Generate macros for glossary terms to improve source readability

Question

With glossaries-extra, I would like to generate macros for each glossary term to improve readability of the latex sources. I find it difficult to read text that looks like this (especially if it is a longer text):

\Glspl{pig} or \gls{pig}? \Gls{cat} or \glspl{cat}?

What's distracting me is that capitalization and number are in the command, not in the term. Ideally, the line would read,

\Pigs or \pig? \Cat or \cats?

However, that does not work because it causes trouble with the next whitespace. To deal with that problem my preferred choice is \Pigs/.

Generating macros of that form is possible using \edef in the <code> part of \glsforeachincategory{<category-list>}{<category>}{<label>}{<code>}. Making macros for plural and singular is easily achieved by appending an s to the label.

Two problems remain:

• Depending on the terms, there may be clashes with existing command names. The solution should have minimal impact both visually and in terms of character count. My current solution is to prepend x to the label, yielding \xPigs/, but I am not happy because there may still be clashes and readability could be better. Prepending _ (\_Pigs/) or . (\.Pigs/), which would be better readable, do not work. Any suggestions?

• The capitalization of the term is what I cannot get to work at all. My current solution is to capitalize the prepended x, i.e. \Xpigs/. So the question is: How to generate a macro named \xPigs/ through \defGlspl#1 (see below) when the argument expands to pig?

More general remarks or alternative approaches are welcome, too!

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[automake]{glossaries-extra}

% two glossary entries, pig and cat, for our example.
\newglossaryentry{pig}
{
    name={pig},
    description={A pig is any of the animals in the genus Sus.},
    category={animals}
}

\newglossaryentry{cat}
{
    name= {cat},
    description= {The cat (Felis catus) is a small carnivorous mammal.},
    category={animals},
}

\makeglossaries

% macros defining macros that 
% * expand to a glossary command (e.g. \gls)
% * do not inhibit readability (regarding capitalization and singular/plural))
\def\defgls#1{\expandafter\edef\csname x#1\endcsname/{\gls{#1}}}
\def\defGls#1{\expandafter\edef\csname X#1\endcsname/{\Gls{#1}}}
\def\defglspl#1{\expandafter\edef\csname x#1s\endcsname/{\glspl{#1}}}
\def\defGlspl#1{\expandafter\edef\csname X#1s\endcsname/{\Glspl{#1}}}

% apply the macros for all glossary terms in a category
\glsforeachincategory{animals}{\cat}{\lab}{%
    \defgls\lab%
    \defGls\lab%
    \defglspl\lab%
    \defGlspl\lab%
}

%%% My question %%%
% how to change \defGls#1 and \defGlspl#1 above 
% to generate the macros below that, for the demo, 
% I wrote by hand (for the pig and cat entry)
% (the difference is the capitalization of the macro name)
\def\xPigs/{\Glspl{pig}}
\def\xPig/{\Gls{pig}}
\def\xCats/{\Glspl{cat}}
\def\xCat/{\Gls{cat}}

\begin{document}

% demo

% I find this hard to read and scan for errors
\Glspl{pig} or \gls{pig}? \Gls{cat} or \glspl{cat}?

% Better:
\Xpigs/ or \xpig/? \Xcat/ or \xcats/?

% what I would like:
%% note the difference 
%% above:\Xpigs/ below: \xPigs/
%% above:\Xcat/, below:\xCat/)
\xPigs/ or \xpig/? \xCat/ or \xcats/?

\def\Pigs/{Pigs}
\def\pig/{pig}
\def\Cat/{Cat}
\def\cats/{cats}
%ideal, but unrealistic because of possible name-clashes:
\Pigs/ or \pig/? \Cat/ or \cats/?

\printglossaries

\end{document}

Answer 1

The main problem is solved, using the trick in egreg's answer to this Question.

The trick is applied in the macros \myUpper and myUpperAux in the code below - see comments there for detailed explanation.

With this code, it's possible to write \xGlossaryTerms/ where normally one would have to use \Glspl{glossaryTerm}.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[automake]{glossaries-extra}

% two glossary entries, pig and cat, for our example.
\newglossaryentry{pig}
{
    name={pig},
    description={A pig is any of the animals in the genus Sus.},
    category={animals}
}

\newglossaryentry{cat}
{
    name= {cat},
    description= {The cat (Felis catus) is a small carnivorous mammal.},
    category={animals},
}

\makeglossaries

% solution based on the accepted answer of 
% https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/57551/create-a-capitalized-macro-token-using-csname
\def\myUpperAux#1#2#3\relax{%
    % the \def here is required because \uppercase will replace tokens with 
    % their uppercase form, but will not touch control sequences.
    % With the trick from the stackexchange answer:
    % #1 is the first token of the input
    % #2 is the second token of the input
    % #3 is the rest of the input
    % we define a temporary macro for the value of #1 so it doesn't get uppercased
    % we uppercase the edef with csname
    \def\tmpMyUpperAux{#1}%
    \uppercase{\expandafter\edef\csname \tmpMyUpperAux#2}#3\endcsname/%
}
\newcommand\myUpperDef[1]{%
    % \edef here forces expansion of #1. We need it as a sequence of tokens instead of 
    % whatever control sequences it actually is because the the macro \myUpperAux 
    % wants to split off the first two tokens and uppercase the second
    \edef\myUpperDefTmp{#1}%
    \expandafter\myUpperAux\myUpperDefTmp\relax%
}


% macros defining macros that 
% * expand to a glossary command (e.g. \gls)
% * do not inhibit readability (regarding capitalization and singular/plural))
\def\defgls#1{\expandafter\edef\csname x#1\endcsname/{\gls{#1}}}
\def\defGls#1{\myUpperDef{x#1}{\Gls{#1}}}
\def\defglspl#1{\expandafter\edef\csname x#1s\endcsname/{\glspl{#1}}}
\def\defGlspl#1{\myUpperDef{x#1s}{\Glspl{#1}}}

% apply the macros for all glossary terms in a category
\glsforeachincategory{animals}{\cat}{\lab}{%
    \defgls{\lab}%
    \defGls{\lab}%
    \defglspl{\lab}%
    \defGlspl{\lab}%
}

\begin{document}

% demo

% I find this hard to read and scan for errors
\Glspl{pig} or \gls{pig}? \Gls{cat} or \glspl{cat}?

% here is the desired (but not ideal) solution:
\xPigs/ or \xpig/? \xCat/ or \xcats/?

\def\Pigs/{Pigs}
\def\pig/{pig}
\def\Cat/{Cat}
\def\cats/{cats}
% ideal, but unrealistic because of possible name-clashes:
\Pigs/ or \pig/? \Cat/ or \cats/?
% ... still interested in a better way to avoid name clashes with minimal 
% impact on source readability at the same time.

\printglossaries

\end{document}