\documentclass[a4paper]{article} \usepackage[dvips,a4paper]{geometry} \usepackage{verbdef} \verbdef\verbdefcmd|\verbdef| \providecommand\cs[1]{\texttt{\char`\\#1}} \begin{document} \title{The \textsf{verbdef} package\thanks{This documents version 0.2, of 2000-10-06}} \author{Robin Fairbairns} \maketitle \section{What is it for?} Verbatim text is notoriously difficult in \TeX{}; in \LaTeX{} it adds confusion by being ``more fragile than fragile''. This package provides one way out of the impasse: the command \verbdefcmd, which defines a robust command that expands to verbatim text. \section{Using \verbdefcmd} The \verbdefcmd{} command can take an its verbatim string between matching characters, as \cs{verb} does: \begin{quote} \verbdefcmd\cs{demo}\texttt{|demonstration text|} \end{quote} or you may give it a more normal-looking argument: \begin{quote} \verbdefcmd\cs{demo}\texttt{\char`\{demonstration text\char`\}} \end{quote} The command also respects ``\texttt{*}'', as it's used in \cs{verb} and the \texttt{verbatim} environment: \begin{quote} \verbdefcmd\texttt{*}\cs{stardemo}\texttt{\char`\{with visible spaces\char`\}} \end{quote} % % another self-reference... \verbdef*\stardemo{with visible spaces}% which will define a verbatim text \stardemo{} (just like that). \section{Caveat} If the command you're defining with \verbdefcmd{} is to be used in a \cs{section}-type command, or a \cs{caption}, it's going to appear in the table of contents (or list of whatever else). In this case you \emph{must} define the command before the \cs{tableofcontents} command (or whatever). I recommend defining such commands in the preamble of the document\footnote{In fact, the source of the present document is so structured, since \verbdefcmd{} is used to define a command for \verbdefcmd\dots}. \end{document}