Characters allowed in macro names

Characters allowed in macro names

[N. Raghavendra]

I was wondering if it is alright to use underscores in the names of
macros, e.g, as in the following file.  It looks like \startsetups, and
\def accept names with hyphens, underscores, and numerals, but
\starttexdefinition doesn't tolerate any of them.

1. In general, what characters are allowed in macro names?  Are Unicode
   characters admissible?

2. Apart from the fact that one can use whitespace freely in
   \starttexdefinition, is there any reason to prefer it over \def?

Thanks,
Raghu.

------------------------------------------------------------
\starttext

\startsetups [hello-world_1]
  Hello, world 1!
\stopsetups

\setups [hello-world_1]

\def\hello-world_2{Hello, world 2!}

\hello-world_2

\starttexdefinition helloWorld
  Hello, world!
\stoptexdefinition

\helloWorld

%% Doesn't work
%% \starttexdefinition fooBar1
%%   Foo, bar 1!
%% \stoptexdefinition
%%
%% \fooBar1

%% Doesn't work
%% \starttexdefinition foo_bar
%%   Foo, bar!
%% \stoptexdefinition
%%
%% \foo_bar

%% Doesn't work
%% \starttexdefinition foo-bar
%%   Foo, bar!
%% \stoptexdefinition
%%
%% \foo-bar

\stoptext
------------------------------------------------------------
--
N. Raghavendra <raghu@hri.res.in>, http://www.retrotexts.net/
Harish-Chandra Research Institute, http://www.hri.res.in/
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Re: Characters allowed in macro names

[Hans Hagen]

On 4/22/2018 5:23 PM, N. Raghavendra wrote:
> I was wondering if it is alright to use underscores in the names of
> macros, e.g, as in the following file.  It looks like \startsetups, and
> \def accept names with hyphens, underscores, and numerals, but
> \starttexdefinition doesn't tolerate any of them.
> 
> 1. In general, what characters are allowed in macro names?  Are Unicode
>     characters admissible?

letters are (and _ is not a letter, unless we're in unprotected mode)

> 2. Apart from the fact that one can use whitespace freely in
>     \starttexdefinition, is there any reason to prefer it over \def?

depends ... sometimes more readble ... spaces are ignores ... you can 
use named parameters

> Thanks,
> Raghu.
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> \starttext
> 
> \startsetups [hello-world_1]
>    Hello, world 1!
> \stopsetups
> 
> \setups [hello-world_1]
> 
> \def\hello-world_2{Hello, world 2!}
> 
> \hello-world_2
> 
> \starttexdefinition helloWorld
>    Hello, world!
> \stoptexdefinition
> 
> \helloWorld
> 
> %% Doesn't work
> %% \starttexdefinition fooBar1
> %%   Foo, bar 1!
> %% \stoptexdefinition
> %%
> %% \fooBar1
> 
> %% Doesn't work
> %% \starttexdefinition foo_bar
> %%   Foo, bar!
> %% \stoptexdefinition
> %%
> %% \foo_bar
> 
> %% Doesn't work
> %% \starttexdefinition foo-bar
> %%   Foo, bar!
> %% \stoptexdefinition
> %%
> %% \foo-bar
> 
> \stoptext
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> --
> N. Raghavendra <raghu@hri.res.in>, http://www.retrotexts.net/
> Harish-Chandra Research Institute, http://www.hri.res.in/
> ___________________________________________________________________________________
> If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!
> 
> maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
> webpage  : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://context.aanhet.net
> archive  : https://bitbucket.org/phg/context-mirror/commits/
> wiki     : http://contextgarden.net
> ___________________________________________________________________________________
> 


-- 

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Re: Characters allowed in macro names

[Wolfgang Schuster]

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> N. Raghavendra <mailto:nyraghu27132@gmail.com>
> 22. April 2018 um 17:23
> I was wondering if it is alright to use underscores in the names of
> macros, e.g, as in the following file. It looks like \startsetups, and
> \def accept names with hyphens, underscores, and numerals, but
> \starttexdefinition doesn't tolerate any of them.
>
> 1. In general, what characters are allowed in macro names? Are Unicode
> characters admissible?
>
> 2. Apart from the fact that one can use whitespace freely in
> \starttexdefinition, is there any reason to prefer it over \def?
>
> Thanks,
> Raghu.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> \starttext
>
> \startsetups [hello-world_1]
> Hello, world 1!
> \stopsetups
>
> \setups [hello-world_1]
>
> \def\hello-world_2{Hello, world 2!}
You’re defining a command named \hello which has to be followed by the 
string "-world_2".


You can use the following example as test.

%%%% begin example
\starttext

\def\hello-1{Hello \letterhash 1}

\def\hello-2{Hello \letterhash 2}

\hello-1

\hello-2

\stoptext
%%%% end example

Here I create a command named \hello which has to be followed by “-1" 
and "-2".

When you run TeX on this example you get the following error message:

%%%% begin error message
tex error > tex error on line 7 in file /Users/wolf/TeX/test/test.tex: ! 
Use of \hello doesn't match its definition

l.7 \hello-1
%%%% end error message

Wolfgang

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Re: Characters allowed in macro names

[N. Raghavendra]

At 2018-04-22T18:04:28+02:00, Hans Hagen wrote:

>> 1. In general, what characters are allowed in macro names?  Are Unicode
>>     characters admissible?
>
> letters are (and _ is not a letter, unless we're in unprotected mode)
>
>> 2. Apart from the fact that one can use whitespace freely in
>>     \starttexdefinition, is there any reason to prefer it over \def?
>
> depends ... sometimes more readble ... spaces are ignores ... you can
> use named parameters

Thanks for the clarification.

Raghu.

--
N. Raghavendra <raghu@hri.res.in>, http://www.retrotexts.net/
Harish-Chandra Research Institute, http://www.hri.res.in/
___________________________________________________________________________________
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maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
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wiki     : http://contextgarden.net
___________________________________________________________________________________

Re: Characters allowed in macro names

[N. Raghavendra]

At 2018-04-22T20:08:34+02:00, Wolfgang Schuster wrote:

> You can use the following example as test.
>
> %%%% begin example
> \starttext
>
> \def\hello-1{Hello \letterhash 1}
>
> \def\hello-2{Hello \letterhash 2}
>
> \hello-1
>
> \hello-2
>
> \stoptext
> %%%% end example
>
> Here I create a command named \hello which has to be followed by “-1"
> and "-2".
>
> When you run TeX on this example you get the following error message:
>
> %%%% begin error message
> tex error       > tex error on line 7 in file /Users/wolf/TeX/test/
> test.tex: ! Use of \hello doesn't match its definition
>
> l.7 \hello-1
> %%%% end error message

Yes, I get that error.  Thanks for the explanation.

Raghu.

--
N. Raghavendra <raghu@hri.res.in>, http://www.retrotexts.net/
Harish-Chandra Research Institute, http://www.hri.res.in/
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