How to make a new command similar to \author

Question

I'm preparing a new template for our students' projects based on memoir. All this projects are supervised (directed) by one or more professors so I would like to declare a command like \author but called \director.

This way the student can declare \director{My professor} and the template will place and format the name.

I would like to be like \author and not just a simple \newcommand because it can include affiliation, several names, etc.

I don't know where is \author declared, where should I look?

Answer 1

As mentioned, \author and \@author are defined in latex.ltx, but memoir adds some extra flair to them (for example, allowing multiple authors via \and and properly setting them). The following minimal example adds \director to the mix:

\documentclass{memoir}% http://ctan.org/pkg/memoir
\makeatletter
\newcommand{\director}[1]{\gdef\@director{#1}}%
\newcommand{\@director}{\@latex@warning@no@line{No \noexpand\directory given}}
\addtoiargdef{\director}{%
  \begingroup\let\footnote\@gobble}{%
  \begingroup
    \renewcommand{\thanks}[1]{}
    \renewcommand{\and}{\unskip, }
    \renewcommand{\andnext}{\unskip, }
    \renewcommand{\thanksmark}[1]{}
    \renewcommand{\thanksgap}[1]{}
    \protected@xdef\thedirector{#1}
  \endgroup\endgroup}
\newcommand{\predirector}[1]{\def\@bspredirector{#1}}
\newcommand{\postdirector}[1]{\def\@bspostdirector{#1}}
\renewcommand{\maketitlehookc}{%
  {\@bspredirector \@director \@bspostdirector}%
}
\predirector{\begin{center}
  \large \lineskip .5em%
  \begin{tabular}[t]{c}}
\postdirector{\end{tabular}\par\end{center}}
\makeatother
\title{A Title}
\author{An Author \and Another Author}
\director{My Director \and My other Director}
\date{\today}
\begin{document}
\maketitle
\end{document}

The process is a duplication of the components of \author and inserts the \director below the \author inside \@maketitle using the hooks provided. That is, \@maketitle has a hook:

• \maketitlehooka before \title;
• \maketitlehookb before \author;
• \maketitlehookc before \date; and
• \maketitlehookd after \date.

I've redefined \maketitlehookc to now be/contain \director and it is formatted in the same way \author is (centered and \large).

Answer 2

author is defined in latex.ltx

\def\author#1{\gdef\@author{#1}}
\def\@author{\@latex@warning@no@line{No \noexpand\author given}}

you can load the file under Linux with

gedit `kpsewhich latex.ltx`  

However, memoir has some more definitions of authors. Have a look into the file memoir.cls and search for author. In the title the macro \@author is used and set to \relax after the title.