[texhax] two questions

[Zbigniew Nitecki]

These are minor, but perhaps someone can explain them to me:

1. I have a large set of macros which I use in most of my work, and  
which I am therefore trying to set up as a style file,  
basicmacros.sty.  One of the first things there is a set of  
newtheorem declarations (theorem, proposition, lemma, etc).  My  
problem is that sometimes (when used in a book or large paper) I want  
all of them to be numbered using the section number, which I can do  
by making the first \newtheorem declaration (which is for theorem)  
end with [section], and all the others (because I want them all  
numbered in one sequence) have a "number as theorem" declaration--- 
but other times (in a short paper) I don't want the section number to  
appear.
Is there a way for me to either set a parameter in the style file  
which I can use to set which option I use (maybe using the ifelsethen  
package), or for me to override the version in the style file.
I don't see how to do this with a \renewcommand declaration, but is  
there a way to accomplish this?

2. I am puzzled by an error in my bibtex usage.  Among the  
declarations at the beginning of my .bib file, I have
     @string{enseign= "L{'}Enseignment Math{\'{e}}matique''}
because I don't want to have to retype this every time I need it in a  
reference.  However, I get an "unbalanced braces" error when I do  
so.  When I copy the same thing (without the enclosing double quotes)  
in the journal field of an article entry, I get no error.  What is  
going on?

Zbigniew Nitecki
Department of Mathematics
Tufts University
Medford, MA 02155

telephones:
Office    (617)627-3843
Dept.    (617)627-3234
Dept. fax    (617)627-3966

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