Problem resolved! TeX capacity exceeded

[Charles M]

I was getting 'TeX capacity exceeded' errors despite no errors appearing in a build to HTML.  I initially thought it was an issue with <subsubsection>s, but the issue lay with using <idx> elements within <title>s.  It is no problem with HTML builds, but it's fatal for a PDF build.

Many thanks to @jordancanonical for replying to my first post.  I deleted it as soon as I caught the error.

[Alex Jordan]

I thought it might be something in a title. One way to see that tex error is if tex was trying to write something illegal into a bookmark title. Glad you found it.

On Wed, May 20, 2026, 4:03 AM Charles M <cmorg...@gmail.com> wrote:

I was getting 'TeX capacity exceeded' errors despite no errors appearing in a build to HTML.  I initially thought it was an issue with <subsubsection>s, but the issue lay with using <idx> elements within <title>s.  It is no problem with HTML builds, but it's fatal for a PDF build.

Many thanks to @jordancanonical for replying to my first post.  I deleted it as soon as I caught the error.

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[Rob Beezer]

Glad to hear you are back on track. Thanks very much for posting the
resolution, it helps to have a record here for others who hit the same problem,
especially if the initial post got removed. (And thanks to Alex for the insight.)

This is a recurring misunderstanding for new authors. The HTML makes great
output, sometimes even for really "illegal" PreTeXt. The LaTeX compiler is not
so forgiving, as you have found out.

While building PDF is a cheap way to check your source, debugging is not always
easy. Validating against the schema is preferable, even if the schema is not
yet perfect. (It is improving - thanks, Oscar and Claude). In particular, it
would have flagged an #idx inside a #title, I think.

How is it going with RTL Arabic?

Rob

[Charles M]

Rob,

You have a very good memory.  Now, I must reveal my ignorance of the deeper sides of computing.  As a Mac/Linux user, I simply added Apple's native keyboards for the languages that I speak, read, and write.  When I want to build HTML output, I simply change my Mac keyboard input and type in the desired language, and it works perfectly and beautifully.  For PDF output, even Russian doesn't appear in the output.

In olden days (i.e., five weeks ago, before I learned about PreTeXt), I used Polyglossia in LaTeX to get the results I want, and I'd use LuaLaTeX to compile.

I am sorry, but I've exhausted the breadth of my computing knowledge with that answer.  (I was chuffed when I was able to install PreTeXt by terminal commands.)

With much gratitude,

Charles

PS My university system has been encouraging faculty to change all on-line documents to accessible formats (as verified by YuJa), even though DOJ has delayed implementation for another year.  I have been selling the values of PreTeXt to all my colleagues in all fields, including history and languages.  

PPS I'm running PreTeXt locally on my Mac.  All compiling is done purely client-side, right?  As I code, I do a lot of compiles so that I don't get 1500 lines of code done before I catch errors.