How to define shorcuts for the tasks package with \def?

Question

I tried to define the shortcuts

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{tasks}

\def\bqcmt{\begin{tasks}(2)}
\def\eqcmt{\end{tasks}}
\def\myitem{\task}

\begin{document}
\bqcmt
\myitem This is a test
\eqcmt
\end{document}

But it does not work. The error is:

LaTeX Error: \begin{tasks} on input line 10 ended by \end {document}.

See the LaTeX manual or LaTeX Companion for explanation. Type H for immediate help. ...

                                               l.13 \end{document}

Why is it so? How can I define such shorcuts?

A solution ?

The following seems to work

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tasks}

\def\bqcmt{\csname tasks\endcsname(3)}
\def\eqcmt{\endtasks}
\def\myitem{\csname endtasks\endcsname}

\begin{document}
\bqcmt
\task This is a test
\task This is a test
\task This is a test
\eqcmt
\end{document}

as well as

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tasks}

\newcommand{\bqcmt}[1]{\csname tasks\endcsname(#1)}
\def\eqcmt{\endtasks}
\def\myitem{\csname endtasks\endcsname}

\begin{document}
\bqcmt{3}
\task This is a test
\task This is a test
\task This is a test
\eqcmt
\end{document}

My new question ?

But I'm wondering if it is a good idea. Indeed, \begin{tasks} will normally scan the rest of the file for an \end{tasks}. With this "hack", I guess that this scan will not happen.

Answer 1

It's a bad idea.

Anyway, you can use a macro with delimited argument.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tasks}

\long\def\bqcmt#1#2\eqcmt{\begin{tasks}(#1)#2\end{tasks}}

\begin{document}

\bqcmt{3}
\task a
\task b
\task c
\task d
\task e
\task f
\eqcmt

\bigskip

\begin{tasks}(3)
\task a
\task b
\task c
\task d
\task e
\task f
\end{tasks}

\end{document}

You can define a “new task” for using \item as a separator.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tasks}

\NewTasks{colastasks}[\item]

\long\def\bqcmt#1#2\eqcmt{\begin{colastasks}(#1)#2\end{colastasks}}

\begin{document}

\bqcmt{3}
\item a
\item b
\item c
\item d
\item e
\item f
\eqcmt

\end{document}