Combining lstinline escapes with a macro

Question

I tried to use the escapechar option with lstinline. In order to "activate it", I used the approach described here. However, when using it within a macro, it breaks. This is shown below. Is there a way to fix this?

\documentclass{article}

%for lstinline
\usepackage{listings}

%for highlighting
\usepackage{xcolor}

%to allow escapechar inside lstinline
\usepackage{etoolbox}
\makeatletter
\patchcmd{\lsthk@TextStyle}{\let\lst@DefEsc\@empty}{}{}{\errmessage{failed to patch}}
\makeatother

%the example macro
\def\mymacro#1{\lstinline[escapechar=§]|§#1§|}

%for demonstration purposes
\def\perfectly{perfectly}

%highlight lstinline
\lstset{
    basicstyle=\ttfamily\color{blue}
}

\begin{document}
    \lstinline[escapechar=§]|works §\perfectly§| - listinline no more active

    \mymacro{doesn't work} - lstinline is still active here
\end{document}

Answer 1

If you really want to have this done via the listings-package:

I don't know what TeX-engine you use (whether it is based on traditional TeX with single-byte/8bit-ASCII as internal character-representation scheme or it is based on XeTeX/LuaTeX with multi-byte-utf8/unicode as internal character-representation scheme).

Therefore in the example below the single-byte -encoding latin1 is specified as input-encoding explicitly. If you wish to copy-paste the example for testing, make sure that the resulting text-file on your platform also is latin1-encoded. (Or adjust the call to the inputenc-package to that 8bit/single-byte-encoding in use on your platform.)

---

As long as \mymacro does always get its arguments by reading and tokenizing portions of the .tex-input-file and does never get things passed as arguments by other macros (whereby things probably got tokenized under the wrong category-code-régime when the arguments were gathered for those other macros before passing them on to \mymacro), you can have \mymacro read and tokenize its arguments under verbatim-catcode-régime and then pass them, inclusive the call to \lstinline, to \scantokens.

For having \mymacro read and tokenize its arguments under verbatim-catcode-régime I use the +v-argument-type provided by the xparse-package.

The process is straightforward:

\mymacro inside a newly opened local scope changes some category-codes and TeX-parameters. Then it calls \innermymacro. \innermymacro gathers three arguments under verbatim-catcode-régime and surrounds them with phrases (phrase 1: \lstinline[escapechar=§]|, phrase 2: §, phrase 3: |%), which at the time of defining \innermymacro also were gathered under verbatim-catcode-régime. This way you get a sequence in terms of tokens in verbatim-catcode-régime
\lstinline[escapechar=§]|<Argument 1>§<Argument2>§<Argument3>|%.
This sequence is passed on to \scantokens, prefixed by \endgroup so that the first thing that happens at the time when \scantokens re-tokenizes and processes things will be closing the local scope.

\documentclass{article}

% You need some 8bit-encoding with the listings-package:
\usepackage[latin1]{inputenc}
% xparse's verbatim-arguments are handy:
\usepackage{xparse}%
% To allow patching commands:
\usepackage{etoolbox}
% To typeset code-listings:
\usepackage{listings}
% To allow escapechar inside lstinline:
\makeatletter
\patchcmd{\lsthk@TextStyle}{\let\lst@DefEsc\@empty}{}{}{\errmessage{failed to patch}}
\makeatother
% For highlighting:
\usepackage{xcolor}

% The example macro's syntax:
%
% \mymacro{<stuff inside \lstinline before the LaTeX-escape>}%
%         {<stuff inside \lstinline inside the LaTeX-escape>}%
%         {<stuff inside \lstinline after the LaTeX-escape>}%
%
\newcommand*\mymacro{%
  \begingroup
  \catcode`\^^I=12\relax
  \catcode`\^^M=12\relax
  \newlinechar=\endlinechar\relax
  \innermymacro
}%
\NewDocumentCommand\innermymacro{+v+v+v}{%
  \RenewDocumentCommand\innermymacro{+v+v+v}{%
     \scantokens{\endgroup#1##1#2##2#2##3#3}%
  }%
}%
\innermymacro{\lstinline[escapechar=§]|}{§}{|%}%

%for demonstration purposes
\def\perfectly{perfectly}

%highlight lstinline
\lstset{
    basicstyle=\ttfamily\color{blue}
}

\begin{document}
\lstinline[escapechar=§]|works §\perfectly§| -- listinline no more active

\mymacro{Before \LaTeX-escape. }%
        {{\frenchspacing Inside \LaTeX-escape: \perfectly.}}%
        { After \LaTeX-escape.} -- lstinline no more active

\end{document}