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From: rph@cs.brown.edu (Richard Hughey)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Re: Redefining a macro in terms of itself
Message-ID: <61587@brunix.UUCP>
Date: 15 Jan 91 19:17:01 GMT
References: <1991Jan15.061451@bcat1.prime.com> <16221@chopin.udel.edu>
Sender: news@brunix.UUCP
Reply-To: rph@cs.brown.edu (Richard Hughey)
Organization: Brown University Department of Computer Science
Lines: 35

In article <16221@chopin.udel.edu> anita@chopin.udel.edu (Anita Marie Hoover) writes:
>In article <1991Jan15.061451@bcat1.prime.com> kjg@s49.prime.com writes:
>>I stumbled while attempting
>>to redefine \tableofcontents and \marginpar in terms of themselves. 
>>This is what my intention is:
>>
>>\renewcommand{\tableofcontents}{\parskip 0in \tableofcontents}
>
>The way to redefine such macros is to go to the style file and get the
>definition and make it part of your private LaTeX style file.  So

To make it less style file dependent (in case the style file is
updated), a better command would be

\let\original@tableofcontents=\tableofcontents
\renewcommand{\tableofcontents}{\parskip 0pt \original@tableofcontents}

This won't work for changes which cannot be placed at the start
or end of a command, in which case defining the whole macro
will be required.


    	- Richard








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