prettyref bug when used with babel-french

Question

I'm writting in French so I use babel. I'd like to use prettyref to keep from writting "Section" and co.

The problem is that I can not use it with French babel. It throws me:

! Paragraph ended before \@prettyref was complete.
<to be read again> 
                   \par 
l.36 

? 

Here is an MWE:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{prettyref}

% Form package, just for info.
\makeatletter
\def\prettyref#1{\@prettyref#1:}
\def\@prettyref#1:#2:{%
    \expandafter\ifx\csname pr@#1\endcsname\relax%
    \PackageWarning{prettyref}{Reference format #1\space undefined}%
    \ref{#1:#2}%
    \else%
    \csname pr@#1\endcsname{#1:#2}%
    \fi%
}
\makeatother

\usepackage[french]{babel}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}

\begin{document}

\section{Introduction}\label{sec:intro}

See \prettyref{fig:defs}

\section{Definitions}\label{sec:defs}

See \prettyref{sec:conclusion}

\section{Conclusion}\label{sec:conclusion}

See \prettyref{sec:intro} and \prettyref{fig:defs}. With prettyref we simply write \verb|\prettyref{sec:intro}| to get \prettyref{sec:intro}.

\end{document}

Conclusion

Ok ! For all French peaple looking here, you can't define labels like fig:a. This causes problems as soon as an automatic reference package is used.

The reason is that the : "letter" becomes an active character in French babel, which leads all these problems :s

What I made is to use cleveref with labels like fig-a.

Thanks everyone !

Answer 1

You can make prettyref compatible with babel-french (but the fix will only work with it).

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[french]{babel}
\usepackage{prettyref}

% fix \prettyref to first detokenize its argument
% kudos to daleif for proposing the simplification
\makeatletter
\def\prettyref#1{\expandafter\@prettyref\detokenize{#1:}}
\makeatother


\begin{document}

\section{Introduction}\label{sec:intro}

See \prettyref{fig:defs}

\section{Definitions}\label{sec:defs}

See \prettyref{sec:conclusion}

\section{Conclusion}\label{sec:conclusion}

See \prettyref{sec:intro} and \prettyref{fig:defs}. With prettyref we 
simply write \verb|\prettyref{sec:intro}| to get \prettyref{sec:intro}.

\begin{figure}[htp]
\caption{caption}\label{fig:defs}
\end{figure}

\end{document}

On the other hand, a combination of varioref and cleveref would be more robust. However, cleveref doesn't like active colons, but doesn't rely on a precise label naming scheme, so you can use any other separator (avoid French special punctuation, though). The advantage over prettyref is that you can decide whether to use \ref (just the number), \cref (with the type) or \vref (with type and reference to the page).

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[french]{babel}
\usepackage{varioref,cleveref}

\crefname{figure}{figure}{Figure}

\begin{document}

\section{Introduction}\label{sec-intro}

See \vref{fig-defs}

\section{Definitions}\label{sec-defs}

See \cref{sec-conclusion}

\section{Conclusion}\label{sec-conclusion}

See \cref{sec-intro} and \cref{fig-defs}. With cleveref we 
simply write \verb|\vref{sec-intro}| to get \vref{sec-intro}.

\clearpage

\begin{figure}[htp]
\caption{caption}\label{fig-defs}
\end{figure}

\end{document}