Prettyprint |
To prettyprint (or pretty-print) is to present an object in such a way a to make its structure easier to perceive for to a human reader, or (less commonly) simply to make it more attractive. A prettyprinter is a program that prettyprints. Prettyprinters for programming language source code are sometimes called code beautifiers.
= Pretty-printing math =
Pretty-printing usually refers to displaying mathematical expressions in a way that is similar to the way they are typeset professionally. For example, in computer algebra systems the system may write output like x ^ 2 + 3 * x as x^2+3x. Mathematical pretty-printing is done by interactive numerical calculation programs such as Octave or MATLAB; by computer algebra systems such as Maxima or Mathematica; and by some graphing calculators, such as the TI-89, or the TI-83 with the [http://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/fileinfo/208/20807.html PrettyPt] add-on.
Many text formatting programs can also typeset mathematics: TeX was developed specifically for high-quality mathematical typesetting.
= Code formatting and beautification =
Programmers often use tools to format their source code in a particular manner. Proper code formatting makes it easier to read and understand. Moreover, often different programmers have different preferred styles of formatting, such as the use of code indentation and whitespace or positioning of braces. A code formatter converts source code from one format style to another. This is relatively straightforward because of the unambiguous syntax of programming languages. Code beautification involves parsing the source code into component structures, such as assignment statements, if blocks, program loops, etc (see also control flow), and formatting them in a manner specified by the user in a configuration file.
There exist both standalone code beautifiers and built in ones in integrated development environments (Integrated development environments). For example, Microsoft Visual Studio s source code editor does some limited code formatting like indentation blocks of code inside of braces properly.
An early example of pretty-printing was Bill Gosper s GRIND program, which used combinatorial optimization with pruning to format Lisp programming language programs. The term grind was used in some Lisp circles as a synonym for pretty-printing.
== Example of formatting and beautifying code ==
int foo(int k) { if(k==11) printf( hello ); else printf( good bye ); }
int foo(int k) { if( k == 11 ) printf( hello ); else printf( good bye ); }
int foo(int k){if(k==11)printf( hello );else printf( good bye );}
These three C programming language programs mean the same thing and parsing in exactly the same manner since they consist of the same sequence of token (parser)s, differing only in whitespace. Example 1 reflects one preference, example 2 another one, and example 3 is another style which some might find less easy to read. A code beautifier will convert any of these into a format preferred by the programmer.
=Text formatting=
Text formatting can be considered a form of pretty-printing.
=Pretty printers=
*indent (Unix) *enscript, a general text printing tool with prettyprinting functions *[http://www.tote-taste.de/X-Project/beautify/ PHP Code Beautifier], an online tool *[http://www.bierkandt.org/beautify/ Beautify PHP], GPLed software, designed to reformat and beautify PHP source code files *[http://astyle.sourceforge.net/ Artistic Style], reformatter and reindenter of C++, C and Java source code *[http://sourceforge.net/projects/gcgreatcode/ GC GreatCode], C and C++ source code beautifier *[http://prettyprinter.berlios.de/ PrettyPrinter], an Open Source beautifier for every programming language *HTML Tidy *HTMLTrim *HTMLParser *XML Pretty Printer *Hindent *[http://perltidy.sourceforge.net/ Perltidy], a reformatter and reindenter for Perl|
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