Can I use curly braces inside of a `\def`?

Question

I'm using tikz to compete in a codegolf question here. To get around having to write \typein a whole bunch of times I have \def~{\typein[}. Since nearly every \typein is prepended by ]{} so I would like to define ]{}\typein[ instead. However \def doesn't like curly braces for obvious reasons.

Is there some way I could add curly braces to my definition?

Here is my code if that helps at all:

\documentclass[tikz]{standalone}\begin{document}\tikz\def~{\typein[}~\a]{}~\s]{}~\d]{}~\r]{}\def\u{)--(\a+\d}\draw(0,0)--(\a,127\u,\s\u+64,\s\u+\r+64,0);\end{document}

Answer 1

There is no problem at all in using matching pairs of {..} which appears to be what you want. If I understand correctly your problem was hiding the ] which needs to close the optional argument.

perhaps

\documentclass[tikz]{standalone}\begin{document}\tikz\def~#1{\typein[#1]{}}~\a~\s~\d~\r\def\u{)--(\a+\d}\draw(0,0)--(\a,127\u,\s\u+64,\s\u+\r+64,0);\end{document}