This document gives an error in tetex-1.0.6-7 (rh6.1) but not in tetex-0.9-17 (rh6.0): $ cat bug.tex \documentclass[english]{article} \usepackage{babel} \begin{document} Does not compute. \end{document} $ latex bug.tex This is TeX, Version 3.14159 (Web2C 7.3.1) (bug.tex LaTeX2e <1998/12/01> patch level 1 Babel <v3.6x> and hyphenation patterns for american, french, german, ngerman, i talian, portuges, nohyphenation, loaded. (/usr/share/texmf/tex/latex/base/article.cls Document Class: article 1999/01/07 v1.4a Standard LaTeX document class (/usr/share/texmf/tex/latex/base/size10.clo)) (/home/lco/lib/tex/inputs/babel.sty (/usr/share/texmf/tex/generic/babel/english.sty ! Package babel Error: You have used an old interface to call babel (babel) You may expect compatibility problems wit other packages . See the babel package documentation for explanation. Type H <return> for immediate help. ... l.54 \bblstyerror ?
The following input \documentclass[english]{article} \usepackage[english]{babel} \begin{document} Does not compute. \end{document} works for me (Note: [english] added to \usepackage line)