Bug#563040: [texlive-base] SIunits and ams* do not work together - misleading help?

[Hilmar Preusse <hille42@web.de>]

On 30.12.09 Frederik Schwarzer (schwarzerf@gmail.com) wrote:

Hi,

> If I try to use "amsfonts" together with "SIunits", pdflatex gives me an
> error, that these cannot be used together
>     ! Package SIunits Error: The command \square was already defined.
>     (SIunits)                Possibly due to the amssymb package.
> 
I can reproduce the problem using the following minimal example:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsfonts}
\usepackage{SIunits}
\begin{document}
\end{document}

> It then says
>     Hint: use option `amssymb' or `squaren' with SIunits package.
>     See SIunits.dvi or readme.txt section: Known problems and limitations.
> 
> Note, that it already thinks, that I am using "amssymb" in the error message
> above.
> 
No. I just says that the command \square is already defined probably
due to the amssymb package.  This is a wild guess by the SIunits
package and wrong in this case: the symbol is defined in amsfonts.sty
you're loading.

> Using the amssymb package does not change anything and squaren.sty
> is not available in Debian.
> 
Please read the help better. It says:

 Hint: use option `amssymb' or `squaren' with SIunits package. See
 SIunits.dvi or readme.txt section: Known problems and limitations.

i.e. these `amssymb' and `squaren' are options for the SIunits
package.  After replacing "\usepackage{SIunits}" by
"\usepackage[amssymb]{SIunits}" my minimal example at least compiles
fine.

H.
-- 
sigmentation fault