[texhax] undefined control sequence with mla bibliography style

[Philip G. Ratcliffe]

> I'm new to LaTeX on Linux, relatively new to Linux, in fact.  Running
> Libranet 2.8.1, with tetex, using gvim as editor.  I read the guidance
> on ctan.org on how to install new packages, and I installed mla style (I
> think I did it properly.)

Since the mla package only consists of one single file it either works or
doesn't at all!  That is, installation is only about making sure LaTeX knows
where to find files; it is not about getting them to work.

Alos, did you actually read the mla.sty usage instructions?

> When I process my text file, containing just one reference to a book
> (it's a junk file that I'm just learning on.)  The first latex run gets
> me an error message, something along the lines of "undefined control
> sequence at end of line . . .  /protect /author /citeyear. . ."

Would you like to tell us how you are making the bibliography?  What
packages are you using and which commands (for example, \citeyear is
definitely not defined by mla).

> then I run bibtex from the command line in a terminal window.  Then I go
> back and run latex twice more.

Aha!  But which bibliography style are you using?

> The result is *almost* what I want.  Citation in text reads [Saarni
> 1999], but the bibliography entry reads something like
> "[Saarni1999][Saarni1999] C Saarni, Development (so on and so forth)"
> In other words, the cite key is listed, twice, in the bibliography.

So, it's obviously to do with the bibliography packages you are using and
nothing to do with mla.sty (or at least not the one I have in my
installation - MiKTeX).

Cordialmente,  Philip G. Ratcliffe

P.S. I don't want to sound nasty, but mla.sty actually does very little, why
bother using it?