Re: the difference between \def and \define

[Alan BRASLAU <alan.braslau@cea.fr>]

Since the question has been raised about understanding \define, etc.
indeed some use remains a bit unclear (to me).

On Tue, 16 Apr 2013 12:34:48 +0200
Hans Hagen <pragma@wxs.nl> wrote:

> there is a commented blob that implements thinsg like this
> 
> \starttext
>      \define[2]\whatevera{#1+#2}
>      \whatevera{A}{B}
>      \define[me][too][2]\whateverb{#1+#2+#3+#4}
>      \whateverb[A]{B}{C}
>      \whateverb[A][B]{C}{D}
>      \define[alpha][beta][gamma][delta]\whateverc{#1+#2+#3+#4}
>      \whateverc[P][Q]
> \stoptext
> 
> but it's just an old idea.

I am perhaps a bit bewildered today... but I do not understand the
above. It gets too tricky for me!

In fact, I do not understand well the handling of arguments,
especially optional variants.
For example,
	\define[1]\Index{\index{#1}#1}
can be handy. But let's say that I want to be able to use a variant:
	\Index[alpha]{$\alpha$}
(\index[alpha]{$\alpha$}$\alpha$)

Or, maybe, I might like to handle authors:
	\define[2]\Author{\index{#2, #1}#1 #2}
	\Author{Thomas A.}{Schmitz}
But what if I were to type \Author{Aristotle}?

Alan

P.S. I indeed like the idea of the suggestion:

\define[one,two,three]\whatever{first: #one second: #two third: #three}

On 4/16/2013 11:10 AM, Thomas A. Schmitz wrote:
> It certainly isn't an urgent need, but having
>
> \define[one,two,three]
>
> wouldn't be absurd, now would it?
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