8

Using receipt of "LaTeX3: unable to convert space separated list into clist" I elaborated the following code for my needs:

\documentclass{book}
 ...
\usepackage{expl3}

\begin{document}

\newcommand{\PrintAnswer}[1]{%
\InputIfFileExists{#1}{\refstepcounter{subsection}}{\typeout{*** #1 not found ***}}}

\ExplSyntaxOn
\cs_new:Nn\PrintAnswerList:n{
  \clist_set:Nx\l_csv_clist{#1}
  \clist_map_inline:Nn\l_csv_clist{
    \typeout{**** Printing ##1.ans}
    \ExplSyntaxOff
    \PrintAnswer{##1.ans}
    \ExplSyntaxOn
  }
}
\PrintAnswerList:n{\inputfiles}
\ExplSyntaxOff

\end{document} 

It is intended for conditional compilation of a textbook, every chapter of which (eg, 01.tex, 02.tex) writes answers to problems to the file named after the name of the chapter source file, (eg, 01.ans, 02.ans etc). Near the end of the book these files are read in by the macro \PrintAnswer. Usually, I compile only few chapters using the following trick to keep desired chapters in \inputfiles macro:

\typein[\inputfiles]{^^JEnter filename(s) for \protect\includeonly:}

All that works fine, but I was forced to switch off experimental syntax before \PrintAnswer{##1.ans} because otherwise answer files are not processed correctly (in particular, LaTeX complains that the commands for greek letters are not defined and hyphenation is broken). Therefore my question is How can one rewrite the above code using user-level LaTeX3 commands? I found \SplitList command in xparse package. Can it help?

3
  • You should be more precise on how you build \inputfiles
    – egreg
    Jan 4, 2012 at 14:35
  • @egreg: \typein is apparently built into LaTeX. Jan 4, 2012 at 14:49
  • @egreg: \inputfiles is produced by \typein; it just keeps the user reply; it my case it is a comma separated list to be passed to \includeonly. Jan 4, 2012 at 15:01

1 Answer 1

8

In LaTeX3, the preferred way to get user-level functions is xparse and its \NewDocumentCommand function.

If the list was not a comma-separated list, then you would have to do something like

\ExplSyntaxOn
\NewDocumentCommand{\PrintAnswerList}{>{\SplitList;}m}
  { \tl_map_inline:nn {#1} { \PrintAnswer {##1.ans} } }
\ExplSyntaxOff
\PrintAnswerList { file01 ; file 02 ; file03 }

Then \PrintAnswer would be performed outside the scope of the expl syntax.

Here, your life is both slightly easier because you have a comma-separated list, and slightly harder because it is not given directly, but is given hidden inside a macro, \inputfiles. In the code below, I used \clist_map_inline:on, which expands its clist argument once before performing the second argument for each item. Since this particular variant is not available in the kernel, we need to provide it, with

\clist_generate_variant:Nn \clist_map_inline:nn { o }

All in all, you can do for instance (I changed \PrintAnswer too)

\documentclass{book}
 ...
\usepackage{expl3,xparse}
\ExplSyntaxOn
\NewDocumentCommand { \PrintAnswer } { m }
  {
    \file_if_exist:nTF {#1}
      {
        \iow_term:n {****~Printing~#1}
        \file_input:n {#1}
        \refstepcounter {subsection}
      }
      { \iow_term:n {****~#1~not~found~****} }
  }
\cs_generate_variant:Nn \clist_map_inline:nn {o}
\NewDocumentCommand { \PrintAnswerList } { m }
  { \clist_map_inline:on {#1} { \PrintAnswer {##1.ans} } }
\ExplSyntaxOff

\begin{document}

\PrintAnswerList{\inputfiles}

\end{document}
7
  • Why not just use \clist_map_inline:Nn (as we are looking here at a stored clist)?
    – Joseph Wright
    Jan 4, 2012 at 14:58
  • 1
    @JosephWright I should probably have explained that too. I don't know if the OP's clist has spurious spaces or not. \clist_map_inline:nn strips spaces, while \clist_map_inline:Nn assumes that it gets a "true clist", and it does not strip any space, for efficiency. Jan 4, 2012 at 15:32
  • @BrunoLeFloch: Is \clist_map_inline:on supposed to be \clist_map_inline:nn (nn instead of on) as I get Undefined control sequence. with on. For me the nn treats the comma separated list as one item. If I switch to Nn then it separates the list items, but that does not remove the spurious spaces!! Apr 19, 2012 at 23:00
  • @BrunoLeFloch: Regarding previous comment: See Sorting Comma Separated Lists defined with, or without macro. Apr 20, 2012 at 1:38
  • @PeterGrill: sorry for the long delay (I'm busy elsewhere). The line \cs_generate_variant:Nn \clist_map_inline:nn { o } generates the variant of \clist_map_inline:nn with argument specifier :on. This variant (which happens not to be defined by default) expands its first argumnet once. May 6, 2012 at 9:18

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