Documentation for commands

Question

Is there a way to view the documentation for a particular command. Consider, as example \NewDocumentCommand. Is it possible to find its description and synopsis ?

No, not in the sense you're asking. Packages and classes define commands and their documentation can be found in their respective documentations. Current kernel commands are documented in the places you already know about: usrguide, clsguide and interface3. — Alan Munn, Oct 08 '23 at 01:01

Przemysław Scherwentke · Answer 1 · 2023-10-08T00:37:33.573

0

Please try:

\documentclass{article}
\show\NewDocumentCommand
\end{document}

In the terminal and the *.log file you then obtain:

> \NewDocumentCommand=\protected\long macro:
#1#2#3->\__cmd_check_definable:nNT {#1}\NewDocumentCommand {\cs_if_exist:NTF #1
{\msg_error:nnxx {cmd}{command-already-defined}{\use:nnn \token_to_str:N #1{}}{
\token_to_str:N \NewDocumentCommand }}{\__cmd_declare_cmd:Nnn #1{#2}{#3}}}.
l.3 \show\NewDocumentCommand

edited Oct 08 '23 at 00:37

answered Oct 08 '23 at 00:31

Przemysław Scherwentke

37,268

4

I'm not sure this counts as documentation. It's the definition of the macro, but doesn't tell you anything more, and for complex commands is going to be quite un-understandable. – Alan Munn Oct 08 '23 at 00:57
It also doesn't work for everything. – cfr Oct 08 '23 at 01:45
@cfr Certainly. I didn't call \the and so on. – Przemysław Scherwentke Oct 08 '23 at 01:59
Try \show\textit (for example). – cfr Oct 08 '23 at 02:06
1

@cfr \ShowCommand\textit – David Carlisle Oct 08 '23 at 06:40

Documentation for commands

1 Answers1