Gdtyjr

How to explain what's wrong with this application of the chain rule?

How does electrical safety system work on ISS?

What features enable the Su-25 Frogfoot to operate with such a wide variety of fuels?

Do we have to expect a queue for the shuttle from Watford Junction to Harry Potter Studio?

Microchip documentation does not label CAN buss pins on micro controller pinout diagram

What is Cash Advance APR?

awk assign to multiple variables at once

Has any country ever had 2 former presidents in jail simultaneously?

What fields between the rationals and the reals allow a good notion of 2D distance?

Is this toilet slogan correct usage of the English language?

How to convince somebody that he is fit for something else, but not this job?

Is it allowed to activate the ability of multiple planeswalkers in a single turn?

What does "Scientists rise up against statistical significance" mean? (Comment in Nature)

The IT department bottlenecks progress, how should I handle this?

Why is it that I can sometimes guess the next note?

What kind of floor tile is this?

Which Article Helped Get Rid of Technobabble in RPGs?

Review your own paper in Mathematics

Is there a RAID 0 Equivalent for RAM?

Biological Blimps: Propulsion

A Trivial Diagnosis

Non-trope happy ending?

Is it ethical to recieve stipend after publishing enough papers?

How could a planet have erratic days?

What does nop mean and how to use it

Comment out `lstinputlisting` without actually removing themWhat does marks do?What does @let@token do?What does ifx\#1\ stand for?What do newcommand, renewcommand, and providecommand do, and how do they differ?What does p@ mean in some code?What's the difference between format and macro language?What does the command ifCLASSINFOpdf mean?What does csappto does and where does it come from?How does delimiter work? How does it convert its argument into character(s?) and why?What does bbbn mean?

4

I wonder what does the nop mean, and how does it work? I Googled it but couldn't find a good answer, for example, I found something like:

newcommandnop[1]

in my .tex file, so what does it mean?

macros

share|improve this question

edited Apr 16 '13 at 14:34

Werner

448k709921697

asked Apr 16 '13 at 14:32

daiyuedaiyue

2672512

add a comment | 

4

I wonder what does the nop mean, and how does it work? I Googled it but couldn't find a good answer, for example, I found something like:

newcommandnop[1]

in my .tex file, so what does it mean?

macros

share|improve this question

edited Apr 16 '13 at 14:34

Werner

448k709921697

asked Apr 16 '13 at 14:32

daiyuedaiyue

2672512

add a comment | 

I wonder what does the nop mean, and how does it work? I Googled it but couldn't find a good answer, for example, I found something like:

newcommandnop[1]

in my .tex file, so what does it mean?

macros

share|improve this question

edited Apr 16 '13 at 14:34

Werner

448k709921697

asked Apr 16 '13 at 14:32

daiyuedaiyue

2672512

newcommandnop[1]

share|improve this question

edited Apr 16 '13 at 14:34

Werner

448k709921697

asked Apr 16 '13 at 14:32

daiyuedaiyue

2672512

share|improve this question

edited Apr 16 '13 at 14:34

Werner

448k709921697

asked Apr 16 '13 at 14:32

daiyuedaiyue

2672512

edited Apr 16 '13 at 14:34

Werner

448k709921697

edited Apr 16 '13 at 14:34

Werner

448k709921697

asked Apr 16 '13 at 14:32

daiyuedaiyue

2672512

asked Apr 16 '13 at 14:32

daiyuedaiyue

2672512

1 Answer
1

active

oldest

votes

6

In your example, nop is defined to take a single argument and do nothing with it. As such, nop literally translates to "perform no operation", or "gobble your argument". In fact, there exists a similar core macro @gobble (and friends) which does exactly the same (from latex.ltx:

longdef @gobble #1
longdef @gobbletwo #1#2
longdef @gobblefour #1#2#3#4

The first gobbles a single argument, making @gobble<anything> expand to nothing. The second gobbles two arguments, making @gobbletwo<anything><anything> expand to nothing, and so on.

What's the use case here? Well, perhaps you define a macro that writes something in the margin, like a "to do" note:

newcommandmymacro[1]marginparDo #1

Now, later in your production, you decide that this operation is no longer valid/useful. So, you can make mymacro act like nop and do nothing, which allows you to leave your code as-is:

letmymacronop

or, at definition in your preamble, change it to a no-op:

newcommandmymacro[1]

share|improve this answer

answered Apr 16 '13 at 14:37

WernerWerner

448k709921697

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  another thing that confused me is that any paragraph that is enclosed in this nop command using the macro in the example, is disappeared, so i wonder why.
  
  – daiyue
  Apr 16 '13 at 14:46
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @daiyue -- making anything presented as an argument to nop disappear is exactly its purpose.
  
  – barbara beeton
  Apr 16 '13 at 14:52
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Something like nop is also frequently used in conjunction with BibTeX to fix the sorting order.
  
  – mafp
  Apr 16 '13 at 15:49
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  The nop definition in the question, produces an extra space.
  
  – ctrl-alt-delor
  Jul 8 '18 at 17:35
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @ctrl-alt-delor: you can add ignorespaces or unskip or use a trailing %.
  
  – Werner
  Jul 8 '18 at 18:41
  

  
  
  
  

 | 
show 1 more comment

Your Answer

StackExchange.ready(function()
var channelOptions =
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "85"
;
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function()
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled)
StackExchange.using("snippets", function()
createEditor();
);

else
createEditor();

);

function createEditor()
StackExchange.prepareEditor(
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader:
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
,
onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
);



);

draft saved

draft discarded

Sign up or log in

StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
);

Sign up using Google

Sign up using Facebook

Sign up using Email and Password

Post as a guest

Name

Email

Required, but never shown

StackExchange.ready(
function ()
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2ftex.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f109039%2fwhat-does-nop-mean-and-how-to-use-it%23new-answer', 'question_page');

);

Post as a guest

Name

Email

Required, but never shown

6

In your example, nop is defined to take a single argument and do nothing with it. As such, nop literally translates to "perform no operation", or "gobble your argument". In fact, there exists a similar core macro @gobble (and friends) which does exactly the same (from latex.ltx:

longdef @gobble #1
longdef @gobbletwo #1#2
longdef @gobblefour #1#2#3#4

The first gobbles a single argument, making @gobble<anything> expand to nothing. The second gobbles two arguments, making @gobbletwo<anything><anything> expand to nothing, and so on.

What's the use case here? Well, perhaps you define a macro that writes something in the margin, like a "to do" note:

newcommandmymacro[1]marginparDo #1

Now, later in your production, you decide that this operation is no longer valid/useful. So, you can make mymacro act like nop and do nothing, which allows you to leave your code as-is:

letmymacronop

or, at definition in your preamble, change it to a no-op:

newcommandmymacro[1]

share|improve this answer

answered Apr 16 '13 at 14:37

WernerWerner

448k709921697

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  another thing that confused me is that any paragraph that is enclosed in this nop command using the macro in the example, is disappeared, so i wonder why.
  
  – daiyue
  Apr 16 '13 at 14:46
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @daiyue -- making anything presented as an argument to nop disappear is exactly its purpose.
  
  – barbara beeton
  Apr 16 '13 at 14:52
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Something like nop is also frequently used in conjunction with BibTeX to fix the sorting order.
  
  – mafp
  Apr 16 '13 at 15:49
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  The nop definition in the question, produces an extra space.
  
  – ctrl-alt-delor
  Jul 8 '18 at 17:35
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @ctrl-alt-delor: you can add ignorespaces or unskip or use a trailing %.
  
  – Werner
  Jul 8 '18 at 18:41
  

  
  
  
  

 | 
show 1 more comment

6

In your example, nop is defined to take a single argument and do nothing with it. As such, nop literally translates to "perform no operation", or "gobble your argument". In fact, there exists a similar core macro @gobble (and friends) which does exactly the same (from latex.ltx:

longdef @gobble #1
longdef @gobbletwo #1#2
longdef @gobblefour #1#2#3#4

The first gobbles a single argument, making @gobble<anything> expand to nothing. The second gobbles two arguments, making @gobbletwo<anything><anything> expand to nothing, and so on.

What's the use case here? Well, perhaps you define a macro that writes something in the margin, like a "to do" note:

newcommandmymacro[1]marginparDo #1

Now, later in your production, you decide that this operation is no longer valid/useful. So, you can make mymacro act like nop and do nothing, which allows you to leave your code as-is:

letmymacronop

or, at definition in your preamble, change it to a no-op:

newcommandmymacro[1]

share|improve this answer

answered Apr 16 '13 at 14:37

WernerWerner

448k709921697

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  another thing that confused me is that any paragraph that is enclosed in this nop command using the macro in the example, is disappeared, so i wonder why.
  
  – daiyue
  Apr 16 '13 at 14:46
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @daiyue -- making anything presented as an argument to nop disappear is exactly its purpose.
  
  – barbara beeton
  Apr 16 '13 at 14:52
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Something like nop is also frequently used in conjunction with BibTeX to fix the sorting order.
  
  – mafp
  Apr 16 '13 at 15:49
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  The nop definition in the question, produces an extra space.
  
  – ctrl-alt-delor
  Jul 8 '18 at 17:35
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @ctrl-alt-delor: you can add ignorespaces or unskip or use a trailing %.
  
  – Werner
  Jul 8 '18 at 18:41
  

  
  
  
  

 | 
show 1 more comment

In your example, nop is defined to take a single argument and do nothing with it. As such, nop literally translates to "perform no operation", or "gobble your argument". In fact, there exists a similar core macro @gobble (and friends) which does exactly the same (from latex.ltx:

longdef @gobble #1
longdef @gobbletwo #1#2
longdef @gobblefour #1#2#3#4

The first gobbles a single argument, making @gobble<anything> expand to nothing. The second gobbles two arguments, making @gobbletwo<anything><anything> expand to nothing, and so on.

What's the use case here? Well, perhaps you define a macro that writes something in the margin, like a "to do" note:

newcommandmymacro[1]marginparDo #1

Now, later in your production, you decide that this operation is no longer valid/useful. So, you can make mymacro act like nop and do nothing, which allows you to leave your code as-is:

letmymacronop

or, at definition in your preamble, change it to a no-op:

newcommandmymacro[1]

share|improve this answer

answered Apr 16 '13 at 14:37

WernerWerner

448k709921697

longdef @gobble #1
longdef @gobbletwo #1#2
longdef @gobblefour #1#2#3#4

newcommandmymacro[1]marginparDo #1

letmymacronop

newcommandmymacro[1]

share|improve this answer

answered Apr 16 '13 at 14:37

WernerWerner

448k709921697

answered Apr 16 '13 at 14:37

WernerWerner

448k709921697

answered Apr 16 '13 at 14:37

WernerWerner

448k709921697