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From: raichle@informatik.uni-stuttgart.de (Bernd Raichle)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Re: (Another) puzzler for wannabe wizards -- (Another) Solution
Message-ID: <RAICHLE.91Jun11115946@azu.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de>
Date: 11 Jun 91 09:59:46 GMT
References: <RAICHLE.91Jun5125624@azu.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de>
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In-reply-to: raichle@informatik.uni-stuttgart.de's message of 5 Jun 91 10:56:23 GMT

I'm very impressed on the solutions.... Thanks to all.

But nobody thought of a very simple mechanism...

	\begingroup \catcode`\*=\active
	  \catcode`\"=12 \uccode`\*=`\"
	\uppercase{\endgroup \def*{"}}%


And in a generalized macro:

  \begingroup \catcode`\*=\active \catcode`\+=12
  \gdef\makenonactive#1{\begingroup
    \uccode`*=#1\relax \uccode`+=\uccode`*
    \uppercase{\endgroup \def*{+}}}
  \endgroup


With this macro you can locally redefine a (possible) active
character to expand to its non-active counterpart, e.g.
  \makenonactive{`"}
redefines the active " to expand to a non-active ".
(Note: \makenonactive{0} does *not* work...)


-bernd
__________________________________________________________________________
Bernd Raichle, Student der Universit"at Stuttgart | "Le langage est source
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