diff --git a/src/frontends/qt4/LaTeXHighlighter.cpp b/src/frontends/qt4/LaTeXHighlighter.cpp
index f8e498f97d..00f8064af9 100644
--- a/src/frontends/qt4/LaTeXHighlighter.cpp
+++ b/src/frontends/qt4/LaTeXHighlighter.cpp
@@ -13,14 +13,9 @@
 #include "LaTeXHighlighter.h"
 #include "qt_helpers.h"
 
-#include "support/lassert.h"
-
 #include <QString>
 #include <QTextDocument>
 
-
-using namespace lyx::support;
-
 namespace lyx {
 namespace frontend {
 
@@ -73,9 +68,7 @@ void LaTeXHighlighter::highlightBlock(QString const & text)
 	// otherwise, start search from 'begin disp math'
 	if (previousBlockState() != 1)
 		startIndex = text.indexOf(exprStartDispMath);
-	// We try to avoid infinite loops...
-	static size_t max_loop = 1000;
-	for (size_t i = 0; i != max_loop; ++i) {
+	while (startIndex >= 0) {
 		int endIndex = text.indexOf(exprEndDispMath, startIndex);
 		int length;
 		if (endIndex == -1) {
@@ -86,23 +79,15 @@ void LaTeXHighlighter::highlightBlock(QString const & text)
 		}
 		setFormat(startIndex, length, mathFormat);
 		startIndex = text.indexOf(exprStartDispMath, startIndex + length);
-		if (startIndex == -1)
-			break;
 	}
-	LASSERT(startIndex == -1, return);
-
 	// \whatever
 	static const QRegExp exprKeyword("\\\\[A-Za-z]+");
 	index = text.indexOf(exprKeyword);
-	for (size_t i = 0; i != max_loop; ++i) {
+	while (index >= 0) {
 		int length = exprKeyword.matchedLength();
 		setFormat(index, length, keywordFormat);
 		index = text.indexOf(exprKeyword, index + length);
-		if (index == -1)
-			break;
 	}
-	LASSERT(index == -1, return);
-
 	// %comment
 	// Treat a line as a comment starting at a percent sign
 	// * that is the first character in a line
@@ -112,29 +97,22 @@ void LaTeXHighlighter::highlightBlock(QString const & text)
 	QRegExp exprComment("(?:^|[^\\\\])(?:\\\\\\\\)*(%).*$"); 
 	text.indexOf(exprComment);
 	index = exprComment.pos(1);
-	for (size_t i = 0; i != max_loop; ++i) {
+	while (index >= 0) {
 		int const length = exprComment.matchedLength() 
 				 - (index - exprComment.pos(0));
 		setFormat(index, length, commentFormat);
 		text.indexOf(exprComment, index + length);
 		index = exprComment.pos(1);
-		if (index == -1)
-			break;
 	}
-	LASSERT(index == -1, return);
-
 	// <LyX Warning: ...>
 	QString lyxwarn = qt_("LyX Warning: ");
 	QRegExp exprWarning("<" + lyxwarn + "[^<]*>");
 	index = text.indexOf(exprWarning);
-	for (size_t i = 0; i != max_loop; ++i) {
+	while (index >= 0) {
 		int length = exprWarning.matchedLength();
 		setFormat(index, length, warningFormat);
 		index = text.indexOf(exprWarning, index + length);
-		if (index == -1)
-			break;
 	}
-	LASSERT(index == -1, return);
 }
 
 } // namespace frontend