Next word macro inside braces

Question

I have defined a macro that highlights the next word using

\def!##1 {\hkw{##1} }%

where in this scope, ! is an active character. So it works fine to write.

\emph{This is a !good example}

but not

\emph{This example is !good}

where it would complain about ! Argument of ! has an extra }..

Is there a nice way to let ! consider everything up to the next space, but at most everything in the current group, as its argument?

Only if you use another macro instead of \emph (or change it, not recommended). — egreg, Jul 17 '15 at 09:53
The emph is just an example; for what it’s worth it could be just a group on its own, e.g. {!good}. — Joachim Breitner, Jul 17 '15 at 10:28
You can't have a macro with two distinct delimiters. I consider this sort of thing as bad markup, anyway. — egreg, Jul 17 '15 at 10:47

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:34

I took Martin’s answer to a related question and simplified it a bit:

With this code

\documentclass{article}


% next word parser, based on https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/11925/15107
\makeatletter
\def\consumenextword#1{%
  \begingroup
  \let\@cmd#1%
  \def\@selectedword{}%
  \consumenextword@
}

\def\consumenextword@{%
  \futurelet\ntoken\consumenextword@@
}

\def\consumenextword@@{%
  \ifcase 0%
    \ifx\ntoken\@sptoken 0\else
    \ifcat a\ntoken 1\else
    \ifcat 0\ntoken 2\fi% test of token is catcode "other"
    \fi\fi
  \relax
    \expandafter\consumenextword@end
  \or
    \expandafter\consumenextword@add
  \else
    \expandafter\consumenextword@checknum
  \fi
}

% Checks if token is a number (ASCII 48-57)
\def\consumenextword@checknum#1{%
  \ifcase 0%
    \ifnum`#1>47
    \ifnum`#1<58 1\fi\fi
  \relax
    \def\next{\consumenextword@end#1}%
  \else
    \def\next{\consumenextword@add{#1}}%
  \fi
  \next
}

\def\consumenextword@add#1{%
  \edef\@selectedword{\@selectedword#1}%
  \consumenextword@
}

\def\consumenextword@end{%
  \@cmd\@selectedword%
  \endgroup%
}
\makeatother

\catcode`!=\active
\def!{\consumenextword{\textbf}}


\begin{document}
This is a !good example, and this !is2. Also works at the end of the !Line

And well well in an \textit{!argument}.
\end{document}

I get this output:

Example output

Next word macro inside braces

1 Answers1