How do I add a List of Algorithms to mythesis.cls?

Question

Currently I am using the algorithmic and algorithm packages for generating algorithms in my thesis using the mythesis class.

I tried simply using \listofalgorithms but it does not give the same format as my List of Figures/Tables and it doesn't get added to the Table of Contents.

I went into the class file and found this code related to the table of figures:

%
%   List of figures
%
\def\textofLoF#1{\gdef\@textofLoF{#1}}  \textofLoF{List of Figures}
\def\listoffigures{\chapter*{\@textofLoF\@mkboth{}{}}
   \thispagestyle{plain}
   \addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{\protect\@textofLoF}
   {\let\footnotemark\relax  % in case one is in the title
   \@starttoc{lof}
    }
   }
%

So I tried duplicating this in the class for a list of algorithms:

%   List of algorithms
%
\def\textofLoAl#1{\gdef\@textofLoAl{#1}}  \textofLoAl{List of Algorithms}
\def\listofalgorithms{\chapter*{\@textofLoAl\@mkboth{}{}}
   \thispagestyle{plain}
   \addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{\protect\@textofLoAl}
   {\let\footnotemark\relax  % in case one is in the title
   \@starttoc{loal}
    }
   }

but now I get the error:

! LaTeX Error: Command \listofalgorithms already defined.
               Or name \end... illegal, see p.192 of the manual.

I am assuming this is due to the conflict of \listofalgorithms already defined in one of the packages. So I tried replacing \listofalgorithms in the previous code with \listofalgs, at which it compiles successfully, but the List of Algorithms is empty.

I noticed in my file directory that after compiling there is a file called Thesis.lof, containing a list of all the figures, and also a Thesis.loal, but this file is empty. I have no idea how TeX populates this Thesis.lof file, does anybody know? With this knowledge I should be able to duplicate it for the List of Algorithms.

Answer 1

The problem with your setup is that you're adding the \listofalgorithms to mythesis.cls. This means that \listofalgorithms gets defined when you load your class

\documentclass[..]{mythesis}

Subsequently you load algorithm which tries to create \listofalgorithms via a \newcommand, and this fails.

Instead, use

\def\textofLoAl#1{\gdef\@textofLoAl{#1}}
\textofLoAl{List of Algorithms}
\AtBeginDocument{%
  \def\listofalgorithms{%
    \chapter*{\@textofLoAl}
    \@mkboth{}{}%
    \thispagestyle{plain}
    \addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{\protect\@textofLoAl}%
    {\let\footnotemark\relax  % in case one is in the title
     \@starttoc{loa}
    }%
  }}

which should delay your \definition until \begin{document}.

Note that I've used \@starttoc{loa} since the algorithm package writes algorithm \captions to a .loa file, not a .loal file.

Ideally one shouldn't modify the .cls directly. Instead, write modifications in a separate style file, or as part of your preamble (possibly wrapping it with a \makeatletter ... \makeatother pair).