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I'm trying to compile the following LaTeX code:

% !TEX encoding = UTF-8 Unicode

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper]{memoir}

\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[english, brazil]{babel}
\usepackage{amsfonts} % for mathbb
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage[backend=bibtex,style=authoryear,sorting=nyt]{biblatex}

\addbibresource{Neural_Assemblies_Report.bib}

\begin{document}

\frontmatter
\tableofcontents*

\mainmatter
\chapter{Test}
Test. \cite{Maass}.

\backmatter
\printbibliography
\end{document}

I get the following error:

(...lots of log stuff...)
("C:\Program Files\MikTeX\tex\latex\biblatex\biblatex.cfg")))
("C:\Program Files\MikTeX\tex\latex\biblatex\lbx\brazil.lbx"
("C:\Program Files\MikTeX\tex\latex\biblatex\lbx\brazilian.lbx"
Runaway argument?
{bibliography = {{Bibliografia}{Bibliografia}}, references = {{Refer\^\ETC.
! Paragraph ended before \DeclareBibliographyStrings was complete.
<to be read again> 
                   \par 
l.454 

?

To me, it looks like biblatex is choking on the brazilian portuguese stuff, but all docs say it's fully compatible.

Which config should I change to make biblatex work with brazilian portuguese?

My environment is MiKTeX with TeXworks, my bibtex file is:

@article{Maass,
    author = "Wolfgang Maass",
        title = "Networks of Spiking Neurons: The Third Generation of Neural Network Models",
    journal = "Neural Networks",
    language = "english",
    year = 1997,
    volume = 10,
    number = 9,
    pages = "1659--1671"
}

EDIT: Tried with all available backends for biblatex. Same error. MiKTeX version is 2.9.4196.

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closed as off-topic by egreg, clemens, Jesse, Andrew Swann, lockstep Jun 22 '14 at 10:22

  • This question does not fall within the scope of TeX, LaTeX or related typesetting systems as defined in the help center.
If this question can be reworded to fit the rules in the help center, please edit the question.

  • Did you try removing backend=bibtex and running Biber, instead of BibTeX? In any case, the .bib extension should be added to the argument of \addbibresource. – egreg Jun 21 '14 at 21:35
  • 1
    Surely not MiKTeX, because none of the machines I use can run it. With TeX Live 2012, 2013 and 2014 it works flawlessly. – egreg Jun 21 '14 at 21:47
  • 1
    I guess that it is something related with the accented word Referências. – Sigur Jun 21 '14 at 23:05
  • 2
    You get this type of error if somewhere in den \DeclareBibliographyStrings-command of brazilian.lbx there is an empty line or a braces missing. I don't have any problems in a current miktex so check for updates (as admin + users) and reinstall biblatex if necessary. If the problem persist make the lbx and the log-file (not the terminal output!) available somewhere. – Ulrike Fischer Jun 22 '14 at 9:19
  • 4
    This question appears to be off-topic because it is about a problem caused by a corrupted TeX distribution, solved by reinstalling – egreg Jun 22 '14 at 9:48
1

After tinkering with package internals trying to find a missing brace (like on Ulrike Fischer's comment and some Google search results), and noticing something else was corrupted, I went for a full re-install of MiKTeX. After that, the MWE seemed to compile.

Actually, it was failing silently (a pdf was generated, but without bibliography, and the log didn't show any error). Then I noticed the biber executable was missing (it is a 64-bit MiKTeX installation, it doesn't include biber by default), and after some tinkering and creative bat file construction, installed biber and a bat file that does the job a makefile would do on Linux (I'm also using subfiles in other folders, and need some make-like functionalities).

Link to relevant stuff:

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  • 1
    You will be happy to know that MikTeX now also ships a version of Biber for 64-bit MikTeX. – moewe Sep 20 '15 at 6:46

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