Conflict between my modified .sty file and babel's ngerman? [closed]

Question

There is some conflict or error I don't understand. I can skip it and nothing visible happens. The output is okay and everything seems to be fine. Still I would like to get rid of the error message. If I run the following minimal example:

\documentclass[]{scrbook}

\usepackage[applemac, grafiken]{tahbiblatex}
\usepackage[ngerman]{babel}


\begin{document}

Testing äüöaüä.

\end{document}

I get the error message:

   ! Missing = inserted for \ifnum.
<to be read again> 
                   ,
l.4 \usepackage
               [ngerman]{babel}
? 
! Missing number, treated as zero.
<to be read again> 
                   ,
l.4 \usepackage
               [ngerman]{babel}

Here is my .sty file:

\NeedsTeXFormat{LaTeX2e}\relax
\ProvidesPackage{tahbiblatex}[2012, by tah modified by sm]

\RequirePackage{ifthen}

\DeclareOption{latin1}{\PassOptionsToPackage{\CurrentOption}{inputenc}}
\DeclareOption{applemac}{\PassOptionsToPackage{\CurrentOption}{inputenc}}
\DeclareOption{cp850}{\PassOptionsToPackage{\CurrentOption}{inputenc}}
\DeclareOption{utf8}{\PassOptionsToPackage{\CurrentOption}{inputenc}}

\DeclareOption{dvi}{%
\newif\ifpdf
\ifx\pdfoutput\undefined
    \pdffalse
\else
    \pdfoutput=0
    \pdftrue
\fi}

\newcounter{Grafiken}\setcounter{Grafiken}{0}
\DeclareOption{grafiken}{\setcounter{Grafiken}{1}}

\newcounter{Randausgleich}\setcounter{Randausgleich}{0}
\DeclareOption{randausgleich}{\setcounter{Randausgleich}{1}}

\newcounter{Tabellen}\setcounter{Tabellen}{0}
\DeclareOption{tabellen}{\setcounter{Tabellen}{1}}

\newcounter{Sync}\setcounter{Sync}{0}
\DeclareOption{sync}{\setcounter{Sync}{1}}

\ProcessOptions

\RequirePackage{fixltx2e}
\RequirePackage{inputenc}
\RequirePackage[T1]{fontenc}
\RequirePackage[T1]{url}
\RequirePackage{setspace}
%\RequirePackage[german]{varioref}
\RequirePackage{textcomp}

\newcommand{\urlangabe}[2]{%
$\langle$\url{#1}$\rangle$ -- Zugriff am #2}

\def\hierlockern {\begingroup \def\par{\endgraf\endgroup}%
  \tolerance 1414%
  \hbadness 1414%
  \emergencystretch 1.5em%
  \hfuzz 0.3pt%
  \vfuzz \hfuzz%
  \raggedbottom%
}

\newcommand{\alleslockern}{%
  \tolerance 1414%
  \hbadness 1414%
  \emergencystretch 1.5em%
  \hfuzz 0.3pt%
  \vfuzz \hfuzz%
  \raggedbottom%
}
\ifthenelse{\value{Grafiken}=1}
  {
  \ifx\pdfoutput\undefined \newcount\pdfoutput \fi
  \ifcase\pdfoutput
      \RequirePackage[dvips]{graphicx}
      \DeclareGraphicsExtensions{.eps}
      \typeout{Paket tah Meldung: Die Option `grafiken' fuer DVI wurde gewaehlt.}%
\else
    \RequirePackage[pdftex]{graphicx}
    \DeclareGraphicsExtensions{.jpg,.tif,.png,.pdf}
    \typeout{Paket tah Meldung: Die Option `grafiken' fuer PDF wurde gewaehlt.}%
  \fi}
  {}

\ifthenelse{\value{Sync}=1}
  {
    \ifx\pdfoutput\undefined \newcount\pdfoutput \fi
    \ifcase\pdfoutput
    \RequirePackage{srcltx}
    \typeout{Paket tah Meldung: Die Option `sync' fuer DVI wurde gewaehlt.}%
    \else
    \RequirePackage{pdfsync}
    \typeout{Paket tah Meldung: Die Option `sync' fuer PDF wurde gewaehlt.}%
    \fi
}
  {}


\ifthenelse{\value{Randausgleich}=1}
  {\typeout{Paket tah Meldung: Die Option `randausgleich' wurde gewaehlt.}%
  \RequirePackage[activate]{pdfcprot}}
  {}

\ifthenelse{\value{Tabellen}=1}
  {\typeout{Paket tah Meldung: Die Option `tabellen' wurde gewaehlt.}%
  \RequirePackage{tabularx}
  \RequirePackage{ragged2e}
  \RequirePackage{dcolumn}
  \RequirePackage{booktabs}
  \newcolumntype{L}{>{\RaggedRight\hspace{0pt}\arraybackslash}l}
  \newcolumntype{Y}{>{\RaggedRight\hspace{0pt}\arraybackslash}X}
  \newcolumntype{d}[1]{>{\DC@{.}{,}{#1}}l<{\DC@end}}
  }
  {}



\endinput

I also don't really need all the features. So it would be nice to reduce it to minimal features, which are needed..

Answer 1

The optional argument to \ProvidesPackage must be of the form

[yyyy/mm/dd Additional info]

for instance

\ProvidesPackage{tahbiblatex}[2012/04/10, by tah modified by sm and egreg]

In particular, one digit numbers of days or months must be prefixed by 0 and the year must be in four digit form. So January 2nd, 2013 has to be expressed as

2013/01/02

---

Turning to the package's contents, all which regards \pdfoutput is wrong: require the package ifpdf and use the \ifpdf conditional it provides. Here's an amended version; notice that allocating a counter for each option is wasting resources:

\NeedsTeXFormat{LaTeX2e}
\ProvidesPackage{tahbiblatex}[2012/04/10, by tah modified by sm]

\RequirePackage{ifpdf}

\DeclareOption{latin1}{\PassOptionsToPackage{\CurrentOption}{inputenc}}
\DeclareOption{applemac}{\PassOptionsToPackage{\CurrentOption}{inputenc}}
\DeclareOption{cp850}{\PassOptionsToPackage{\CurrentOption}{inputenc}}
\DeclareOption{utf8}{\PassOptionsToPackage{\CurrentOption}{inputenc}}

\DeclareOption{dvi}{\pdfoutput=\z@\pdffalse}
\DeclareOption{grafiken}{\let\tah@grafiken=T}
\DeclareOption{randausgleich}{\let\tah@randausgleich=T}
\DeclareOption{tabellen}{\let\tah@tabellen=T}
\DeclareOption{sync}{\let\tah@sync=T}

\ProcessOptions\relax

\RequirePackage{fixltx2e}
\RequirePackage{inputenc}
\RequirePackage[T1]{fontenc}
\RequirePackage[T1]{url}
\RequirePackage{setspace}
\RequirePackage{textcomp}

\newcommand{\urlangabe}[2]{%
  $\langle$\url{#1}$\rangle$ -- Zugriff am #2}

\def\hierlockern {\begingroup \def\par{\endgraf\endgroup}%
  \tolerance 1414
  \hbadness 1414
  \emergencystretch 1.5em
  \hfuzz 0.3pt
  \vfuzz \hfuzz
  \raggedbottom
}

\newcommand{\alleslockern}{%
  \tolerance 1414
  \hbadness 1414
  \emergencystretch 1.5em
  \hfuzz 0.3pt
  \vfuzz \hfuzz
  \raggedbottom
}

\ifdefined\tah@grafiken
  \typeout{Paket tah Meldung: Die Option `grafiken' fuer 
    \ifpdf PDF\else DVI\fi\space wurde gewaehlt.}
\fi

\ifdefined\tah@sync
  \ifpdf
    \RequirePackage{pdfsync}
    \typeout{Paket tah Meldung: Die Option `sync' fuer PDF wurde gewaehlt.}
  \else
    \RequirePackage{srcltx}
    \typeout{Paket tah Meldung: Die Option `sync' fuer DVI wurde gewaehlt.}%
  \fi
\fi

\ifdefined\tah@randausgleich
  \typeout{Paket tah Meldung: Die Option `randausgleich' wurde gewaehlt.}
  \RequirePackage{microtype}
\fi

\ifdefined\tah@tabellen
  \typeout{Paket tah Meldung: Die Option `tabellen' wurde gewaehlt.}
  \RequirePackage{tabularx}
  \RequirePackage{ragged2e}
  \RequirePackage{dcolumn}
  \RequirePackage{booktabs}
  \newcolumntype{L}{>{\RaggedRight\hspace{0pt}\arraybackslash}l}
  \newcolumntype{Y}{>{\RaggedRight\hspace{0pt}\arraybackslash}X}
  \newcolumntype{d}[1]{>{\DC@{.}{,}{#1}}l<{\DC@end}}
\fi

\endinput

I don't recommend loading the pdfsync package: the SyncTeX technology is way better, nowadays. Instead of pdfcprot the more powerful microtype package is preferable.