Package biblatex error incompatible package ucs

Debian Bug report logs —
#623039
incompatible with utf8x inputenc

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Message #5 received at submit@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Package: biblatex
Version: 1.4a-1
Severity: grave
Tags: sid

Hello,
I'm working on my master thesis, and today it suddenly broke, i.e. it didn't
compile anymore.

After a bit of investigation, I found biblatex to be the culprit. It seems like
something very bad happens when

    usepackage[utf8x]{inputenc}

is in the document preamble.

Using another encoding (even utf8) makes it work again. However, I *really*
need utf8x (to type characters like Ā, ø, and so on), so that's not a solution
to me.

I'm attaching a minimum (un-)compilable example, just switch between utf8x and
utf8 to see the problem:

    ! Package biblatex Error: Incompatible package 'ucs'.

I've set the bug severity to RC, since this is a bad regression and shouldn't
go into testing without being fixed IMHO.


Thanks for all your hard work maintaining the TeX ecosystem in Debian!
David

-- 
 . ''`.   Debian developer | http://wiki.debian.org/DavidPaleino
 : :'  : Linuxer #334216 --|-- http://www.hanskalabs.net/
 `. `'`  GPG: 1392B174 ----|---- http://deb.li/dapal
   `-   2BAB C625 4E66 E7B8 450A C3E1 E6AA 9017 1392 B174

[test.tex (text/x-tex, attachment)]

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Message #10 received at 623039@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On Sat, 16 Apr 2011 23:02:16 +0200, David Paleino wrote:

> [..]
> 
> After a bit of investigation, I found biblatex to be the culprit. It seems
> like something very bad happens when
> 
>     usepackage[utf8x]{inputenc}
> 
> is in the document preamble.
> 
> Using another encoding (even utf8) makes it work again. However, I *really*
> need utf8x (to type characters like Ā, ø, and so on), so that's not a solution
> to me.

I solved using:

    usepackage{fontspec}

and XeLaTeX instead of PDFLaTeX (without fontspec, it compiled but the
extended UTF characters were missing from the output pdf).

This should at least be documented in NEWS.Debian, since it's a big change from
the version in testing.

(still, I think XeLaTex is not mature enough to force people into using it when
having to use biblatex + extended UTF fonts.)


Kindly,
David

-- 
 . ''`.   Debian developer | http://wiki.debian.org/DavidPaleino
 : :'  : Linuxer #334216 --|-- http://www.hanskalabs.net/
 `. `'`  GPG: 1392B174 ----|---- http://deb.li/dapal
   `-   2BAB C625 4E66 E7B8 450A C3E1 E6AA 9017 1392 B174

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Message #15 received at 623039@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

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Hi David,

On Sat, Apr 16, 2011 at 11:14:55PM +0200, David Paleino wrote:
> On Sat, 16 Apr 2011 23:02:16 +0200, David Paleino wrote:
> 
> > [..]
> > 
> > After a bit of investigation, I found biblatex to be the culprit. It seems
> > like something very bad happens when
> > 
> >     usepackage[utf8x]{inputenc}
> > 
> > is in the document preamble.
> > 
> > Using another encoding (even utf8) makes it work again. However, I *really*
> > need utf8x (to type characters like Ā, ø, and so on), so that's not a solution
> > to me.
> 
> I solved using:
> 
>     usepackage{fontspec}
> 
> and XeLaTeX instead of PDFLaTeX (without fontspec, it compiled but the
> extended UTF characters were missing from the output pdf).

I'm sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for your investigation! I'll
discuss this with upstream.

Hauke

-- 
 .''`.   Jan Hauke Rahm <jhr@debian.org>               www.jhr-online.de
: :'  :  Debian Developer                                 www.debian.org
`. `'`   Member of the Linux Foundation                    www.linux.com
  `-     Fellow of the Free Software Foundation Europe      www.fsfe.org

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Message #20 received at 623039@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

Hi,

The biblatex documentation is quite clear about the incompatibility:
| 1.5.4 Incompatible Packages
[…]
| ucs   The ucs package provides support for UTF-8 encoded input.
|       Either use inputenc's standard utf8 module or a Unicode enabled
|       engine such as XeTeX or LuaTeX instead.

Also, according to the upstream author, biblatex has never been
compatible with ucs. The error message was just added recently. See
<http://groups.google.com/group/comp.text.tex/browse_thread/thread/e0b0bec4e0dbf8b5#958af2af90a5f13c>

David Paleino wrote:
> This should at least be documented in NEWS.Debian, since it's a big
> change from the version in testing.

Agreed nevertheless.


Cheers.

-- 
Denis Laxalde

Message #25 received at 623039@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

On Di, 19 Apr 2011, Denis Laxalde wrote:
> > This should at least be documented in NEWS.Debian, since it's a big
> > change from the version in testing.
> 
> Agreed nevertheless.

I disagree.

Nobody can check all the new or old incompatibilities between TeX packages.
(Think about, when I update TL2009 to TL2011 there will be practically
a few tousand packages that have been changed? I will not check all
incompatibilities, neither now nor in future.)

If you are working on an important project, simply don't update the system,
or at least not the TeX system.

This kind of discussion is sooo common, and the outcome is always the same:
- don't change your TeX files during an important project, esp when the
  deadline is near
- regularly check your old files whether they still compile

If you don't want that, you have to make copies of all the files used in
your project and use local or project specific TEXMF trees.

Best wishes

Norbert
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Norbert Preining            preining@{jaist.ac.jp, logic.at, debian.org}
JAIST, Japan                                 TeX Live & Debian Developer
DSA: 0x09C5B094   fp: 14DF 2E6C 0307 BE6D AD76  A9C0 D2BF 4AA3 09C5 B094
------------------------------------------------------------------------
HUNSINGORE (n.)
Medieval ceremonial brass horn with which the successful execution of
an araglin (q.v.) is trumpeted from the castle battlements.
			--- Douglas Adams, The Meaning of Liff

Message #30 received at 623039@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

Norbert Preining a écrit :
> Nobody can check all the new or old incompatibilities between TeX
> packages. (Think about, when I update TL2009 to TL2011 there will be
> practically a few tousand packages that have been changed? I will not
> check all incompatibilities, neither now nor in future.)

That's understandable.

Anyway, this bug seems to block biblatex from migrating to testing.
Maybe its severity (grave) could be downgraded?

Cheers.

-- 
Denis Laxalde

Message #35 received at 623039@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On Tue, Apr 26, 2011 at 02:05:23PM -0400, Denis Laxalde wrote:
> Norbert Preining a écrit :
> > Nobody can check all the new or old incompatibilities between TeX
> > packages. (Think about, when I update TL2009 to TL2011 there will be
> > practically a few tousand packages that have been changed? I will not
> > check all incompatibilities, neither now nor in future.)
> 
> That's understandable.
> 
> Anyway, this bug seems to block biblatex from migrating to testing.
> Maybe its severity (grave) could be downgraded?

If it's okay for all people involved, I'll make another upload
containing something in README.Debian that points to this issue. With
that upload, I'm going to close this bug.

Hauke

-- 
 .''`.   Jan Hauke Rahm <jhr@debian.org>               www.jhr-online.de
: :'  :  Debian Developer                                 www.debian.org
`. `'`   Member of the Linux Foundation                    www.linux.com
  `-     Fellow of the Free Software Foundation Europe      www.fsfe.org

[signature.asc (application/pgp-signature, inline)]

Message #42 received at 623039@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

Jan Hauke Rahm a écrit :
> If it's okay for all people involved, I'll make another upload
> containing something in README.Debian that points to this issue. With
> that upload, I'm going to close this bug.

In case you're waiting for somebody to followup, I'm fine with any
solution that would allow biblatex to migrate in testing.

Cheers.

-- 
Denis Laxalde

Message #47 received at 623039-close@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

Source: biblatex
Source-Version: 1.4c-1

We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
biblatex, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive:

biblatex_1.4c-1.debian.tar.gz
  to main/b/biblatex/biblatex_1.4c-1.debian.tar.gz
biblatex_1.4c-1.dsc
  to main/b/biblatex/biblatex_1.4c-1.dsc
biblatex_1.4c-1_all.deb
  to main/b/biblatex/biblatex_1.4c-1_all.deb
biblatex_1.4c.orig.tar.gz
  to main/b/biblatex/biblatex_1.4c.orig.tar.gz



A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.

Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed.  If you
have further comments please address them to 623039@bugs.debian.org,
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.

Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Jan Hauke Rahm <jhr@debian.org> (supplier of updated biblatex package)

(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing ftpmaster@debian.org)


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA512

Format: 1.8
Date: Tue, 17 May 2011 20:01:10 +0200
Source: biblatex
Binary: biblatex
Architecture: source all
Version: 1.4c-1
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: low
Maintainer: Debian TeX Task Force <debian-tex-maint@lists.debian.org>
Changed-By: Jan Hauke Rahm <jhr@debian.org>
Description: 
 biblatex   - Bibliographies for LaTeX
Closes: 623039
Changes: 
 biblatex (1.4c-1) unstable; urgency=low
 .
   * New upstream release
   * Added debian/NEWS entry about incompatibility with ucs (Closes: #623039)
   * Bumped Standards-Version to 3.9.2
Checksums-Sha1: 
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 632d7e00e00b340b6c45a0f086142663754797aa 8371830 biblatex_1.4c-1_all.deb
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