> > Can I define:
> >
> > \newcommand{\ob}{\textbf\{}
> > \newcommand{\cb}{\}}
>
> You can use \bgroup and \egroup; in your example
>
> \newcommand{\ob}{\textbf\bgroup}
> \newcommand{\cb}{\egroup}

Did you try this? :-)

You could write

\newcommand{\ob}{\bgroup\bf}

with the plain TeX \bf, but \textbf takes an argument, thus you need _explicit_ braces (neither { nor \bgroup)! (But you can let \ob take an argument delimited by \cb, as Donald already suggested.

Peter

> \def\ob#1\cb{\textbf{#1}}

\ob A brace looks like \verb+{+ \eb

My solution (see separate post) does not fall apart in such cases.

David Kastrup

> Can I define:
>
> \newcommand{\ob}{\textbf\{}
> \newcommand{\cb}{\}}
>
> Then "This is \ob boldface \cb. "

\newcommand{\ob}{\expandafter\textbf\expandafter{\iffalse}\fi}

\newcommand{\cb}{\iffalse{\fi}}

A pity this does not work since \textbf is a macro all by itself. So you rather want to use \bfseries instead of \textbf.

David Kastrup

How about paragraphs in parameter?

\def\tb#1\te{%
\begin{tabular}{ll}
paragraph & \parbox[t]{0.8\linewidth}{#1}
\end{tabular}
}

\tb
    The content here are
    Indented.
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

\te

	!!

Runaway argument? The content here are Indented. blah blah blah blah blah blah blah bla\ETC. ! Paragraph ended before \tb was complete. <to be read again> \par l.41

I suspect you've forgotten a `}', causing me to apply this control sequence to too much text. How can we recover? My plan is to forget the whole thing and hope for the best.

! Undefined control sequence. l.42 \te

	!!

This works:

\newcommand{\tb}{
\begin{tabular}{ll}
paragraph & \parbox[t]{0.8\linewidth}
}

\newcommand{\te}{\end{tabular}}

\tb{
    The content here are
    Indented.
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

}\te

documented on: 2004.02.06 Fri