[texworks] New Command question from beginner
Reinhard Kotucha
reinhard.kotucha at web.de
Mon Nov 26 01:23:11 CET 2012
On 2012-11-25 at 22:39:46 +0000, Philip TAYLOR wrote:
> Schor, Robert H wrote:
>
> > \newcommand{VIs}{VI\hspace{1pt}s}
>
> > Is there a way to define the command so that the characters being output
> > will ÒrespectÓ subsequent white space? [IÕve done a quick Google
> > search, but am new enough to TeX and LaTeX to not know what search terms
> > to use].
>
> All control words eat spaces by default (a control word consists of
> a leading escape character followed by one or more letters). There
> is no simple way of avoiding this behaviour as it occurs before your
> code has any chance to exercise control. Therefore you have to
> resort to workarounds such as
>
> 1) Use the control word in braces :
>
> Labview makes considerable use of {\VIs} in <whatever>
>
> 2) Follow the control word with braces :
>
> Labview makes considerable use of \VIs{} in <whatever>
>
> 3) Make the control word a delimited macro :
>
> \def \VIs.{VI\hskip 1 pt s}
>
> and then use it accordingly (and consistently)
>
> Labview makes considerable use of \VIs. in <whatever>
>
> 4) Eschew mnemonic names and make use of a control symbol instead :
>
> \def \1{VI\hskip 1 pt s}
>
> Labview makes considerable use of \1 in <whatever>
>
> 5) Give up raw TeX markup and use HTML-like markup instead :
>
> \catcode `\< = \active
> \def <#1>{\csname #1\endcsname}
>
> Labview makes considerable use of <VIs> in <whatever>
>
> Probably many more, but they may give you some ideas. None rely
> on intrinsic LaTeX functionality, all are Plain-TeX based.
Phil,
though your suggestions 1 and 2 are absolutely correct, I've seen that
even very experienced TeX users often forget the braces.
A very interesting LaTeX package is xspace.
| Abstract
|
| \xspace should be used at the end of a macro designed to be used
| mainly in text. It adds a space unless the macro is followed by
| certain punctuation characters.
Try
texdoc xspace
Regards,
Reinhard
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