Print large macro block from Lua to TeX

Question

I have a rather large block of TeX macro code that is no problem to do in TeX but I'd like to create the macro in Lua instead

The macro contains various TeX macro characters (\, %, [, ])

How can I easily format this macro easily without having to really mess with it much by hand so I can use tex.print to get it into TeX?

I've tried using [[ ]] and \n after the %'s and various other things but nothing makes TeX happy or it can't find the macro if it does work.

Answer 1

You probably talking about heredoc syntax in Lua, guessing from your comment

I've tried using [[ ]]

Let us assume you are writing a macro that you need to capture a rather long piece of text. You can enclose it as:

    [[..]]

If it encloses other square brackets, you need to escape it as:

    ([=[[[Anger Management]]
    ...        
    ]=])

Here is a full minimal:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[listings]{tcolorbox}
\begin{document}
\begin{tcblisting}{}
\ttfamily \directlua{
 tex.sprint([=[
    [[Anger Management]]Mild-mannered timid businessman Dave Buznik who works for a pet clothing company out of New York City. He's got an abrasive boss named Mr. Frank Head who frequently takes credit for his work and steps on him in return. He's got a loving girlfriend, Linda, whose best friend is her condescending college ex, Andrew. But when a misunderstanding aboard an airplane goes haywire, Dave is ordered by the court to undergo anger management therapy at the hands of specialist Dr. Buddy Rydell, who is an unpredictable, psychopathic character. As the relationship between Dave and Buddy becomes more tense, when the unorthodox treatment wreaks havoc Dave's life, and Buddy might be the only one who can save him from a problem he recognizes right away in his patient, that could only get worse.
]=])
}
\end{tcblisting}
\end{document}

This should produce the following output:

As discussed earlier programming needs patience.

Answer 2

While it is unclear from your question what you want to do, I try to answer it.

1. Never use \directlua, use the environment luacode* from the luacode package.
2. When using the lua functions tex.sprint() or tex.print() use "-2" as the first parameter. This is a catcode table with safe catcodes. All characters such as %, $, \ have the meaning "letter" and thus don't do harm.

3. If you do need a command name in between, use tex.tprint({},{},{},{}...). In these tables you can optionally give the catcode as the first element: tex.tprint({"\\command{"},{-2,"%$~safe"},{"}"}) which yields:

   \command{%$~safe}
   

with the "meaningless" characters %$~safe