I continue to get error ob-ref: unescaped character literals

I continue to get error ob-ref: unescaped character literals

[Christopher Dimech]

I am continually getting the following error.  What is it?

Loading ‘ob-ref’: unescaped character literals `?(', `?)' detected, `?\(', `?\)' expected!

Re: I continue to get error ob-ref: unescaped character literals

[Stephen Berman]

On Mon, 23 Nov 2020 04:37:07 +0100 Christopher Dimech <dimech@gmx.com> wrote:

> I am continually getting the following error.  What is it?
>
> Loading ‘ob-ref’: unescaped character literals `?(', `?)' detected, `?\(',
> `?\)' expected!

It's a warning from the byte compiler that it found `?(' and `?)' in
elisp code, which should be written as `?\(' and `?\)'.  See (info
"(elisp) Basic Char Syntax"):

  The usual read syntax for alphanumeric characters is a question mark
  followed by the character; thus, ‘?A’ for the character ‘A’, ‘?B’ for
  the character ‘B’, and ‘?a’ for the character ‘a’.
  [...]
     You can use the same syntax for punctuation characters.  However, if
  the punctuation character has a special syntactic meaning in Lisp, you
  must quote it with a ‘\’.  For example, ‘?\(’ is the way to write the
  open-paren character. [...]

Steve Berman

Re: I continue to get error ob-ref: unescaped character literals

[Michael Heerdegen]

Stephen Berman <stephen.berman@gmx.net> writes:

> It's a warning from the byte compiler that it found `?(' and `?)' in
> elisp code, which should be written as `?\(' and `?\)'.  See (info
> "(elisp) Basic Char Syntax"):

I'm not sure if it is from compiling.  Can this warning also be raised
by the reader?

Michael.

Re: I continue to get error ob-ref: unescaped character literals

[Christopher Dimech]

The problem only crops up when I call (require 'org)


> Sent: Monday, November 23, 2020 at 1:23 PM
> From: "Michael Heerdegen" <michael_heerdegen@web.de>
> To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
> Subject: Re: I continue to get error ob-ref: unescaped character literals
>
> Stephen Berman <stephen.berman@gmx.net> writes:
>
> > It's a warning from the byte compiler that it found `?(' and `?)' in
> > elisp code, which should be written as `?\(' and `?\)'.  See (info
> > "(elisp) Basic Char Syntax"):
>
> I'm not sure if it is from compiling.  Can this warning also be raised
> by the reader?
>
> Michael.
>
>
>

Re: I continue to get error ob-ref: unescaped character literals

[Michael Heerdegen]

Christopher Dimech <dimech@gmx.com> writes:

> The problem only crops up when I call (require 'org)

If this doesn't happen with emacs -Q it is possible that the problem is
in your config.  Some `with-eval-after-load' or `add-hook' call maybe?


Regards,

Michael.

Re: I continue to get error ob-ref: unescaped character literals

[Christopher Dimech]

> Sent: Monday, November 23, 2020 at 1:42 PM
> From: "Michael Heerdegen" <michael_heerdegen@web.de>
> To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
> Subject: Re: I continue to get error ob-ref: unescaped character literals
>
> Christopher Dimech <dimech@gmx.com> writes:
>
> > The problem only crops up when I call (require 'org)
>
> If this doesn't happen with emacs -Q it is possible that the problem is
> in your config.  Some `with-eval-after-load' or `add-hook' call maybe?


No, it does nat happen with emacs -Q

Must be something with my config file, but what!  Seems to me that I cannot put
(require 'org) just anywhere.

Currently I have a file org.el

And even when I commentall the commands in the file, the message still appears

----- org.el -----
(require 'org)
;;-----------------------------------------------------------------------
;; Orgbabel - For executing programming language source code
(setq orgbabel
   "~/GAdmSw/orgbabel.el")
;;(load orgbabel)

;;-----------------------------------------------------------------------
;; Orghist - For logging history about jobs
(setq orghist
   "~/GAdmSw/orghist.el")
;;(load orghist)

;;-----------------------------------------------------------------------
;; Orghutf - Uses Utf-8 Geometric Pictograms for headings
(setq gungadin-orghutf
   "~/GAdmSw/orghutf.el")
(load orghutf)

(require 'orghutf)
(add-hook 'org-mode-hook
   (lambda ()
      (orghutf-mode 1) ))
----- org.el -----





> Regards,
>
> Michael.
>
>
>

Re: I continue to get error ob-ref: unescaped character literals

[Michael Heerdegen]

Christopher Dimech <dimech@gmx.com> writes:

> No, it does nat happen with emacs -Q
>
> Must be something with my config file, but what!  Seems to me that I
> cannot put (require 'org) just anywhere.

Do you get an error?  Then please set `debug-on-error' to t and look at
(or post) the contents of the popped up debugger buffer.

Michael.

Re: I continue to get error ob-ref: unescaped character literals

[Christopher Dimech]

I am getting the following in messages.

Loading ‘ob-ref’: unescaped character literals `?(', `?)' detected, `?\(', `?\)' expected!


> Sent: Monday, November 23, 2020 at 2:26 PM
> From: "Michael Heerdegen" <michael_heerdegen@web.de>
> To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
> Subject: Re: I continue to get error ob-ref: unescaped character literals
>
> Christopher Dimech <dimech@gmx.com> writes:
> 
> > No, it does nat happen with emacs -Q
> >
> > Must be something with my config file, but what!  Seems to me that I
> > cannot put (require 'org) just anywhere.
> 
> Do you get an error?  Then please set `debug-on-error' to t and look at
> (or post) the contents of the popped up debugger buffer.
> 
> Michael.
> 
> 
>

Re: I continue to get error ob-ref: unescaped character literals

[Michael Heerdegen]

Christopher Dimech <dimech@gmx.com> writes:

> I am getting the following in messages.
>
> Loading ‘ob-ref’: unescaped character literals `?(', `?)' detected,
> `?\(', `?\)' expected!

And did you succeed in getting a debugger?

Michael.

Re: I continue to get error ob-ref: unescaped character literals

[Christopher Dimech]

Have put in my init file

(setq debug-on-error t)

and then fired 

emacs --debug-init

In messages I get 

Loading /home/hagbard/GAdmSw/GungaDin--1.0/el/gungadin-texi.el (source)...done
Loading /home/hagbard/GAdmSw/GungaDin--1.0/el/gungadin-info.el (source)...done
Loading /home/hagbard/GAdmSw/GungaDin--1.0/el/gungadin-octave.el (source)...done
Loading /home/hagbard/GAdmSw/GungaDin--1.0/el/gungadin-org.el (source)...
Loading ‘ob-ref’: unescaped character literals `?(', `?)' detected, `?\(', `?\)' expected!
Loading /home/hagbard/GAdmSw/GungaDin--1.0/el/gungadin-org.el (source)...done
Loading /home/hagbard/GAdmSw/GungaDin--1.0/el/gungadin.el (source)...done
For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a.
Package cl is deprecated

That's all I get

> Sent: Monday, November 23, 2020 at 2:54 PM
> From: "Michael Heerdegen" <michael_heerdegen@web.de>
> To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
> Subject: Re: I continue to get error ob-ref: unescaped character literals
>
> Christopher Dimech <dimech@gmx.com> writes:
> 
> > I am getting the following in messages.
> >
> > Loading ‘ob-ref’: unescaped character literals `?(', `?)' detected,
> > `?\(', `?\)' expected!
> 
> And did you succeed in getting a debugger?
> 
> Michael.
> 
> 
>

Re: I continue to get error ob-ref: unescaped character literals

[Michael Heerdegen]

Christopher Dimech <dimech@gmx.com> writes:

> That's all I get

Ok, then you don't get an error and thus don't get a debugger.

You can still try to force a debugger: set (probably in a separate Emacs
session) `debug-on-message' to a regexp matching such a message, e.g.

  (setq debug-on-message "unescaped character literals")

then you should get a debugger at the point of time when the according
message is messaged.

Michael.

Re: I continue to get error ob-ref: unescaped character literals

[Christopher Dimech]

I am getting the debugger now, thanks

Here is what I get


Debugger entered--Lisp error: "Loading ‘ob-ref’: unescaped character literals `?(..."
  require(ob-ref)
  eval-buffer(#<buffer  *load*-6358> nil "/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/org-mode/ob.el" nil t)  ; Reading at buffer position 1100
  load-with-code-conversion("/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/org-mode/ob.el" "/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/org-mode/ob.el" nil t)
  require(ob)
  eval-buffer(#<buffer  *load*-504715> nil "/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/org-mode/ob-emacs-lisp...." nil t)  ; Reading at buffer position 1014
  load-with-code-conversion("/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/org-mode/ob-emacs-lisp...." "/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/org-mode/ob-emacs-lisp...." nil t)
  require(ob-emacs-lisp)
  (progn (require (intern (concat "ob-" lang))))
  (if active (progn (require (intern (concat "ob-" lang)))) (progn (funcall 'fmakunbound (intern (concat "org-babel-execute:" lang))) (funcall 'fmakunbound (intern (concat "org-babel-expand-body:" lang)))))
  (let ((active (cdr pair)) (lang (symbol-name (car pair)))) (if active (progn (require (intern (concat "ob-" lang)))) (progn (funcall 'fmakunbound (intern (concat "org-babel-execute:" lang))) (funcall 'fmakunbound (intern (concat "org-babel-expand-body:" lang))))))
  (lambda (pair) (let ((active (cdr pair)) (lang (symbol-name (car pair)))) (if active (progn (require (intern (concat "ob-" lang)))) (progn (funcall 'fmakunbound (intern (concat "org-babel-execute:" lang))) (funcall 'fmakunbound (intern (concat "org-babel-expand-body:" lang)))))))((emacs-lisp . t))
  mapc((lambda (pair) (let ((active (cdr pair)) (lang (symbol-name (car pair)))) (if active (progn (require (intern (concat "ob-" lang)))) (progn (funcall 'fmakunbound (intern (concat "org-babel-execute:" lang))) (funcall 'fmakunbound (intern (concat "org-babel-expand-body:" lang))))))) ((emacs-lisp . t)))
  org-babel-do-load-languages(org-babel-load-languages ((emacs-lisp . t)))
  custom-initialize-reset(org-babel-load-languages '((emacs-lisp . t)))
  custom-declare-variable(org-babel-load-languages '((emacs-lisp . t)) "Languages which can be evaluated in Org-mode buffe..." :group org-babel :set org-babel-do-load-languages :version "24.1" :type (alist :tag "Babel Languages" :key-type (choice (const :tag "Awk" awk) (const :tag "C" C) (const :tag "R" R) (const :tag "Asymptote" asymptote) (const :tag "Calc" calc) (const :tag "Clojure" clojure) (const :tag "CSS" css) (const :tag "Ditaa" ditaa) (const :tag "Dot" dot) (const :tag "Emacs Lisp" emacs-lisp) (const :tag "Forth" forth) (const :tag "Fortran" fortran) (const :tag "Gnuplot" gnuplot) (const :tag "Haskell" haskell) (const :tag "IO" io) (const :tag "J" J) (const :tag "Java" java) (const :tag "Javascript" js) (const :tag "LaTeX" latex) (const :tag "Ledger" ledger) (const :tag "Lilypond" lilypond) (const :tag "Lisp" lisp) (const :tag "Makefile" makefile) (const :tag "Maxima" maxima) (const :tag "Matlab" matlab) (const :tag "Mscgen" mscgen) (const :tag "Ocaml" ocaml) (const :tag "Octave" octave) (const :tag "Org" org) (const :tag "Perl" perl) (const :tag "Pico Lisp" picolisp) (const :tag "PlantUML" plantuml) (const :tag "Python" python) (const :tag "Ruby" ruby) (const :tag "Sass" sass) (const :tag "Scala" scala) (const :tag "Scheme" scheme) (const :tag "Screen" screen) (const :tag "Shell Script" shell) (const :tag "Shen" shen) (const :tag "Sql" sql) (const :tag "Sqlite" sqlite) (const :tag "ebnf2ps" ebnf2ps)) :value-type (boolean :tag "Activate" :value t)))
  eval-buffer(#<buffer  *load*-718237> nil "/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/org-mode/org.el" nil t)  ; Reading at buffer position 13420
  load-with-code-conversion("/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/org-mode/org.el" "/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/org-mode/org.el" nil t)
  require(org)
  eval-buffer(#<buffer  *load*-239083> nil "/home/hagbard/GAdmSw/el/gungadin-org..." nil t)  ; Reading at buffer position 2050
  load-with-code-conversion("/home/hagbard/GAdmSw/el/gungadin-org..." "/home/hagbard/GAdmSw/GungaDin--1.0/el/gungadin-org..." nil nil)
  load("/home/hagbard/GAdmSw/el/gungadin-org.el")
  eval-buffer(#<buffer  *load*-432584> nil "/home/hagbard/GAdmSw/el/gungadin.el" nil t)  ; Reading at buffer position 6643
  load-with-code-conversion("/home/hagbard/GAdmSw/el/gungadin.el" "/home/hagbard/GAdmSw/GungaDin--1.0/el/gungadin.el" nil nil)
  load("~/GAdmSw/GungaDin--1.0/el/gungadin.el")
  eval-buffer(#<buffer  *load*> nil "/home/hagbard/.emacs" nil t)  ; Reading at buffer position 579
  load-with-code-conversion("/home/hagbard/.emacs" "/home/hagbard/.emacs" t t)
  load("~/.emacs" noerror nomessage)
  startup--load-user-init-file(#f(compiled-function () #<bytecode 0x5ce555>) #f(compiled-function () #<bytecode 0x5ce569>) t)
  command-line()
  normal-top-level()


> Sent: Monday, November 23, 2020 at 3:34 PM
> From: "Michael Heerdegen" <michael_heerdegen@web.de>
> To: "Christopher Dimech" <dimech@gmx.com>
> Cc: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
> Subject: Re: I continue to get error ob-ref: unescaped character literals
>
> Christopher Dimech <dimech@gmx.com> writes:
> 
> > That's all I get
> 
> Ok, then you don't get an error and thus don't get a debugger.
> 
> You can still try to force a debugger: set (probably in a separate Emacs
> session) `debug-on-message' to a regexp matching such a message, e.g.
> 
>   (setq debug-on-message "unescaped character literals")
> 
> then you should get a debugger at the point of time when the according
> message is messaged.
> 
> Michael.
>

Re: I continue to get error ob-ref: unescaped character literals

[Nick Dokos]

Christopher Dimech <dimech@gmx.com> writes:


> Currently I have a file org.el
>
> And even when I commentall the commands in the file, the message still appears
>
> ----- org.el -----
> (require 'org)

Are you sure your org.el does not shadow the "real" org.el?

-- 
Nick

"There are only two hard problems in computer science: cache
invalidation, naming things, and off-by-one errors." -Martin Fowler

Re: I continue to get error ob-ref: unescaped character literals

[Stephen Berman]

On Mon, 23 Nov 2020 13:23:30 +0100 Michael Heerdegen <michael_heerdegen@web.de> wrote:

> Stephen Berman <stephen.berman@gmx.net> writes:
>
>> It's a warning from the byte compiler that it found `?(' and `?)' in
>> elisp code, which should be written as `?\(' and `?\)'.  See (info
>> "(elisp) Basic Char Syntax"):
>
> I'm not sure if it is from compiling.  Can this warning also be raised
> by the reader?

You're right, it's also raised on loading uncompiled elisp.  Thanks for
the correction.

Steve Berman

Re: I continue to get error ob-ref: unescaped character literals

[Christopher Dimech]

> Sent: Monday, November 23, 2020 at 8:16 PM
> From: "Stephen Berman" <stephen.berman@gmx.net>
> To: "Michael Heerdegen" <michael_heerdegen@web.de>
> Cc: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
> Subject: Re: I continue to get error ob-ref: unescaped character literals
>
> On Mon, 23 Nov 2020 13:23:30 +0100 Michael Heerdegen <michael_heerdegen@web.de> wrote:
>
> > Stephen Berman <stephen.berman@gmx.net> writes:
> >
> >> It's a warning from the byte compiler that it found `?(' and `?)' in
> >> elisp code, which should be written as `?\(' and `?\)'.  See (info
> >> "(elisp) Basic Char Syntax"):
> >
> > I'm not sure if it is from compiling.  Can this warning also be raised
> > by the reader?
>
> You're right, it's also raised on loading uncompiled elisp.  Thanks for
> the correction.

What's one to do about it?

> Steve Berman
>
>

Re: I continue to get error ob-ref: unescaped character literals

[Stephen Berman]

On Mon, 23 Nov 2020 20:28:33 +0100 Christopher Dimech <dimech@gmx.com> wrote:

>> Sent: Monday, November 23, 2020 at 8:16 PM
>> From: "Stephen Berman" <stephen.berman@gmx.net>
>> To: "Michael Heerdegen" <michael_heerdegen@web.de>
>> Cc: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
>> Subject: Re: I continue to get error ob-ref: unescaped character literals
>>
>> On Mon, 23 Nov 2020 13:23:30 +0100 Michael Heerdegen
>> <michael_heerdegen@web.de> wrote:
>>
>> > Stephen Berman <stephen.berman@gmx.net> writes:
>> >
>> >> It's a warning from the byte compiler that it found `?(' and `?)' in
>> >> elisp code, which should be written as `?\(' and `?\)'.  See (info
>> >> "(elisp) Basic Char Syntax"):
>> >
>> > I'm not sure if it is from compiling.  Can this warning also be raised
>> > by the reader?
>>
>> You're right, it's also raised on loading uncompiled elisp.  Thanks for
>> the correction.
>
> What's one to do about it?

The backtrace you posted had this:

Debugger entered--Lisp error: "Loading ‘ob-ref’: unescaped character literals `?(..."
  require(ob-ref)
  eval-buffer(#<buffer *load*-6358> nil
"/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/org-mode/ob.el" nil t) ; Reading at buffer

So it looks like there are unescaped character literals in the version
of ob-ref.el you have in site-lisp.  Maybe it's an old version.  So you
should check if that's the case, and if so, escape them with a
backslash.

Steve Berman

Re: I continue to get error ob-ref: unescaped character literals

[Christopher Dimech]

I fixed it now.  Was related to org-babel. 

Am now trying to install the latest version of Org as a package by invoking 
M-x package-install RET org RET after having configured Emacs to include 
Org ELPA as a package repository. 

Have done like below, however I am not finding org when I try to 
enter the command "M-x package-install RET org RET".

(require 'package)
(add-to-list 'package-archives '("org" . "https://orgmode.org/elpa/"))

(add-to-list 'package-archives
             '("melpa-stable" . "https://melpa.org/packages/"))


> Sent: Monday, November 23, 2020 at 8:54 PM
> From: "Stephen Berman" <stephen.berman@gmx.net>
> To: "Christopher Dimech" <dimech@gmx.com>
> Cc: "Michael Heerdegen" <michael_heerdegen@web.de>, help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
> Subject: Re: I continue to get error ob-ref: unescaped character literals
>
> On Mon, 23 Nov 2020 20:28:33 +0100 Christopher Dimech <dimech@gmx.com> wrote:
> 
> >> Sent: Monday, November 23, 2020 at 8:16 PM
> >> From: "Stephen Berman" <stephen.berman@gmx.net>
> >> To: "Michael Heerdegen" <michael_heerdegen@web.de>
> >> Cc: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
> >> Subject: Re: I continue to get error ob-ref: unescaped character literals
> >>
> >> On Mon, 23 Nov 2020 13:23:30 +0100 Michael Heerdegen
> >> <michael_heerdegen@web.de> wrote:
> >>
> >> > Stephen Berman <stephen.berman@gmx.net> writes:
> >> >
> >> >> It's a warning from the byte compiler that it found `?(' and `?)' in
> >> >> elisp code, which should be written as `?\(' and `?\)'.  See (info
> >> >> "(elisp) Basic Char Syntax"):
> >> >
> >> > I'm not sure if it is from compiling.  Can this warning also be raised
> >> > by the reader?
> >>
> >> You're right, it's also raised on loading uncompiled elisp.  Thanks for
> >> the correction.
> >
> > What's one to do about it?
> 
> The backtrace you posted had this:
> 
> Debugger entered--Lisp error: "Loading ‘ob-ref’: unescaped character literals `?(..."
>   require(ob-ref)
>   eval-buffer(#<buffer *load*-6358> nil
> "/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/org-mode/ob.el" nil t) ; Reading at buffer
> 
> So it looks like there are unescaped character literals in the version
> of ob-ref.el you have in site-lisp.  Maybe it's an old version.  So you
> should check if that's the case, and if so, escape them with a
> backslash.
> 
> Steve Berman
>

Re: I continue to get error ob-ref: unescaped character literals

[Stephen Berman]

On Mon, 23 Nov 2020 21:58:59 +0100 Christopher Dimech <dimech@gmx.com> wrote:

> I fixed it now.  Was related to org-babel.
>
> Am now trying to install the latest version of Org as a package by invoking
> M-x package-install RET org RET after having configured Emacs to include
> Org ELPA as a package repository.
>
> Have done like below, however I am not finding org when I try to
> enter the command "M-x package-install RET org RET".
>
> (require 'package)
> (add-to-list 'package-archives '("org" . "https://orgmode.org/elpa/"))
>
> (add-to-list 'package-archives
>              '("melpa-stable" . "https://melpa.org/packages/"))

I confirm this, but I can't explain it.  However, Org is included in GNU
Elpa and by typing `M-x list-packages' you'll find org 9.4 listed in the
table of packages, so you should be able to install it that way.

Steve Berman