Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!emory!mephisto!ncsuvx!mcnc!rti!sas!bts
From: bts@sas.UUCP (Brian T. Schellenberger)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Re: TeX macro question
Message-ID: <1363@sas.UUCP>
Date: 6 Dec 89 18:19:03 GMT
Reply-To: bts@sas.UUCP (Brian T. Schellenberger)
Organization: SAS Institute Inc, Cary NC
Lines: 38

[Email bounced . . .]

In article <1706@accuvax.nwu.edu> you write:
|I am trying to understand the first example in The TeXbook in Appendix E.
|(This is a set of macros for a business letter format with a letterhead.)
|It contains the following code
|
|\def\address{\beginlinemode\getaddress}
|{\obeylines\gdef\getaddress #1
| #2
|{#1\gdef\addressee{#2}%
|etc.

TeX works like a MACRO language, so if you use

\address{a}{b}

in your text, then since the definition of address left off with 
\getaddress, it will expand to:

\beginlinemode\getaddress{a}{b}

. . . passing the arguments follow \address to \getaddress.

This is done so that the arguments will be scanned in "linemode."; otherwise,
\getaddress does the work that \address really wants to do.
-- 
-- Brian, the Man from Babble-on.		...!mcnc!rti!sas!bts
-- (Brian Schellenberger)
"No one will ever write a song called 'Nitro Burning Funny Cars'"
                 -- THE DEAD MILKMEN, "Nitro Burning Funny Cars"


-- 
-- Brian, the Man from Babble-on.		...!mcnc!rti!sas!bts
-- (Brian Schellenberger)
"No one will ever write a song called 'Nitro Burning Funny Cars'"
                 -- THE DEAD MILKMEN, "Nitro Burning Funny Cars"