MBEATTIE@VAX.OXFORD.AC.UK (Malcolm Beattie) (03/09/91)
I would like to be able to define things "indirectly" or
"dynamically" in TeX (in fact, AMSTeX, not LaTeX). More precisely,
I would like to be able to do something like:
\document
\newcount\chap
\newcount\sect
\define\makemark#1{\define\label#1{\the\chap.\the\sect}}
\define\refermark#1{\label#1}ASND@TRIUMFCL.BITNET (Donald Arseneau) (03/09/91)
Malcolm Beattie writes: > I would like to be able to do something like: > ... > \define\makemark#1{\define\label#1{\the\chap.\the\sect}} > ... > \makemark{fred} % Here, e.g. \chap = 6 and \sect = 7 > ... > Of course, this doesn't work because the #1 in \define\label#1 > doesn't get replaced by \makemark's first parameter, but instead > gets interpreted as a new local parameter for \label itself. Actually, it gets interpreted as part of the SYNTAX for \label; \makemark{fred} redefines \label as if you typed \define\label fred{... when what you want is \define\labelfred. This happens because the command name is tokenized when it is first read in, not when #1 gets processed. The soultion is to use \csname to create the right commandname; but take care not to redefine \csname itself! : \define\makemark#1{\expandafter\define\csname label#1\endcsname{... I left out the definition because I suspect that what Malcolm tried won't work as expected. We need to expand \the\chap.\the\sect when \makemark is performed, not when the \labelfred is used. I don't really know what \define in AMS-TeX does; maybe it is equivalent to TeX's \edef, which is what we really want! but I suspect it does a normal \def, which would cause \labelfred to always report the current section, not the correct cross reference. Thus, I would use: \def\makemark#1{\expandafter\edef\csname label#1\endcsname{\the\chap.\the\sect}} Donald Arseneau asnd@triumfcl.bitnet
braams@pttrnl.nl (Johannes L. Braams) (03/12/91)
In article <C7A48818E6007431@Post-Office.UH.EDU>, MBEATTIE@VAX.OXFORD.AC.UK (Malcolm Beattie) writes: > > I would like to be able to define things "indirectly" or > "dynamically" in TeX (in fact, AMSTeX, not LaTeX). More precisely, > I would like to be able to do something like: > > \document > \newcount\chap > \newcount\sect > \define\makemark#1{\define\label#1{\the\chap.\the\sect}} > \define\refermark#1{\label#1} What about \def\makemark#1{\expandafter\def\csname#1\endcsname{\thechap.\the\sect}} -- Johannes Braams PTT Research Neher Laboratorium, P.O. box 421, 2260 AK Leidschendam, The Netherlands. Phone : +31 70 3325051 E-mail : JL_Braams@pttrnl.nl -------------------------------------------------------------------------------