Make a \code{…} macro that nerfs as many special chars as possible

Question

This is related to Simplify the use of ampersand & in glossaries description, but having read those answers and tried something based on them, I'm finding it still doesn't work for my case.

Basically I'm trying to make a macro \code{...} that will typeset ... in monospace font, inline. I guess I'm looking for something fairly similar to WEB's |...| syntax, except that | would be a fairly bad choice of delimiter character for my purposes.

For example, I want this:

To capture a reference to the local variable \code{snake_case},
we write \code{[&snake_case]}.

to typeset as if I'd written

To capture a reference to the local variable \texttt{snake\_case},
we write \texttt{[\&snake\_case]}.

I'm going to be writing a lot of inline code snippets, so I'd prefer not to have to remember to backslash-escape any special character if it's at all avoidable.

My attempt so far is:

% make _ a non-special character
\usepackage{underscore}

% make & a non-special character
\newcommand{\makeampletter}{\catcode`\&=12\relax}
\newcommand{\makeampother}{\catcode`\&=4\relax}

\newcommand{\code}[1]{\makeampletter\texttt{#1}\makeampother}

I am vaguely aware of the existence of \verb|...|, but answers like When should one use \verb and when \texttt have made me wary of it; I'd rather use something that acts as much like \texttt as possible, and where I 100% understand how I'm deviating from \texttt when I use it.

(Bonus points for not only fixing my ampersand issue but also addressing my inevitable future issues with %, {, and }.)

Answer 1

Thanks to Werner in the comments for this:

\newcommand{\code}[1]{\lstinline[basicstyle=\ttfamily,autodedent=0]{#1}}

(Notice that autodedent is being provided for me by Jubobs' lstautodedent package.)

My only remaining problems with my \code have to do with linebreaking. Namely,

• sometimes I see foo, \code{bar}, baz linebreaking between "bar" and ","
• sometimes I see \code{foo, bar, baz} linebreaking between "bar" and ","

The former is indefensible; the latter is at least defensible, even if it's ugly. I suspect there are things I could do to improve this answer in those departments.