Understanding few commands from package TIPA - TeX

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Top Answer

Skillmon

As already mentioned in my comment, these commands are defined with `\DeclareTextCommand` inside of `t3enc.def`. If you want to change them you have to first undefine the existing text command and then declare your own definition:

```
\UndeclareTextCommand{\r}{T3}
\DeclareTextCommand{\r}{T3}[0]{<your new definition>}
```

the issue is indeed the full expansion, you can use the following instead: ``` \DeclareTextCommand{\r}{TU}{\rInternalA} \protected\def\rInternalA{\@ifstar{\rinternal}{\rinternal}} \newcommand\rinternal[1]{\textipa{#1\relax ̥}} ``` or something equivalent. The important point is that the `\@ifstar` check has to be inside of a protected macro.

Perhaps a stupid question, but why do you load `tipa` in the first place? You don't want to use the `T3` encoding at all, and I don't think you want any of the definitions of `tipa` be applied, do you?

Actually the current condition of the package from the encoding point of view is complete as the `\r*m` has started working perfectly after your suggestion. The only remaining part now is to make `\textipa{\r*m}` work. I suspect that it is exploding because of the `\fullexpandarg` used in the definition of `\textipa`. Phelype Oleinik had already warned me about it, but till then everything was working fine. Being a linguist I simply use package `fontspec` and select a font and forget about the rest :P This expansion stuff is completely new to me. So see if you can help me with it.

And I have to warn you, I'm not that knowledgeable about all this encoding stuff, not the things I usually have to deal with... (as a German who isn't a linguist it suffices to do `\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}` and forget about the rest)

Okay let me show you where exactly I am planning to use this. I am trying to convert all the TIPA commands to Unicode characters. I was successful in converting all of them except the ones listed in this question. I am planning to release this code as a package. The unreleased version of the package can currently be seen on its git repository <<https://gitlab.com/niruvt/tipauni>>. [This](https://gitlab.com/niruvt/tipauni/-/blob/221276b1dfa12788f70f32a0ed8066da74f3d57e/tipauni/tipauni.dtx#L706-774) part of the code defines the new `\textipa` command which outputs Unicode characters. Now I want these two three commands to work inside the new `\textipa` command. Is it possible for you to check this code and suggest me a way to make these commands work?

You mean the `TU` variants don't work inside of `\textipa`? That is to be expected if you don't change the `T3` encoded variant. To remove the definition used inside of `\textipa` you can use `\UndeclareTextCommand{\r}{T3}`, but afterwards the default definition will be picked up (since inside of `\textipa` the encoding is T3, and so the TU encoding definition will not be used, but instead the default one, which will put an accent on the argument). You can also change the default definition using `\DeclareTextCommandDefault{\r}[0]{\@ifstar{\r@internal}{\r@internal}}`, but I'm not sure whether this might break other usages of `\r`.

Thanks for the correction. Now this works as expected, but as I asked in the question, these commands must (also) work in the `\textipa{}` command and unfortunately these commands currently don't seem to work in it. Without tweaking `\textipa` is it possible to make these declarations robust?

Without the `[1]` in `\DeclareTextCommand`. What you do is something like `\newcommand\r[1]{\@ifstar{\r@internal}{\r@internal}}`, so will already have an argument grabbed before `\@ifstar` is used. If you either use `[0]` or omit the optional argument of `\DeclareTextCommand` it *should* work.

Like this? ``` \DeclareTextCommand{\r}{TU}[1]{\@ifstar{\r@internal}{\r@internal}} \newcommand\r@internal[1]{#1\relax ̥} ``` It still produces some error. The message says - > Argument of \@firstoftwo has an extra }.

You could use the same test (LaTeX's `\@ifstar`) directly without altering the output: ``` \DeclareTextCommand{\r}{TU}{\@ifstar{\r@internal}{\r@internal}} \newcommand\r@internal[1]{#1\relax} ``` Your `\@ifstar{#1\relax}{}` can't work because you have to first remove the star from the input before you can grab the argument (which is what `\@ifstar` does, search for the star, if there is remove it and execute the first argument, if there is no star execute the second .argument).

@Skillmon Glad to see you back on TopAnswers!! :) I am trying to produce a Unicode character sequence from this command. Hence I added the following command - ``` \DeclareTextCommand{\r}{TU}[1]{#1\relax ̥} ``` but unfortunately it seems to print the diacritic mark with the star and not with the desired argument. How to ignore the star in the Unicode input? I also tried the following, but it exploded with errors, so I removed the `\@ifstar` part - ``` \DeclareTextCommand{\r}{TU}[1]{\@ifstar{#1\relax ̥}{}} ```

Those macros are defined inside `t3enc.def`, for example `\r` is defined with: ``` \DeclareTextCommand{\r}{T3}[0]{\@ifstar{\tipaloweraccent[.3ex]{6}}% {\@ifmacron{\textringmacron}{\tipaupperaccent{6}}}} ``` in that file. What `\textipa{<stuff>}` does is just `{\tipaencoding <stuff>}`, and `\tipaencoding` switches to font-encoding `T3`, so all the `\DeclareTextCommand`s with `{T3}` as the second argument will be picked up.

I just realized that the last shorthand is not functional. i.e. `\|~{i}` I found this on p. 53 of the documentation. What can be the reason for it to not work? ![Screenshot_2021-04-17_13-19-17.png](/image?hash=70251915058d12bc6c4e957dc21d6e262e7a8f1e1654fb63ea9e95b7c6fca572)

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