General ⇒ why my newenvironment doesnot accept more than 1 parameters?

[zell08v]

Hello everyone,

Here is my first question. I am a newbie and trying out the newenvironment.

The following newenvironment does not compile. Anyone can explain me why? Thanks a lot.

Code: Select all

\newenvironment{add_head_tail}[2]{Head of \emph{#1}}{Head of \emph{#2}}

[zell08v]

Sorry I had forgotten posting error messages:

ERROR: Illegal parameter number in definition of \endadd_head_tail.

--- TeX said ---
<to be read again>
2
l.10 ...}[2]{Head of \emph{#1}}{Head of \emph{#2}}

--- HELP ---
This is probably caused by a \newcommand, \renewcommand,
\newenvironment, or \renewenvironment command in which a # is used
incorrectly. A # character, except as part of the command name \#,
can be used only to indicate an argument parameter, as in #2, which
denotes the second argument. This error is also caused by nesting one
of the above four commands inside another, or by putting a parameter
like #2 in the last argument of a \newenvironment or \renewenvironment
command.

[gmedina]

Hi,

your second post answers the question asked in the first one:

... or by putting a parameter like #2 in the last argument of a \newenvironment or \renewenvironment command.

So, you cannot use parameters like #2 in the ending part of the definition of a new environment. Perhaps, if you describe what you expect to achieve with the environment that you want to define, we could give you some indications.

[zell08v]

Thank you for your reply.

You are totally right. Latex doesnot permet the use of parameters in its ending part of definition. Maybe it's a designing issue who knows.

Thank you.

[josephwright]

It is indeed a design issue (which is known about).