Make your own .sty files

Question

Sorry to start a subjective question, but want to understand "own.sty" file.

Other than all \usepackage{} what sort of other commands can be added to the makeyourown.sty file. Can you include \let command, and \newcommands in it.

What sort of precaution / structure newbies should follow.

Answer 1

Here is a skeleton for an own package:

% this is my first package
% 
% (c) Buffalo Bill
%
%% This program can be redistributed and/or modified under the terms
%% of the LaTeX Project Public License Distributed from CTAN archives
%% in directory macros/latex/base/lppl.txt.
% 
\NeedsTeXFormat{LaTeX2e}[1994/06/01]
\ProvidesPackage{mypackage}
  [2011/01/11 v0.01 LaTeX package for my own purpose]

\RequirePackage{whateverwe need}
\newcommand{\hi}{Hello, this is my own package}
\let\myDate\date
\newcommand\GoodBye[1][\bfseries]{{#1Good Bye}}

\endinput
%%
%% End of file `mypackage.sty'.

You can put mypackage.sty in the same directory as the .tex file, into ~/texmf, or somewhere else in latex's package search path—see $ less "$(kpsewhich texmf.cnf)"

Answer 2

Package files are just input literally, so you can use any command that you can use in document files. Most often it makes sense to include a small amount of identification metadata, to support options, etc.; see clsguide.pdf (texdoc clsguide) for a good introduction.