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There is a commit on pgf that removes useless % at the end of lines. This commit appears to have broken pgf-plots. Why is this? User hmenke states that
the fact that it worked previously is a bug.
and provides a fix, but I don't understand what's going on.
% is the marker for comments, so how could an extra % at the end of a line change the behavior of a program? Why did theis extra % cause pgf-plots to work?
Old version before the fixes you mention.
\def\tikz@expand{%
\advance\tikz@expandcount by -1%
\ifnum\tikz@expandcount<0\relax%
\tikzerror{Giving up on this path. Did you forget a semicolon?}%
\let\pgfutil@next=\tikz@finish%
\else%
\let\pgfutil@next=\tikz@@expand
\fi%
\pgfutil@next}%
What's the problem? When \tikz@expand is expanded, TeX finds (line breaks just not to produce a too long line)
\advance\tikz@expandcount by -1\ifnum\tikz@expandcount<0\relax
\tikzerror{Giving up on this path. Did you forget a semicolon?}
\let\pgfutil@next=\tikz@finish\else\let\pgfutil@next=\tikz@@expand\fi
\pgfutil@next
and its processing rules require that \ifnum is expanded because there might be another digit coming along. What happens? Suppose the current value of \tikx@expandcount is 2. Then the \ifnum test returns false and TeX sees
\advance\tikz@expandcount by -1\else\let\pgfutil@next=\tikz@@expand\fi
\pgfutil@next
Note that the \advance instruction is still pending. Now `\else is expanded and TeX sees
\advance\tikz@expandcount by -1\let\pgfutil@next=\tikz@@expand\fi
\pgfutil@next
No digit comes along and the \advance instruction is finalized. Then TeX proceeds with
\let\pgfutil@next=\tikz@@expand\fi\pgfutil@next
Suppose, on the contrary, that the value of \tikz@expand is 0. The \ifnum test will return false, because the \advance instruction hasn't been finalized yet. The wrong path would be followed! Indeed \pgfutil@next would become \tikz@@expand instead of the wanted \tikz@finish after the error message.
How to correctly write that code?
\def\tikz@expand{%
\advance\tikz@expandcount by -1
\ifnum\tikz@expandcount<0
\tikzerror{Giving up on this path. Did you forget a semicolon?}%
\let\pgfutil@next=\tikz@finish
\else
\let\pgfutil@next=\tikz@@expand
\fi
\pgfutil@next
}
Note that I removed the useless \relax, which can be simply replaced with a space (the endline). The rule when TeX is looking for a number is that the search for digits proceeds with macro expansion and ends when something unexpandable that's not a digit is found. A space is not a digit and TeX will gobble it (it won't gobble any other token in the same situation).
Using % characters in other places (where I removed them) denotes poor command of TeX's syntax rules.
The end of the line is in this context space for TeX. When there is space after a number, TeX knows that it is a point to stop reading the number parameter (well, \relax is a stronger option). In the other case, TeX may assume that also the next command is, e.g., a part of the argument.
