Difference between revisions of "Commands with KeyVal arguments"

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Revision as of 09:46, 21 July 2004

< Inside ConTeXt


(a post on the mailing list by Taco Hoekwater from 2004-06-28:)

The 'key' to the keyval functionality in ConTeXt are two macros called \getparameters and \processaction.

Here is a 'quickstart', assuming you want to define \MyZigzag:

\unprotect % enable exclamations in macro names

\def\MyZigzag#1[#2]{% 
  % the #1 makes sure we allow a space before the bracket

  \getparameters[ZZ][Dir=,Linewidth=1pt,Color=Red,Width=3em,#2]

Now you have a set of new macros that all start with ZZ. At least there are \ZZDir,\ZZLinewidth, \ZZColor and \ZZWidth (these have default values) but possibly others as well, depending on user input.

Here's a usage example: 

 \edef\mywidth{\ZZWidth}%

If you want to use keyword values, then you also need to use \processaction.

Say you want "Dir" to be mandatory and that it accepts 4 directional keywords, as well as a direct angle specification.

I've used all mixed case keywords, because otherwise you might run into conflicts with the multilingual interface

  \expandafter\processaction\expandafter[\ZZDir]
	[Down       =>\def\Dir{270},
	 Left       =>\def\Dir{180},
   	 Up         =>\def\Dir{90},
 	 Right      =>\def\Dir{0},
	 \s!default =>\errorDir, 
	 \s!unknown =>\checkDir{\ZZDir}]
} % this brace belongs to \def!

\s!default may be triggered because \ZZDir's expansion is empty unless the user supplied something.

The first argument to \processaction has to be expanded, so you need the \expandafters.

for completeness, here is an example definition of \checkDir and \errorDir:

\def\errorDir{%
   \def\Dir{0}% error recovery
   \message{Please supply "Dir" argument}%
}

\def\checkDir#1{%
  \doifnumberelse {#1}
                  {\def\Dir{#1}}
                  {\message{Invalid "Dir" argument! (#1)}}
}

\protect % end of definitions