Hi Denis,
Many thanks for checking the MWE on your side — and for confirming that
it runs correctly once the XML file is saved under the right name. This
is actually very reassuring: it shows that the TEI structure, the
namespace, and the basic ConTeXt XML pipeline (|\xmlnamespace|,
|\xmlsetsetup|, |\xmlprocessfile|) are all sound.
This narrows down the problem on my side to something very local, most
probably in one of these areas:
• filename resolution on Windows (LMTX 2025.07.27 / fmt 2025.12.08)
• catcode pollution or stray characters in the setup identifier
• an invisible Unicode character around “tei:start” being interpreted as
part of a control sequence
• or possibly a conflict in my environment or editor that alters the
file contents
Now that we know the MWE is valid and can be processed normally, I can
focus on isolating what exactly corrupts the setup name on my
installation (it appears internally as something like “\18>:tei:start”,
which suggests a mis-scanned token before the |t|).
If you have a moment at some point, it would be interesting to know
whether the same MWE also behaves correctly with:
• another engine format date
• a fully clean standalone folder (no texmf-local contamination)
• or different ways of invoking ConTeXt (|context|, |mtxrun --script
context|, etc.)
But already your confirmation is extremely helpful: the code itself is
right, and the issue is environmental, not conceptual.
Many thanks again for your help and quick feedback!
Best,
JP
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Si tu v
Le 11/12/2025 à 13:18, [email protected] a écrit :
Sorry, I saved the xml with a wrong name. Now, it works as expected.
Pdf looks like this;
http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0
<TEI xmlns=http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0> <text> <body> <lg
type="stanza"> <lg
type="orig"> <l>Sometimes I hear the distant call</l> <l n="2">Of
nights I thought
would never fade</l> </lg> <lg type="trans"> <l>Parfois j’entends un
appel loin
tain</l> <l n="2">Des nuits que je croyais éternelles</l> </lg> <lg
type="comm">
<l>Commentary for line 1</l> <l>Commentary for line 2</l> </lg> </lg>
</body>
</text> </TEI>/TEI/text/body
*Von:*[email protected] <[email protected]>
*Gesendet:* Donnerstag, 11. Dezember 2025 13:16
*An:* 'mailing list for ConTeXt users' <[email protected]>
*Cc:* 'Jean-Pierre Delange' <[email protected]>
*Betreff:* AW: [NTG-context] Re: XML-TEI : \xmlprocessfile: unexpected
character in setup name
I cannot reproduce your error. Instead I’m gettting a pdf with
<error>empty xml file</error>/TEI/text/body
*Von:*Jean-Pierre Delange via ntg-context <[email protected]>
*Gesendet:* Mittwoch, 10. Dezember 2025 22:32
*An:* [email protected]
*Cc:* Jean-Pierre Delange <[email protected]>
*Betreff:* [NTG-context] Re: XML-TEI : \xmlprocessfile: unexpected
character in setup name
Just a quick correction: the coding mistake in my email
|\xxmlsetsetup{|main|}{*}{tei:all}|
(with two initial x)
is not present in my actual source file. It was introduced only in the
email draft.
The original code uses the correct form:
|\xmlsetsetup{|main|}{*}{tei:all}|
So the issue I am facing is /not/ caused by that typo !
Le 10/12/2025 à 22:24, Jean-Pierre Delange via ntg-context a écrit :
Hi fellows !
I am returning to you with some XML-TEI issues. I am trying to
produce a MWE that shows how to handle the literary analysis of
versification and how to typeset the results properly. To reach
this goal, I turned to the XML-TEI approach, but I have
encountered an issue ...Then, this MWE is now a M(N)WE ...
• Goal: produce a PDF from a TEI-XML source containing
– original poem
– translation
– commentary
– notes (<note>)
– apparatus (<app><lem><rdg>)
• Desired layout in ConTeXt:
– original text with line numbers
– translation in parallel
– commentary in a third column
– proper rendering of notes and apparatus
• Reason for using TEI:
– separation between content and layout
– reuse of the same TEI source for different typesettings
– scalable workflow for wider scholarly editions
• TEI structure (poem.xml):
– <lg type="orig">, <lg type="trans">, <lg type="comm">
– <l> elements for individual lines
– optional <note> and <app><lem><rdg> elements
– valid XML and valid TEI namespace declaration
Minimal TEI file:
<?xml version="1.0"|encoding=|"UTF-8"|?>|
<TEI||xmlns|=|"http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"; <http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0>|>|
||<text|>|
||<body|>|
||<lg||type|=|"stanza"|>|
||<lg||type|=|"orig"|>|
||<l|>Sometimes I hear the distant call|</l|>|
||<l||n|=|"2"|>Of nights I thought would never fade|</l|>|
||</lg|>|
||<lg||type|=|"trans"|>|
||<l|>Parfois j’entends un appel lointain|</l|>|
||<l||n|=|"2"|>Des nuits que je croyais éternelles|</l|>|
||</lg|>|
||<lg||type|=|"comm"|>|
||<l|>Commentary for line 1|</l|>|
||<l|>Commentary for line 2|</l|>|
||</lg|>|
||</lg|>|
||</body|>|
||</text|>|
</TEI|>|
• Minimal ConTeXt debugging file:
– declares the TEI namespace
– assigns all elements to a debug setup
– defines an entry setup for starting the XML traversal
– calls \xmlprocessfile
%mwe-xmltei-debug.tex
|\setuppapersize|[A4]||
|\setupbodyfont|[modern,11pt]||
||
|\xmlnamespace{tei}{http://www.tei-c.org/ns/|1.0|}|
||
|\xxmlsetsetup{|main|}{*}{tei:all}|
||
|\startxmlsetups tei:all|
| \type{NODE: \xmlname{|#1|} -- |TEXT|: \xmltext{|#1|}}|
|\stopxmlsetups|
||
|\xmlsetsetup{|main|}{/}{tei:start}|
||
|\startxmlsetups tei:start|
| \xmlflush{|main|}{/TEI/|text|/|body|}|
|\stopxmlsetups|
||
|\starttext|
|\xmlprocessfile{|main|}{poem|.xml|}{tei:start}|
|\stoptext|
• Expected result:
– the PDF should list TEI nodes (NODE: TEI, NODE: lg, NODE: l, etc.)
– confirms that namespace and setup dispatching work correctly
• Actual problem:
– ConTeXt aborts with the TeX error “You can't use the letter
U+0041 A in horizontal mode”
– this happens before any TEI node is processed
– the setup name appears internally as something like “\18>:tei:start”
– this suggests that the setup identifier is not read as a normal
control sequence at runtime
• Technical implication:
– the entry setup cannot be resolved normally by the XML processor
– the dispatch never reaches the TEI tree
– ConTeXt attempts to execute a malformed control sequence and aborts
Any insights into why the setup name is degraded at runtime, or
how to stabilise the entry point for XML processing in this
context, would be warmly welcome (as I've struggled hours on this
issue !).
Best regards,
JP
___________________________________________________________________________________
If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to
the Wiki!
maillist :[email protected]
/https://mailman.ntg.nl/mailman3/lists/ntg-context.ntg.nl
webpage :https://www.pragma-ade.nl /https://context.aanhet.net (mirror)
archive :https://github.com/contextgarden/context
wiki :https://wiki.contextgarden.net
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the
Wiki!
maillist : [email protected] /
https://mailman.ntg.nl/mailman3/lists/ntg-context.ntg.nl
webpage : https://www.pragma-ade.nl / https://context.aanhet.net (mirror)
archive : https://github.com/contextgarden/context
wiki : https://wiki.contextgarden.net
___________________________________________________________________________________
