\verb work within ...?The LaTeX verbatim commands work by changing category codes. Knuth
says of this sort of thing "Some care is needed to get the timing
right...", since once the category code has been assigned to a
character, it doesn't change. So \verb has to assume that it is
getting the first look at its parameter text; if it isn't, TeX has
already assigned category codes so that \verb doesn't have a
chance. For example:
will work (typesetting '\verb+\error+
\error'), but
\newcommand{\unbrace}[1]{#1}
\unbrace{\verb+\error+}
will not (it will attempt to execute \error). Other errors one
may encounter are '\verb ended by end of line', or even '\verb
illegal in command argument'.
This is why the LaTeX book insists that verbatim
commands must not appear in the argument of any other command; they
aren't just fragile, they're quite unusable in any command parameter,
regardless of \protection. (The \verb
command tries hard to detect if you're misusing it; unfortunately, it
can't always do so, and the error message is therefore not a reliable
indication of problems.)
The first question to ask yourself is: "is \verb actually
necessary?".
\texttt{your text} produces the same result
as \verb+your text+, then there's no need of
\verb in the first place.
\verb to typeset a URL or email
address or the like, then the \url command from the
url package will help: it doesn't suffer from the problems
of \verb.
\verb into the argument of a boxing
command (such as \fbox), consider using the lrbox
environment:
\newsavebox{\mybox}
...
\begin{lrbox}{\mybox}
\verb!VerbatimStuff!
\end{lrbox}
\fbox{\usebox{\mybox}}
Otherwise, there are three partial solutions to the problem.
\VerbatimFootnotes, which redefines the \footnotetext (and
hence the \footnote) commands in such a way that you can include
\verb commands in its argument. This approach could in
principle be extended to the arguments of other commands, but it can
clash with other packages: for example, \VerbatimFootnotes
interacts poorly with the para option to the footmisc
package.
The memoir class defines its \footnote command so that
it will accept verbatim in its arguments, without any supporting package.
\SaveVerb,
with a corresponding \UseVerb command, that allow you to save
and then to reuse the content of its argument; for details of this
extremely powerful facility, see the package documentation.
Rather simpler is the verbdef package, which defines a (robust) command which expands to the verbatim argument given.
\texttt), consider using
\string. \texttt{my\string_name}
typesets the same as
\verb+my_name+, and will work in the argument of a command. It
won't, however, work in a moving argument, and no amount of
\protection will make it work in
such a case.
A robust alternative is:
\chardef\bs=`\_
...
\section{... \texttt{my\bs name}}
Such a definition is 'naturally' robust; the construction
"<back-tick>\<char>" may be used for any
troublesome character (though it's plainly not necessary for things
like percent signs for which (La)TeX already provides
robust macros).
This question on the Web: http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=verbwithin