UK TeX FAQ -- question label cvtlatex

### Transcribing LaTeX command definitions

At several places in this FAQ, questions are answered in terms of how to program a LaTeX macro. Sometimes, these macros might also help users of Plain TeX or other packages; this answer attempts to provide a rough-and-ready guide to transcribing such macro definitions for use in other packages.

The reason LaTeX has commands that replace `\``def`, is that there’s a general philosophy within LaTeX that the user should be protected from himself: the user has different commands according to whether the command to be defined exists (`\``renewcommand`) or not (`\``newcommand`), and if its status proves not as the user expected, an error is reported. A third definition command, `\``providecommand`, only defines if the target is not already defined; LaTeX has no direct equivalent of `\``def`, which ignores the present state of the command. The final command of this sort is `\``DeclareRobustCommand`, which creates a command which is “robust” (i.e., will not expand if subjected to LaTeX “protected expansion”); from the Plain TeX user’s point of view, `\``DeclareRobustCommand` should be treated as a non-checking version of `\``newcommand`.

LaTeX commands are, by default, defined `\``long`; an optional `*` between the `\``newcommand` and its (other) arguments specifies that the command is not to be defined `\``long`. The `*` is detected by a command `\``@ifstar` which uses `\``futurelet` to switch between two branches, and gobbles the `*`: LaTeX users are encouraged to think of the `*` as part of the command name.

LaTeX’s checks for unknown command are done by `\``ifx` comparison of a `\``csname` construction with `\``relax`; since the command name argument is the desired control sequence name, this proves a little long-winded. Since `#1` is the requisite argument, we have:

>     \expandafter\ifx
>       \csname\expandafter\@gobble\string#1\endcsname
>       \relax
>         ...

(`\``@gobble` simply throws away its argument).

The arguments of a LaTeX command are specified by two optional arguments to the defining command: a count of arguments (0–9: if the count is 0, the optional count argument may be omitted), and a default value for the first argument, if the defined command’s first argument is to be optional. So:

>     \newcommand\foo{...}
>     \newcommand\foo[0]{...}
>     \newcommand\foo[1]{...#1...}
>     \newcommand\foo[2][boo]{...#1...#2...}

In the last case, `\``foo` may be called as `\``foo{goodbye}`, which is equivalent to `\``foo[boo]{goodbye}` (employing the default value given for the first argument), or as `\``foo[hello]{goodbye}` (with an explicit first argument).

Coding of commands with optional arguments is exemplified by the coding of the last `\``foo` above:

>     \def\foo{\futurelet\next\@r@foo}
>     \def\@r@foo{\ifx\next[%
>         \let\next\@x@foo
>       \else
>         \def\next{\@x@foo[boo]}%
>       \fi
>       \next
>     }
>     \def\@x@foo[#1]#2{...#1...#2...}

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