Text Formatting ⇒ Best practice to define a command for horizontal space?

[kornaros]

I try to make a useful command that enters a horizontal space of any length(possitive or negative). Something like

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\newcommand{\myhorspace}[1][0.1pt]{%
\hspace{#1}%
%}

I do not if \hspace is test practice for such commands and for any use(text or math)!

Maybe it is better to define \myhorspace using \kern command but I do not know if it will work well for maths. Also I do not know if \kern and \hspace are related or are equivalent in general.
Could you please give me some advice?

[Johannes_B]

Probably, hspcace* is what you are looking for.

It also works at the beginning of a line.

But i fear, i am givng you bad advice, because this might be an XY question and you just mention the way you think is best to get there.

[kornaros]

Thanks Johannes_B! I am confused sometimes because there many ways to do the same thing in LaTeX! For example, there are many ways for horizontal or vertical space but it is hard to see which is more configurable.. Anyway ...maybe you are right. Do you know if kern and hspace are somehow equivalent for no-math texts?

[Johannes_B]

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\DeclareRobustCommand\hspace{\@ifstar\@hspacer\@hspace}
\def\@hspace#1{\hskip #1\relax}
\def\@hspacer#1{\vrule \@width\z@\nobreak
                \hskip #1\hskip \z@skip}

hskip as well as kern are TeX primitives (which LaTeX is based on). So, that tells us they are different.

hskip, meaning some horizontal skipping

The implementation of kern from tex.web:

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@ A |kern_node| has a |width| field to specify a (normally negative)
amount of spacing. This spacing correction appears in horizontal lists
between letters like A and V when the font designer said that it looks
better to move them closer together or further apart. A kern node can
also appear in a vertical list, when its `|width|' denotes additional
spacing in the vertical direction. The |subtype| is either |normal| (for
kerns inserted from font information or math mode calculations) or |explicit|
(for kerns inserted from \.{\\kern} and \.{\\/} commands) or |acc_kern|
(for kerns inserted from non-math accents) or |mu_glue| (for kerns
inserted from \.{\\mkern} specifications in math formulas).

So, kern has a completely different purpose.

[kornaros]

Thanks Johannes_B for this useful information!