pdf option for pstricks conflicts with babel french option

Question

Today I had this error message on compiling a document:

! Package babel Error: The character '"' is not a shorthand character in french

After commenting a lot of things I finally identified the culprit: Using the pdf option with pstricks. Here is a minimal example:

\documentclass[11pt, a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{lmodern}

% \usepackage{auto-pst-pdf, pstricks}
\usepackage[pdf]{pstricks}
\usepackage{pstricks-add}

\usepackage[french]{babel}

\begin{document}

\psset{xunit = 0.5cm, plotstyle = curve}
\begin{pspicture}(-10,-1)(10,2)
\psaxes[labels=none]{->}(0,0)(-10,-1)(10,2)%
\psplot[linecolor=blue,linewidth=1.5pt, algebraic]{-10}{10}{1/(1 + x^2)}%
\end{pspicture}

\end{document}

Replacing [french] with, say, german results in no error message.

Same thing if I comment usepackage[pdf]{pstricks} and uncomment \usepackage{autopst-pdf,pstricks}.

Is there something to be done?

Another question about the pdf option of pstricks: Packages like pst-plot or pstricks-add load pstricks; why don't they pass the pdf option on to pstricks? For most of my work, I only have to load pstricks-add. If I want to use this option I also have to explicitly write \usepackage[pdf]{pstricks} first.

Answer 1

there are some problems if pstricks is loaded before auto-pst-pdf. Use

\documentclass[11pt, a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{lmodern}
\usepackage[french]{babel}

\usepackage{auto-pst-pdf,pstricks-add}

\begin{document}
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