ceblair@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu (04/07/88)
% I am trying to do the following in TeX: I have a sequence of
% groups of small letters, with one space between each group, followed
% by a Z at the end. Each group has at least two letters. I want to
% put a number in front of each group.
% The macro below works, in the sense that when I run it, I get
% 1 ab 2 cde 3 fed 4 qrs 5 dd etc.,
% but it must be terribly inefficient. If I try it with even a few
% more groups than shown here, I get "Memory Capacity Exceeded"
% messages related to parameter stack size. Comments welcome.
% Charles Blair [BITNET: CEBLAIR at UIUCVMD]
\def\numb#1Z{\count11=1 \num#1 W Z}
\def\num#1#2 #3Z{\if #1W {} \else {\number\count11} #1#2 \advance%
\count11 by 1\num #3Z\fi}
\numb ab cde fed qrs dd dede fghjk klkvds mbcd
abcde fg hj Z \bye