Ignore commands when compiling

Question

I have defined some custom commands that I use for TODO-notes. If I write a note i use the command \stefan{}.

Now I want to define a new command, for example \supervisor{}.

I need a way to get LaTeX to ignore either one of the commands. When \supervisor is disabled I will want the \stefan command to get compiled.

Is this even possible?

Answer 1

You could do this from the command line. Take @PeterGrill's basic document:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\newcommand{\stefan}[1]{\textcolor{red}{#1}}
\newcommand{\supervisor}[1]{\textcolor{red}{#1}}

\begin{document}
Some text. \supervisor{Correct this!!}

Some text. \stefan{Correct this also!!}
\end{document}

This will give you all the comments. Then create a .sty file, which could be as simple as:

% disable various comments
\renewcommand{\stefan}[1]{}

Then, when you want to 'hide' various comments, compile from the command line:

pdflatex "\AtBeginDocument{\input{mycomments.sty}}\input{masterfile.tex}" 

Or compile normally when you want all comments to appear.

Or, perhaps even more elegantly, you could implement @PeterGrill's suggestion:

Use the following (say) file commentcommands.sty:

\ifdefined\SupervisorMode
% re-define various commenting commands to do nothing
\renewcommand{\stephan}[1]{}
% ... etc., etc.
\fi

Then load commentcommands.sty after the original comment commands in the master file:

\usepackage{commentcommands}

Then, when you want to 'disable' the various commands in the document you hand to your supervisor, run the command as:

pdflatex "\def\Supervisormode{}\input{masterfile.tex}"

This does have the advantage of a clearer call to pdflatex, which you could also put into a makefile if you were so inclined.

Answer 2

If I understand you correctly, one way would be to use \ifdefined\supervisor to test if \supervisor was defined, and if so redefine the \stefan macro:

Notes:

• If you are using the todonotes package, you can use \usepackage[disable]{todonotes}

Code:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xcolor}

\newcommand{\stefan}[1]{\textcolor{red}{Stefan's Comment: #1}}

\newcommand{\supervisor}[1]{}


\begin{document}
Some text. \stefan{Correct this!!}

\ifdefined\supervisor
    \renewcommand{\stefan}[1]{}
\fi

Some text. \stefan{Correct this also!!}
\end{document}

Answer 3

You could use some boolean too.

For example:

\documentclass{article}

\makeatletter
\newif\if@supervisor 
\newcommand\stefan[1]{\if@supervisor\else#1\fi}
\newcommand\supervisor[1]{\if@supervisor#1\fi}

% toggle supervisor mode
\newcommand\supervisormode{\@supervisortrue}
\newcommand\notsupervisormode{\@supervisorfalse}
\notsupervisormode

\makeatother

\begin{document}

  \supervisormode
  \stefan{This is stefan comment}
  \supervisor{This is supervisor comment}

\end{document}