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For fun, I want to change the backslash's catcode from 0 to 12. However, I can't seem to make it work. Here's my current MWE, which gives an error "improper alphabetic constant":
\catcode`\textbackslash=12
I know that \textbackslash is not the right one, however, I can't seem to find a command for a program backslash. Could someone please help? By the way, I have the forward slash's catcode set to 0 just in case the problem is that I need to change the character for commands.
\textbackslash is just for typesetting. As the name says, it's a text command, so it just prints the character \ from the current font, and isn't of any use for anything other than that.
You are looking for:
\catcode`\\=12
The syntax for the \catcode primitive is \catcode<number>=<catcode>, and it sets the catcode of the character whose ASCII code is <number> to <catcode>. This means that you could also use:
\catcode 92=12
However it's a mouthful to remember all the ASCII codes, and your code becomes quite a lot less readable. To improve on that TeX allows you to specify a number using an “alphabetic constant”. To do that, the <number> should start with a `, followed by the character token you want to make a number of. Valid alphabetic constants are `a, `*, etc.
The only problem is that a catcode-0 character (here the backslash) doesn't produce a token, so neither:
\catcode`\=12
\catcode`\ =12
do what you want (the first one changes the catcode of =, and the second the catcode of ). To specify these characters, TeX allows you to escape the character with a backslash, so to specify the alphabeitc constant `\ you prefix it with another backslash: `\\, so:
\catcode`\\=12
\textbackslash was used for typesetting. However, it was the best I could come up with.
– Someone
May 11 '20 at 15:43
`, the next token can be either a character, or a character preceded by a backslash. In the case of \\ you need the preceding backslash because a single backslash doesn't make a token. Note that this works: \catcode`|=0 \catcode`\\=12 |catcode`\=3 |show\ because after the second \catcode, the backslash is just a character, so you don't have to prefix a backslash anymore.
– Phelype Oleinik
May 11 '20 at 16:41
92 (the ASCII code of \) when TeX is looking for a number. Everywhere else it will mean open quote and \\. Compare the output of (\number`\\)(`\\).
– Phelype Oleinik
May 12 '20 at 18:30
