A question about \define vs. \def

A question about \define vs. \def

[Vyatcheslav Yatskovsky]

Hello,

Patrick posed a good question on wiki at

http://wiki.contextgarden.net/Reference/en/define

"is there any bonus when I use \define instead of \def?"

Regards,
Vyatcheslav
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Re: A question about \define vs. \def

[Wolfgang Schuster]

Am 18.04.10 21:12, schrieb Vyatcheslav Yatskovsky:
> Hello,
>
> Patrick posed a good question on wiki at
>
> http://wiki.contextgarden.net/Reference/en/define
>
> "is there any bonus when I use \define instead of \def?"
1. \define checks if the command you try to create already exists,
    if this is the case no new command is created but you get a message
    on the terminal

2. you can give the number of arguments as a number (e.g. \define[2]\...{})
    while \def expects them with the hash (e.g. \def\...#1#2{...})

3. depending on your style you can avoid one '%' at the end of the first 
line

    \def\...#1#2%
      {...}

    vs.

    \define[2]\...
      {...}

4. a disadvantage is that you can't create commands with optional arguments,
    Hans showed a different which made this possible in mkiv but it made it
    in the official version of \define

5. the wiki page mentions you can create \long macros with \define but
    this isn't the case in mkiv because each macro is no \long

Wolfgang

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