> Why this? If i use \\*[DATE*SHORT] anything is fine, so it is > because the macro is evaluated while the string is defined.
Yes. If you use the "string" like this: Some text before \*[DATE*SHORT], and some text after the expansion will yield Some text before \c .XX \\*[DATE*FULL] , and some text after and this in turn will eventually expand to Some text before \c December 31, 2038<no_newline> , and some text after giving as the total effect Some text before \c December 31, 2038, and some text after which is completely okay in running text. When using it as .ds LH Formatted on \*[DATE*SHORT] it will yield .ds LH Formatted on \c December 31, 2038 which simply stores "\c" in the string LH, and writes the date into the running text instead. > Is this restriction documented somewhere? If not > it is a bug to keep on the TODO list, thank you! It's not a bug, it's a reminder not to use tricks that confuse strings and macros, even if they are treated internally very similarly during expansion.
