeX
should force you to do something against your will, i.e., enter a file
name.  Often when porting .tex files to different systems, users don't
realize they need style files which are local to a particular system.
Rather than get into an endless loop asking for information that
cannot be supplied, TeX should just accept a <carriage return> and
pretend nothing happened, just as it does for undefined control
sequences and the like.  TeX can just process the main file,
accumulate a lot of errors and the user can fix things later.

Also null.tex is not a standard feature.  I can't find it documented
in THE BOOK.