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To avoid the problem of having to decide whether to use \newcommand or \renewcommand, LaTeX has the option of \providecommand.
Is there something corresponding to this for environments? I'd like to be able to type \provideenvironment (or similar) rather than first using \newenvironment and then using \renewenvironment.
I don't believe there is a \provideenvironment defined anywhere, but you can define it.
\documentclass{article}
\makeatletter
\def\provideenvironment{\@star@or@long\provide@environment}
\def\provide@environment#1{%
\@ifundefined{#1}%
{\def\reserved@a{\newenvironment{#1}}}%
{\def\reserved@a{\renewenvironment{dummy@environ}}}%
\reserved@a
}
\def\dummy@environ{}
\makeatother
\provideenvironment{foo}[1][blarg]{begin foo: #1 }{end foo}
\provideenvironment{foo}{asdf}{asdf}
\begin{document}
\begin{foo}
whee
\end{foo}
\end{document}
The first time foo gets defined. The second time it does not because it is already defined.
\@star@or@long is and does? It appears very mystical ...
Oct 29 '13 at 12:00
\@star@or@long is defined in the latex kernel (ltdefns.dtx): "Look ahead for a *. If present reset l@ngrel@x so that the next definition, #1, will be non-long".
Nov 20 '13 at 13:12
No.
If you are familiar with expl3 (but not necessary), you can use \ProvideDocumentEnvironment in xparse package. The syntax is a little different. For example:
\usepackage{xparse}
\ProvideDocumentEnvironment{foo}{ o m }{%
\IfNoValueTF{#1}{only #2}{#1 and #2}%
}{%
\IfNoValueTF{#1}{only #2}{#1 and #2}%
}
There is a \provideenvironment in the package makecmds. I suppose that is what you are looking for. Its syntax is analog to that of \newenvironment.
newXmacro ought to also provide bothrenewXandprovideXvariants. (I got so fed up of journals defining all different types of theorem variants - and therefore messing up my own definitions - that I wrote a\providetheoremcommand.)\providecommandisn't to avoid having to decide which to use, it's to provide a definition if one does not already exist. If it does, then\providecommanddoes not redefine it.\providecommandrather than keep track of whether my LaTeX code has already defined a command (hence the weird way I described its purpose).