Mojca Miklavec wrote:
Seems like understanding \expandafter would solve 90% of my problems. I tried to understand that part in TeX book, but it's so cryptic (too short) ... I understand the concept, but I'm not able to write the code for it yet :(
The trick to \expandafter is that you (normally) write it backwards until reaching a moment in time where TeX is not scanning an argument. Say you have a macro that contains some stuff in it to be typeset by \type: \def\mystuff{Some literal stuff} Then you begin with \type{\mystuff} but that obviously doesn't work, you want the final input to look like \type{Some literal stuff} Since \expandafter expands the token that follows the after next token -- whatever the next token is -- you have to insert it backwards across the opening brace of the argument, like so: \type\expandafter{\mystuff} But this wouldn't work, yet: you are still in the middle of an expression (the \type expects an argument, and it gets \expandafter as it stands). Luckily, \expandafter *itself* is an expandable command, so you jump back once more and insert another one: \expandafter\type\expandafter{\mystuff} Now you are on 'neutral ground', and can stop backtracking. Easy, once you get the hang of it. Taco