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From: hersh@bbn.com (Hershel Safer)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex,bbn.tex
Subject: Labels that store the kind of object being labeled
Keywords: labels
Message-ID: <63335@bbn.BBN.COM>
Date: 20 Mar 91 15:48:51 GMT
Sender: news@bbn.com
Reply-To: hersh@BBN.COM ()
Followup-To: comp.text.tex
Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Cambridge MA
Lines: 47


Rather than write

	Theorem~\ref{foo}

all the time, I use

	\newcommand{\thmref}[1]{Theorem~\ref{#1}} .

Actually, it's fancier; since I may want the same label for a theorem,
an associated figure, and the section in which they are found, I have

	\newcommand{\thmref}[1]{Theorem~\ref{th:#1}} ,
	\newcommand{\secref}[1]{Section~\ref{s:#1}} ,

and a variety of other referencing commands with different prefixes.  I
also have corresponding labeling commands, such as

	\newcommand{\thmlabel}[1]{\label{th:#1}} and
	\newcommand{\seclabel}[1]{\label{s:#1}} .

Here's the problem.  Suppose that I change a theorem to a proposition.
Changing \thmlabel to \proplabel is easy enough, but then I also have to
change all references to the claim from \thmref to \propref.

What I would like is a single labeling command and a single referencing
command.  The labeling command would take two arguments; the first would
be the _kind_ of item and the second would be the label.  It would store
the kind of item.

The referencing command would take a single argument, the label.  It
would use the stored item information to prepend the correct word to the
reference number.

Any references to existing solutions or suggestions for how to do this?
Either TeX or LaTeX would be fine.  Thank you.

-- Hershel Safer

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-- Hershel