General ⇒ When can \newcommand not replace \def ?

[deniss]

I am wondering about the general equivalence of \newcommand and the TeX primitive \def. The authors of main LaTeX books advise against using \def and for using \newcommand instead. But I distinctly remember reading that in certain instances, \def must be used instead of \newcommand... Could anyone please give some examples of such instances and some general guidelines?

[sommerfee]

Could anyone please give some examples of such instances and some general guidelines?

\newcommand and \renewcommand are limited in parsing arguments. For example things like

Code: Select all

\def\@tempb#1=#2\@nil{#1}

or

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\long\def\@caption#1[#2]#3{%
  ...}

are not possible using \newcommand.

As a generic guideline I would say use \newcommand preferred to \def, if possible, so one would not accidently overwrite an already-defined command.