[Tex/LaTex] How to redefine the \verb|…| command

colormacrosverbatim

I'd like to redefine the \verb|...| command so that it had a light-gray background and a little bit darker border around it, and a little bit of padding to make this background "box" noticable. Anyone knows how to do that? If that is not possible to do easily, can I define a new command that acts like \verb|...| and does that?

Best Answer

Update 2011-07-27

As promised the new version of my newverbs package provides two macros to collect verbatim arguments with the \verb|...| syntax but also with { .. }. For typesettable verbatim use \collectverb{\macrowhichgetsitasargument}.

For the requested colored background and frame use the \fcolorbox{<frame color>}{<background color>}{<text>} macro.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{newverbs}[2011/07/23]
\newcommand{\myverb}{\collectverb{\fcolorbox{black!50}{black!25}}}

\begin{document}
    \myverb|%^&\|
    \myverb{%^&\}
\end{document}

Result

The newverbs package allows you to define variations of the \verb command which code placed before and after it. You need to use a savebox for advanced formatting. (I'm planning to also support macros which receive the verbatim text as normal argument in the next version.)

Example:

\usepackage{newverbs}

\newverbcommand{\myverb}{\begin{lrbox}{\verbbox}\mytextformatmacro}{\end{lrbox}{\mycommand{\usebox{\verbbox}}}

...

\myverb|%^&\|

Use the xcolor package to add colors.

The package already provides \fverb (draws a \fbox around it) and \qverb (adds quoting signs) by default.

You could also use the \verb-like \lstinline macro of the listings package. It accepts the many listings options.

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Define the own short-verb like macro

You can make + (or whatever symbol you choose) into a command character and then use \def to have it do whatever you want:

documentclass{article}

\catcode`+=\active
\def+#1+{\texttt{#1}}

\begin{document}
+abc def+
\end{document}

Here \catcode`+=\active makes + an “active” character and then \def+#1+{\texttt{#1}} defines + as a macro that takes one parameter that is delineated by another + and passed to \texttt.

[Tex/LaTex] How to redefine or patch the ‘\newcommand’ command

Tackling the problem as posed is tricky due to the way \newcommand works. Heiko's approach is probably more elegant, but one possible method is to use xparse to deal with the syntax of \newcommand, and letltxmacro to deal with the way \newcommand is set up

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{letltxmacro,xparse}
\makeatletter
\LetLtxMacro{\saved@newcommand}{\newcommand}
\DeclareDocumentCommand{\newcommand}{s+mo+o+m}{%
  \begingroup
  \edef\x{%
    \endgroup
    \ifdefined#2%
      \unexpanded{%
          \renewcommand{#2}%
            {%
              \PackageError{lazyfail}
                {Expanding ambiguous command \protect #2}%
                \@ehc
            }%
        }
    \else
      \noexpand\saved@newcommand
        \IfBooleanT{#1}{*}%
        {\noexpand#2}%
        \IfNoValueF{#3}{[#3]}%
        \IfNoValueF{#4}{[\unexpanded{#4}]}%
        {\unexpanded{#5}}
    \fi
  }%
  \x
}
\makeatother
\begin{document}
\newcommand{\cmd}{FIRST}   %
\cmd                       % outputs FIRST
\newcommand{\cmd}{SECOND}  % no problem yet
\cmd                       % error: expanding ambiguous command
\renewcommand{\cmd}{THIRD} %
\cmd                       % outputs THIRD
\end{document}

The approach here is to grab all of the arguments to the redefined \newcommand in one go, then work out whether they are to be 'recycled' or not.

Of course, you could set all of this up without xparse, but it would be a pain in the next: lots of \@ifstar and \@ifnextchar ( or slightly better \@testopt) stuff and several auxiliaries.

Best Answer

Update 2011-07-27

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Define the own short-verb like macro

[Tex/LaTex] How to redefine or patch the ‘\newcommand’ command

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