1

Using \ExplSyntaxOn breaks \xpatchbibmacro. Can this be fixed, or will I just need to use xpatch commands elsewhere?

MWE:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{expl3}
\usepackage{xpatch}
\usepackage[style=authoryear]{biblatex}


\begin{filecontents}[overwrite]{\jobname.bib}
@book{1person,
  author    = {John Smith},
  title     = {Some Random Thing},
  date      = {1970}
}
@book{2people,
  author    = {John Smith and Bob Smith},
  title     = {Some Other Thing},
  date      = {1971}
}
\end{filecontents}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}
\nocite{*}


\DeclareNameAlias{sortname}{given-family}
\ExplSyntaxOn % Removing this fixes it...
\xpatchbibmacro{date+extradate}% Remove date's parentheses, add period before (/a/428193)
    {\printtext[parens]}{\setunit*{\addperiod\addspace}\printtext}{}{}
\ExplSyntaxOff


\begin{document}
\printbibliography
\end{document}
TakingItCasual
  • 335
  • What's the reason for \ExplSyntaxOn? – egreg Aug 13 '20 at 11:45
  • In my document I'm using it for l3keys, and there's a lot of conditional groups. \ExplSyntaxOn can't be put into groups, which forces me to split and double my conditionals. – TakingItCasual Aug 13 '20 at 11:47
  • That's expected. Patching relies on everything having the “right” catcodes, and enabling expl3 syntax changes quite a few of them, so patching breaks. For example, if a command contains a ~ and then you patch it, it becomes a space in expl3 syntax. – Phelype Oleinik Aug 13 '20 at 11:49
  • @TakingItCasual An example of what you need would be useful (in a new question). – egreg Aug 13 '20 at 12:51

1 Answers1

3

\ExplSyntaxOn changes the category code of several characters (space, :, _, ~) and the patching routine may fail if the category codes are different from those at definition time.

Don't use \xpatch... under the scope of \ExplSyntaxOn.

egreg
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