What is the difference between newcommand and newcommand* (or, similarly, renewcommand and renewcommand*)? I read on TeX Frequently Asked Questions that newcommand "defines a \long version of the command," but I'm not certain what they mean.
Perhaps the biggest issue is that I need to learn what \long does....
General ⇒ newcommand vs newcommand*
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newcommand vs newcommand*
Hi,
The \long prefix indicates that the arguments of the macro being defined may contain \par tokens.
\newcommand* behaves like \newcommand, but it defines a command that is not long; i.e., it does not accept empty lines or \par in its argument.
In TeX terms, \def is equivalent to \newcommand* and \long\def is equivalent to \newcommand.
The \long prefix indicates that the arguments of the macro being defined may contain \par tokens.
\newcommand* behaves like \newcommand, but it defines a command that is not long; i.e., it does not accept empty lines or \par in its argument.
In TeX terms, \def is equivalent to \newcommand* and \long\def is equivalent to \newcommand.
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josephwright
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Re: newcommand vs newcommand*
For most purposes, you should use \newcommand*. The \long nature of \newcommand is normally not needed for user macros. (In the same way, using the TeX primitives I prefer \def to \long\def unless I really need to accept paragraphs.)
Joseph Wright