2

When reading several dtx files in order to write my own, I saw the command \SB@... in front of several other commands. What does it mean? I could not find reliable sources as explanation.

arc_lupus
  • 1,781
  • See for example http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/8351/what-do-makeatletter-and-makeatother-do (there are others about the use of @). – Joseph Wright Jan 20 '16 at 23:11

1 Answers1

4

It is not in front of the command it is part of the command, in packages @ is a letter so \SB@foobar is just the command with name \SB@foobar package authors often use such a naming scheme to avoid clashes with other packages.

In this case the songs package author has used this naming scheme

 \def\SB@star...

so \SB@star could have been called \zzzstar the @ has no special role here other than for example all longtable package internals are called \LT@... so the chance of two packages clashing is reduced.

David Carlisle
  • 757,742