[texhax] saved macro files?

Barbara Beeton bnb at ams.org
Fri Nov 11 20:55:12 CET 2005


    I make extensive use of TeX macros (we use plain old TeX on Mac OS9), and
    I'd love it if there were an easy way to apply different macro files,
    depending on the document, so I didn't have to keep switching and (argh)
    re-entering the macros every darn time I switch projects.

if you really *do* mean "plain tex", not latex,
it's possible to define a few switches in your file
and do different things depending on the settings.

there's a very nice example of this in michael doob's
"gentle introduction to tex" (search ctan for "gentle"),
where he
 - selects a particular set of fonts (\ifamrfonts)
 - selects canadian or u.s. spelling (\ifcanspell)
although all the necessary macros are there in that
file, using a switch to select what macro files to
read in.  then only the switches need to be changed
for a particular run.

alternatively, you can write a couple of "wrapper
files":

  \input <macro files for the particular case>
  \input <data file>
							-- bb



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