Combining DefineVerbatimEnvironment with UseVerbatim

Question

I would like to combine the power of \DefineVerbatimEnvironment with \UseVerbatim within a combined beamer presentation and handout scenario. I have already defined the environment coding, and now I can typeset my code using

\begin{coding}
  foo->bar( ).
\end{coding}

I can also define and re-use verbatim snippets in their stand-alone version:

\begin{SaveVerbatim}{Foo}
  foo->bar( ).
\end{SaveVerbatim}

\UseVerbatim{Foo}

The problem is that the latter is typeset using the default fancyvrb options. How can I combine the two so that the saved text is displayed using my custom environment?

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{fancyvrb}

\DefineVerbatimEnvironment{coding}{Verbatim}{numbers=left,fontsize=\small}

\begin{document}

\begin{coding}
  foo->bar( ).
\end{coding}

Yup. This works.

\begin{SaveVerbatim}{Foo}
  foo->bar( ).
  boo->baz( ).
  cat->code( ).
\end{SaveVerbatim}

\UseVerbatim{Foo}
\UseVerbatim{Foo}
\UseVerbatim{Foo}

Yup, this works as well -- but it uses the default format, not my custom environment: larger font, no line numbers.

\end{document}

It would be best if you posted a complete minimal working example (MWE). In lieu of that you can pass the same options to SaveVerbatim as you used to create the coding environment. — Andrew Swann, Mar 10 '13 at 14:50
@AndrewSwann: I've added the MNWE. Passing the options to SaveVerbatim won't work in my case, because I need slightly different environment definitions for the slides and the handouts (different font sizes). — vwegert, Mar 10 '13 at 15:02
The fontsize can be passed to the \UseVerbatim command as an optional argument, e.g. \UseVerbatim[fontsize=\small]{Foo}. However, line numbering doesn't seem to work in this set-up. — Andrew Swann, Mar 10 '13 at 15:45

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 10 '13 at 08:05

Taking a look inside fancyvrb, there is a mechanism to extend existing or create new verbatim commands in quite a general way. The key is \FV@Command, which takes a keyval list of settings and an 'internal' command to execute. You'll find that \UseVerbatim is defined as

\def\UseVerbatim{\FV@Command{}{UseVerbatim}}

This suggests a couple of fixes. First, you could simply redefine \UseVerbatim to use your settings:

\def\UseVerbatim{\FV@Command{numbers=left,fontsize=\small}{UseVerbatim}}

Alternatively, you could create a related command, say \UseCoding, and leave \UseVerabtim alone:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{fancyvrb}

\DefineVerbatimEnvironment{coding}{Verbatim}{numbers=left,fontsize=\small}
\makeatletter
\def\UseCoding{\FV@Command{numbers=left,fontsize=\small}{UseVerbatim}}
\makeatother
\begin{document}

\begin{coding}
  foo->bar( ).
\end{coding}

Yup. This works.

\begin{SaveVerbatim}{Foo}
  foo->bar( ).
  boo->baz( ).
  cat->code( ).
\end{SaveVerbatim}

\UseCoding{Foo}

\end{document}

If you want to be really systematic, it would also be possible to create a SaveCoding environment, although that's probably overkill.

Combining DefineVerbatimEnvironment with UseVerbatim

1 Answers1