[Tex/LaTex] Adding a Table of Contents to the ACM style template

acmtable of contents

I have been instructed to use the ACM style latex template for an assignment. In the .cls file they provide, I can find the following warning:

%%% 4) Marginal paragraphs, tables of contents, lists of figures and tables,

%%% and page headings are all forbidden.

Even though we have been instructed to use the ACM template, however silly it may be, we are required to insert a table of contents.

I attempt to add \tableofcontents as follows:

\documentclass{acm_proc_10ptArticle-sp}
\begin{document}
\clearpage
\tableofcontents
\newpage
\section{Introduction}
Lipsum
\section{Conclusion}
Lipsum
\end{document}

When I compile, I receive the following error:

! TeX capacity exceeded, sorry [input stack size=5000].
\@latexerr #1#2->\GenericError 
                              {\space \space \space \@spaces  \@spaces \@spa...
l.38 \tableofcontents

If you really absolutely need more capacity,
you can ask a wizard to enlarge me.

Additionally, i find the following section in the .cls file:

\def\tableofcontents{\@latexerr{\tableofcontents: Tables of contents are not
 allowed in the `acmconf' document style.}\@eha}

I was hoping to find a solution for this without having to use a different template file. Is there anything I can do to add a table of contents regardless of their warning?

Best Answer

The .cls file you provided defines \tableofcontents to produce an error message (the class designers really wanted to discourage producing a ToC):

\def\tableofcontents{\@latexerr{\tableofcontents: Tables of contents are not
  allowed in the `acmconf' document style.}\@eha}

You can override this by providing (in your .tex file) a sensible definition for \tableofcontents; something along the lines

\def\contentsname{Contents}
\def\tableofcontents{%
    \section*{\MakeUppercase{\contentsname}}%
    \@starttoc{toc}%
    }

A complete example:

\documentclass{acm_proc_10ptArticle-sp}

\makeatletter
\setcounter{tocdepth}{3}
\def\contentsname{Contents}
\def\tableofcontents{%
    \section*{\MakeUppercase{\contentsname}}%
    \@starttoc{toc}%
    }
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\tableofcontents
\section{Introduction}
Lipsum
\section{Conclusion}
Lipsum

\end{document}

The result, showing the generated ToC:

enter image description here

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