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Dear pearl diver(s),

How about this macro for an explicit hyphen that does not inhibit
further hyphenation within the word?

\def\xhyphen{\leavevmode\nobreak-\hskip0pt\relax}

It's not due to me; I recently saw it in Peter Szabo's papers.  Although
of course DEK described what was necessary from the beginning, I'm not
sure he ever wrote it out as a macro.

Best,
Karl



    Does it really need \leavevmode? Unless I miss something important,
    this suggest the macro can be used in v mode, in which it appears
    quite useless ?

The \leavevmode is precisely what protects the macro in case it is
wrongly used in vmode -- otherwise the \nobreak would produce a penalty
on the vertical list, which is surely not desired.

I suppose it is theoretically possible that a paragraph could start with
\xhyphen, although I find it hard to imagine it happening in reality.
But it seems like good programming practice to consider the possibility.

    Does the macro comes from DEK? 

I've never seen the \xhyphen macro, as written, in any file from DEK.

    If it is considered as well-known-trick, I'm bound to inform about
    the reference.

Perhaps something like "based on the information from Appendix H".  But
I think it would be best for Peter to be consulted ...

Cheers,
Karl