itemize vs list
list
is a basic LaTeX environment used to create list environments of all kinds, including itemize
, enumerate
and the description
environments, as well as the 'trivial' list environments used for such things as quotations and abstracts.
You don't usually use the list
environment directly in documents. Instead, it is used to create higher level environments, such as itemize
, for use in documents.
Before packages such as enumitem
were available, custom description
, itemize
and enumerate
environments were created in this way. (Of course, they still can be, but enumitem
makes it unnecessary in most cases.)
Here's an example specifying a simple variant on the description
environment.
\documentclass{article}
\makeatletter
\newcommand{\labelpethau}[1]{\textsc{#1:}}
\newlength\normalparindent
\setlength\normalparindent{\parindent}
\newenvironment{pethau}%
{\begin{list}{}%
{\renewcommand{\makelabel}{\labelpethau}%
\setlength{\itemindent}{0pt}%
\setlength{\leftmargin}{0pt}%
\setlength{\labelwidth}{-1\normalparindent}%
\addtolength{\topsep}{-0.5\parskip}%
\listparindent \normalparindent
\setlength{\parsep}{\parskip}}}%
{\end{list}}
\makeatother
\begin{document}
\begin{pethau}
\item[Question] some of what?
\item[Answer] anything.
\end{pethau}
\end{document}
The itemize
environment is a special case of the list
environment. The list
environment is more general: you can do more things with it. For instance,
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\begin{document}
\begin{list}{\color{blue}$\heartsuit$}{\color{red}}
\item first item
\item second item
\item third item
\end{list}
\end{document}