Table of contents


NAME

tex-pretty - prettyprint TeX (and AmSLaTeX, AmSTeX, ETeX, LAmSTeX, LaTeX, LaTeXinfo, SliTeX, TeXinfo, ...) files

SYNOPSIS

tex-pretty [ -? ] [ -@ ] [ -a ] [ -c ] [ -d ] [ -e modename ] [ -f filename ] [ -h ] [ -i nnn ] [ -l filename ] [ -m nnn ] [ -n ] [ -q ] [ -s filename ] [ -t ] [ -v ] [ -w nnn ] < infile > outfile
or
tex-pretty [ -? ] [ -@ ] [ -a ] [ -c ] [ -d ] [ -e modename ] [ -f filename ] [ -h ] [ -i nnn ] [ -l filename ] [ -m nnn ] [ -n ] [ -q ] [ -s filename ] [ -t ] [ -v ] [ -w nnn ] file(s) > outfile

DESCRIPTION

tex-pretty filters its TeX input from stdin, or from one or more files named on the command line, and prettyprints it to stdout. Most formatting systems based on TeX, including AmSTeX, AmSLaTeX, ETeX (K. Berry's Extended plain TeX), LAmSTeX, LaTeX, and SliTeX, are handled reasonably well. tex-pretty also includes support for the Free Software Foundation's GNU Project TeXinfo, whose markup syntax resembles that of scribe(1) rather than that of TeX.

LaTeXinfo is similar enough to LaTeX that it can be handled by tex-pretty, provided a suitable supplementary style file is supplied; an example is given in the STYLE FILES section below.

Although prettyprinters of necessity impose a certain style that may not be universally agreed upon, they have nevertheless proven useful for many programming languages for heuristic syntax checking, and for generating a consistent appearance in files that may have been prepared by many authors (human, or computer programs), or even by a single author with lax file preparation discipline.

Because of their low-level markup, plain TeX and AmSTeX files offer fewer opportunities for useful prettyprinting than do LaTeX, LAmSTeX, and SliTeX. Nevertheless, the heuristic error checking provided by tex-pretty may still be useful for catching brace, dollar, and environment balance errors.

LaTeX users are advised to make regular use of lacheck(1), which warns about many other kinds of likely errors that LaTeX itself cannot detect. tex-pretty will automatically repair some of these types of errors.

tex-pretty may be less useful for files consisting only of macro definitions (e.g. plain.tex, or LaTeX style files), because

Because TeX commands can be arcane, and do unexpected things, users of tex-pretty are urged to check the output carefully, and not replace input files with prettyprinted output files until the latter have been typeset and verified.

tex-pretty does not examine included files that would be read by TeX during processing of commands like \bibliography, \include, \input, \listoffigures, \listoftables, \printindex, \tableofcontents, ... You must provide these files to tex-pretty explicitly if you want them to be prettyprinted.


OPTIONS

The following command-line options are supported, and they affect all remaining filenames. Option values are always provided as separate arguments following the option name. Letter case in option names is not significant.

Any argument that begins with a hyphen is expected to be an option, and will raise an error if it is not recognized. If a filename begins with a hyphen, you therefore need to disguise it by supplying a leading directory path. For example, ./-foo represents the file named -foo in the current directory in UNIX.

-@
Set TeXinfo mode, so that at-sign is the escape character instead of backslash. Although backslash-prefixed control sequences continue to be recognized, dollar signs are ordinary characters, so special treatment of TeX mathematics mode is disabled. In addition, any settings from -d (display math formatting), -e (Emacs mode), -i (indentation), and -m (mathematics conversion) options are ignored, and the indentation level spacing is set to zero, because leading spaces can be significant in the info-mode text produced from TeXinfo files.

Because TeXinfo is a continually evolving language, all TeXinfo commands that do not require special handling are enumerated in tex-pretty; any others that it finds will raise a warning message. Such new commands can probably be handled without modifying tex-pretty; see the STYLE FILES section below.

-a
Show author information on stderr.
-c
Show copyright information on stderr.
-d
Use display-mathematics style formatting for inline mathematics. This helps to set off mathematics text, and makes it easier to inspect it for correctness, However, in documents that make heavy use of inline mathematics, it may detract from readability of the non-mathematics material.
-e modename
Supply an Emacs mode name for the leading comment banner (default: TeX).
-f filename
Supply an alternate input filename for use in the output comment banner. This overrides the actual filename(s), and provides a way to name the output, even when no named input file is available, because standard input is redirected, or comes from a pipe.
-h or -?
Display brief usage information on stderr.
-i nnn
Set the number of spaces for each indentation level (default: 4). The value is forced into the nearest endpoint of the range 0 ... 16 if it is outside that interval. Although a zero value is accepted, it is not recommended, because suppressing indentation obscures the logical structure.
-l filename
Redirect warning and error messages from stderr to the indicated filename. This option is provided for user convenience on operating systems (e.g. IBM PC DOS) that fail to provide for redirection of stderr to a specified file.

If the file cannot be opened for output, tex-pretty will terminate silently (because the internal attempted redirection required the closure of stderr) with a non-zero exit code.

-m nnn
Select the mathematics mode style conversion (default: 0 --- no conversion). The value nnn is the sum of the desired numbers from this list (for each of the two cases of inline and display mathematics, the largest number chosen is the one that is used):
1
Inline mathematics is coded as $ ... $.
2
Inline mathematics is coded as \( ... \) (LaTeX).
4
Inline mathematics is coded as \begin{math} ... \end{math} (LaTeX).
8
Display mathematics is coded as $$ ... $$.
16
Display mathematics is coded as \[ ... \] (LaTeX).
32
Display mathematics is coded as \begin{displaymath} ... \end{displaymath} (LaTeX).

tex-pretty recognizes all of these forms in the input stream.

This option may be helpful in assisting in the conversion between LaTeX and plain TeX markup, in standardizing the markup of mathematics in LaTeX, and in improving the possibilities for detection of begin-end imbalances (when the dollar forms are eliminated, and an editor or other software capable of delimiter balance checking is employed).

Although the double-dollar markup style for display mathematics is frequently found in LaTeX documents, strictly speaking, it should be replaced by either of the alternatives above.

-n
Suppress generation of the default leading comment banner.
-q
Suppress reading of the two default style files (see the STYLE FILES section below). Style files explicitly specified with the -s options will still be processed.
-s filename
Name a style file (see the STYLE FILES section below) to augment tex-pretty's built-in knowledge of standard environments and control sequences.
-t
Copy tabular environments verbatim. This is sometimes desirable if they have already been carefully formatted.

Otherwise, tex-pretty carries out its normal prettyprinting activities inside tabular environments, except that there, it lines up ampersand column separators on line positions which are multiples of 8, to improve vertical alignment for better readability. This is about the best it can do with only a single pass over the environment.

-v
Show version information on stderr.
-w nnn
Set the maximum output line width (default: 72). This limit may be exceeded if an excessively long string without embedded spaces is encountered, and it is ignored completely inside comments and verbatim text. The line width value is forced into the nearest endpoint of the range 16 ... 256 if it is outside that interval.

FORMATTING ACTIONS

tex-pretty carries out these major formatting actions (except in verbatim environments, where all input text is preserved exactly):

AmSLaTeX and LaTeX files that adhere to the markup defined in the LaTeX User's Guide and Reference Manual by Leslie Lamport (Addison-Wesley, 1985 (ISBN 0-201-15790-X), 1994 (ISBN 0-201-52983-1)), and the LaTeX Companion by Michel Goossens, Frank Mittelbach, and Alexander Samarin (Addison-Wesley, 1994 (0-201-54199-8)), will benefit most from tex-pretty's processing.


STYLE FILES

In the current implementation of tex-pretty, all of the standard AmSTeX, AmSLaTeX, ETeX, LAmSTeX, LaTeX, and SliTeX control words, environments, and comment syntax that require special formatting are hard-coded into the program. However, users can define new control sequences and environments with TeX \def, \edef, \gdef, and \xdef commands, and with LaTeX \newcommand, \newenvironment, \newtheorem, ... commands.

In order to allow the user to control the formatting of these new features, tex-pretty supports a simple style file mechanism. At startup, it processes a style file in the user's home directory, and another in the current directory. Neither of these need exist. During command-line argument processing, additional style files can be provided with the -s option. These style files support user-specific, directory-specific, and file-specific prettyprinting control.

The default name of the first two style files is system dependent: .texprettyrc (UNIX), texpty.ini (IBM PC DOS), and texpretty.ini (DEC VMS and OpenVMS).

The line length limit in style files is system-dependent, but guaranteed to be at least 1024 characters.

tex-pretty's formatting actions group control sequences into the following style classes:

chapter
sectional division

LAmSTeX: \docstyle \subtopic \topic

LaTeX: \appendix \backmatter \chapter \documentclass \documentstyle \frontmatter \mainmatter \paragraph \part \section \subparagraph \subsection \subsubsection

plain TeX: \beginchapter \beginsection \endchapter

chapter-line
sectional division with argument all text to end of line

TeXinfo: @chapter @section @subsection @subsubsection @unnumbered @unnumberedsec @unnumberedsubsec @unnumberedsubsubsec
cite
literature citation

LAmSTeX and LaTeX: \cite

LaTeX: \nocite

TeXinfo: @cite

command-argument
control sequence with its braced argument on same line

TeXinfo: @code @emph @kbd @key @ref @samp @TeX @var @w @xref
command-line
control sequence with argument all text to end of line

TeXinfo: @auindex @cindex @defcodeindex @defindex @findex @kindex @pindex @printindex @shorttitlepage @tindex @vindex
comment
comment to end of line (any TeX)

all but TeXinfo: %

TeXinfo: @c @comment

default

all but TeXinfo: unrecognized backslash control sequences

TeXinfo: @ETC @b @bullet @copyright @dfn @dmn @dots @enddots @equiv @expansion @file @headword @i @math @minus @occur @par @point @print @pxref @r @refill @regularbooksize @result @sc @strong @t @thischapter @thischaptername @thisfile @thispage @thistitle @titlefont @today @value

displaymath
displayed mathematics

any TeX: $$

LaTeX: \begin{displaymath} \end{displaymath} \[ \]

environment
text group with specialized formatting

AmSTeX: \CD \endCD \Refs \endRefs \Sb \endSb \Sp \endSp \Vmatrix \endVmatrix \abstract \endabstract \affil \endaffil \align \endalign \alignat \endalignat \aligned \endaligned \alignedat \endalignedat \block \endblock \bmatrix \endbmatrix \cases \endcases \cfrac \endcfrac \comment \endcomment \curraddr \endcurraddr \dedicatory \enddedicatory \definition \enddefinition \demo \enddemo \document \enddocument \email \endemail \example \endexample \gather \endgather \gathered \endgathered \graf \endgraf \head \endhead \keywords \endkeywords \matrix \endmatrix \multline \endmultline \pmatrix \endpmatrix \proclaim \endproclaim \remark \endremark \smallmatrix \endsmallmatrix \specialhead \endspecialhead \split \endsplit \subhead \endsubhead \subjclass \endsubjclass \subsubhead \endsubsubhead \toc \endtoc \topmatter \endtopmatter \translator \endtranslator \vmatrix \endvmatrix \xalignat \endxalignat \xxalignat \endxxalignat

LAmSTeX: \Figure \endFigure \Figurepair \endFigurepair \Figuretriple \endFiguretriple \HL \endHL \Table \endTable \bdmatrix \endbdmatrix \claim \endclaim \heading \endheading \island \endisland \makebib \endmakebib \partition \endpartition

LaTeX (with exceptions given in other classes): \begin{envname} \end{envname}

plain TeX: \begingroup \endgroup \bgroup \egroup

TeXinfo: @cartouche @display @end @flushleft @flushright @format @group @ifinfo @iftex @quotation @smallexample @smalllisp @titlepage

footnote
comment and newline before

ETeX: \numberedfootnote

LAmSTeX: \plainfootnote \plainproclaim

LaTeX: \footnote \footnotetext \label \pageref \ref

plain TeX: \vfootnote

TeXinfo: @footnote

index
index and glossary

ETeX: \idx \idxmarked \idxname \idxsubmarked \sidx \sidxmarked \sidxname \sidxsubmarked

LaTeX: \glossary \index

list
list of items

AmSTeX: \roster \endroster

ETeX: \numberedlist \endnumberedlist \orderedlist \endorderedlist \unorderedlist \endunorderedlist

LAmSTeX: \bib \endbib \bullist \endbullist \describe \enddescribe \list \endlist \margins \endmargins

LaTeX: \begin{description} \end{description} \begin{enumerate} \end{enumerate} \begin{itemize} \end{itemize} \begin{list} \end{list} \begin{thebibliography} \end{thebibliography} \begin{trivlist} \end{trivlist}

TeXinfo: @enumerate @ftable @itemize @table @vtable

list-item
item in a list

AmSTeX: \runinitem

LaTeX: \bibitem \item

plain TeX: \itemitem

TeXinfo: @item @itemx

math
inline mathematics

any TeX: $

LaTeX: \begin{math} \end{math} \( \)

newline-after
newline after control sequence

LaTeX: \ \* \kill

plain TeX: \cr \crcr \endline

TeXinfo: @*

newline-before
newline before control sequence

AmSLaTeX: \DeclareMathOperator \DeclareMathSymbol \DeclareSymbolFont \numberwithin \swapnumbers \newtheoremstyle \theoremstyle

AmSTeX: \adjustfootnotemark \book \bookinfo \bookinquotes \botcaption \by \bysame \captionwidth \define \ed \eds \finalinfo \inbook \issue \jour \lang \moreref \newsymbol \no \noquotes \page \pages \paper \paperinfo \paperinquotes \parshape \preaffil \preauthor \predate \predefine \prepaper \pretitle \publ \publaddr \redefine \shoveleft \shoveright \toappear \topcaption \transl \undefine \vol \widestnumber \yr

ETeX: \defineindex \definecontentsfile \center \columnfill \doublecolumns \edefappend \flushleft \flushright \for \iffileexists \innerdef \innerinnerdef \innernewbox \innernewcount \innernewdimen \innernewfam \innernewhelp \innernewif \innernewinsert \innernewmuskip \innernewread \innernewskip \innernewtoks \innernewwrite \listing \makecolumns \quadcolumns \readindexfile \readtocfile \testfileexistence \tocchapterentry \tocsectionentry \triplecolumns \writenumberedtocentry \writetocentry

LAmSTeX: \Cgaps \Entry \Entryxref \LETTER \Morexref \Noexpand \Nonexpanding \Offset \Page \PageSpan \Pagespan \PostCDSpace \PreCDSpace \Reset \Rgaps \Topage \Xref \cgaps \cleartable \counter \everytable \ex \exs \flushpar \fnote \foottext \hL \hdashed \hl \hls \htablelines \iabbrev \idefine \litbackslash \litdelimiter \mainfile \makepiece \manyby \measuretable \modifyfootnote \nameHL \namehl \newHL \newclaim \newfontstyle \newhl \newisland \newnumstyle \newpost \newpre \newstyle \newword \note \pageorder \postCDspace \postdocstyle \preCDspace \predocstyle \pullin \pullinmore \purge \readaux \rgaps \runningchapter \runningsection \shortenclaim \showstored \sss \storetable \tablewidth \tbldocstyle \tdefine \toclevel \tredefine \tss \unpurge \usetable \vleft \vright \vs \vsolid \vtablelines

LAmSTeX and LaTeX: \author \date \thanks \title

LaTeX: \address \caption \closing \glossaryentry \include \includeonly \indexentry \makeglossary \makeindex \marginpar \markboth \markright \multiput \newblock \newboolean \newcommand \newcounter \newenvironment \newlength \newsavebox \newtheorem \opening \printindex \providecommand \put \renewcommand \renewenvironment \signature \typein \typeout \usepackage \vspace

plain TeX: \centerline \chardef \closein \closeout \countdef \def \dimendef \edef \else \endinput \eqalign \eqalignno \errmessage \fi \futurelet \futurenonspacelet \gdef \global \halign \hang \hoffset \hyphenation \ialign \if \ifcase \ifcat \ifdim \ifeof \iffalse \ifhbox \ifhmode \ifinner \ifmmode \ifnum \ifodd \iftrue \ifundefined \ifvbox \ifvmode \ifvoid \ifx \immediate \input \leftline \leqalignno \let \line \listing \loop \magnifiction \mark \mathchardef \message \narrower \newbox \newcount \newdimen \newfam \newhelp \newif \newinsert \newmuskip \newread \newskip \newtoks \newwrite \noalign \openin \openout \parindent \read \repeat \rightline \show \showbox \showboxbreadth \showdepth \showhyphens \showlists \showthe \skipdef \special \tabalign \textindent \toksdef \tracingall \tracingcommands \tracinglostchars \tracingmacros \tracingonline \tracingoutput \tracingpages \tracingparagraphs \tracingrestores \tracingstats \vadjust \valign \voffset \vskip \write \xdef

TeXinfo: @appendix @appendixsec @appendixsection @appendixsubsec @appendixsubsubsec @asis @inforef @setfilename @vskip

standalone
control sequence isolated on its own line

AmSLaTeX: \allowdisplaybreaks \displaybreak

AmSTeX: \BlackBoxes \CenteredTagsOnSplits \ChangeBuffer \LimitsOnInts \LimitsOnNames \LimitsOnSums \Monograph \MultLineGap \NoBlackBoxes \NoPageNumbers \NoRunningHeads \ResetBuffer \Runinitem \TagsAsMath \TagsAsText \TagsOnLeft \TagsOnRight \TopOrBottomTagsOnSplits \UseAMSsymbols \UseBibTeX \captionwidth \endinsert \foldedpar \galleys \hcorrection \ininbook \loadbold \loadeufb \loadeufm \loadeurb \loadeurm \loadeusb \loadeusm \loadmsam \loadmsbm \midinsert \multlinegap \operatorname \pageheight \pageinsert \pagewidth \printoptions \showallocations \spreadlines \spreadmatrixlines \syntax \topinsert \vcorrection

LAmSTeX: \Figureproofing \FlushedFigs \Initialize \NS \NoFlushedFigs \RefWarnings \alldq \boxedtables \columnbreak \continuelist \figureproofing \indexfile \indexproofing \inlevel \keepitem \makelistFigures \makelistTables \makelistfigures \makelisttables \maketoc \newcolumn \noFigureproofing \nocolumnbreak \nofigureproofing \noshowsecondpass \opentables \outlevel \shortlastcolumn \showcolwidths \showsecondpass \sides \ssizeCDlabels \tocfile \tsizeCDlabels

LAmSTeX and LaTeX: \bibliography \bibliographystyle

LaTeX: \bigpagebreak \cleardoublepage \clearpage \definecolor \enlargethispage \flushbottom \fussy \hline \indexspace \linebreak \listfiles \listoffigures \listoftables \maketitle \medpagebreak \newline \newpage \nofiles \nolinebreak \nopagebreak \nopagenumbers \normalbottom \normalmarginpar \onecolumn \onlynotes \onlyslides \pagebreak \pagecolor \pagenumbering \pagestyle \raggedleft \reversemarginpar \sloppy \smallpagebreak \suppressfloats \tableofcontents \thispagestyle \twocolumn

plain TeX: \allowbreak \annotations \batchmode \bigbreak \bigskip \body \break \bye \centering \dosupereject \eject \endletter \errorstopmode \filbreak \frenchspacing \goodbreak \indent \leavevmode \makelabel \medbreak \medskip \noindent \nonfrenchspacing \nonstopmode \par \raggedbottom \raggedcenter \raggedright \removelastskip \scrollmode \smallbreak \smallskip \ttraggedright \vfil \vfilneg \vfill

TeXinfo: @afourpaper @bye @contents @cropmarks @finalout @lowersections @noindent @page @raisesections @shortcontents @smallbook @summarycontents

tabular
tabular text

LaTeX: \begin{tabular} \end{tabular} \begin{tabular*} \end{tabular*}
verb
inline verbatim

ETeX: \verbatim (may contain line breaks, and doubled delimiters representing a single character)

LAmSTeX: \Lit \lit (\Lit can contain line breaks, but its syntax is that of \lit)

LaTeX: \verb \verb*

any TeX: \path

verbatim
multiline verbatim environment

LaTeX: \begin{verbatim} \end{verbatim} \begin{verbatim*} \end{verbatim*}

TeXinfo: @defcv @deffn @defivar @defmac @defmethod @defop @defopt @defspec @deftp @deftypefn @deftypefun @deftypefunx @deftypevar @deftypevr @defun @defunx @defvar @defvr @example @ignore @lisp @menu @tex

The style class default can be used to force a command or environment to revert to the default formatting rules: no special indentation for commands, and normal indentation for environments. You can use this to override earlier style file settings, and most of the built-in ones.

Style class names, like TeX control sequences and LaTeX environments, are case sensitive. All of the ones recognized by tex-pretty must be spelled with lowercase letters.

The style file is expected to contain lines of the form:

style-class : envname1 envname2 ... \command1 \command2 ...
Blank lines, leading and trailing whitespace, and text from the TeX comment character (%) to end of line, are ignored. Whitespace separates items, and can be omitted around the colon. There is no significance to the order of items on a line, or lines in the file, except that later settings can override earlier ones. The same style class name may occur on multiple lines.

For example, suppose you have defined new sectional division commands named \Kapitel and \Teil, a new tabular environment named \SuperTabular, and two new display math environments named EasyMath and HardMath. Your style file might then look something like this:

% additional tex-pretty style specifications
% [02-Jun-1995]
chapter :       \Kapitel \Teil
tabular :       SuperTabular
displaymath :   EasyMath HardMath

LaTeXinfo is, sadly, less widely used than TeXinfo; it supports most of the standard LaTeX commands, plus a few others: some additional sectioning and indexing commands, two comment-start macros (\c and \comment), a hypertext link macro (\node) and a menu environment in which line breaks are significant. Here is a suitable tex-pretty style file for LaTeXinfo files (there are additional LaTeXinfo control sequences not listed here, but they do not require any particular special formatting):

% LaTeXinfo style file for tex-pretty
% [08-Jun-1995]
chapter        : \unnumbered \unnumberedsec \unnumberedsubsec
chapter        : \unnumberedsubsubsec
comment        : \c \comment \node
index          : \cindex \cpindexbold \cpsubindex \findex
index          : \kindex \pindex \tindex \vindex
newline-after  : \* \br
newline-before : \copyright \newindex \setfilename \synindex
verbatim       : ifinfo ignore menu
The \node macro can be handled by the comment class because all of its arguments follow on the same line, up to the end of the line. Menu environments are usually laid out neatly, because their formatting is preserved exactly in the ASCII output used for online info documentation; prettyprinting them in verbatim mode ensures that the layout will be retained. The \* macro will actually not be recognized in the current version of tex-pretty, because macro names definable in style files may contain only letters after the leading backslash. In this case, no harm will arise, since the default formatting of control sequences containing special characters is adequate.

There is no built-in support in tex-pretty for LaTeXinfo, because it has not achieved widespread use; however, the style file above should be sufficient for tex-pretty to prettyprint LaTeXinfo files correctly.

The last style class attached to command or environment name is the one that is used, so specifications in a command-line style file can override those in the current directory style file, and those in turn override settings from the home directory style file.

The -d and -t command-line options affect the prettyprinting of all commands in the math and tabular classes.

Don't use the -m math mode translation option if you specify the math class in a style file; if you do, those commands and environments will be renamed. When math mode translation is selected, it may also be advisable to specify the -q option, and avoid -s options, to eliminate all style file input.

For the purposes of matching TeX control words, tex-pretty assumes that they begin with a backslash followed by one or more letters or at-sign; the latter is commonly used inside macro packages to create command names that are supposed to be hidden from the end user. There is no provision in style files for modifying this assumption.

Occasionally, it may be desirable to have a control sequence and its arguments handled together as an indivisible unit. To support this, control sequences in style files may be followed by zero or more of the following patterns, in whatever order is required:

*
Match an optional literal asterisk; LaTeX uses this for variant forms.
[]
Match an optional argument in balanced brackets (LaTeX).
""
Match an optional argument in quotes (AmSTeX and LAmSTeX).
()
Match a required argument in balanced parentheses (LaTeX).
{}
Match a required argument in balanced braces (any TeX).
\
Match an alphabetic control sequence (LAmSTeX).
These patterns are ignored for index, verb, and verbatim style classes, because they have their own specialized formatting requirements.

Here is a sample style file that illustrates the use of argument patterns:

default        : \makebox()[]{} % LaTeX
list-item      : \item""        % AmSTeX and LAmSTeX
standalone     : \Reset\        % LAmSTeX: e.g. \Reset \list
When argument patterns are processed, whitespace before and between arguments in the input stream is discarded as long as an argument match is found. Arguments themselves are copied verbatim, even if they include line breaks or comments. The only requirement is that braced, bracketed, or parenthesized arguments have balanced delimiters.

Control sequence name matching against style file specifications does not include any argument patterns, so if the same control sequence name is specified more than once in a style file, as in

list-item      : \myitem"" \myitem() \myitem[] \myitem{}
only the last one will be effective, in this case, a required braced argument. This should not normally be a serious limitation, because TeX control sequence definitions that include argument delimiter characters also have this behavior. However, it is possible with special programming to use one-character lookahead to distinguish between argument types, and LaTeX does this internally for optional bracketed arguments, and asterisked variants.

LIMITATIONS

A fundamental assumption of any prettyprinter is that whitespace (blank, horizontal tab, vertical tab, carriage return, formfeed, newline) is not significant. While this is generally the case, it is not so in those rare TeX files where whitespace is made active by \catcode modification. Avoid using tex-pretty on such files, or on files where the comment character is something other than the normal percent character. There is no problem with LaTeX verbatim macros and environments, because tex-pretty recognizes them and preserves their contents exactly.

User-defined control sequences for which whitespace is significant, or whose use is idiosyncratically formatted, will likely conflict with prettyprinting.

The plain TeX \obeylines and \obeyspaces commands, and the ETeX \obeywhitespace command, would be similarly mishandled, except that tex-pretty watches for them, and once they are seen, copies the remainder of the file in verbatim mode, effectively suppressing further prettyprinting. It has to do this, because it has no reliable way to detect the end of scope for these commands.

For a small number of control sequences, there are formatting conflicts between two or more macro packages. In such a case, preference is first given to LaTeX (and AmSLaTeX and SliTeX), then to AmSTeX, then to LAmSTeX, and finally to plain TeX and ETeX.

There are also cases in some of these macro packages where the same control sequence has environment-dependent meaning, so formatting irregularities may appear.


SEE ALSO

amstex(1), amslatex(1), etex(1) (or visit Emacs info node eplain), lacheck(1), lamstex(1), latex(1), latexinfo(1) (or visit Emacs info node latexinfo), scribe(1), tex(1), texinfo(1), (or visit Emacs info node texinfo).

AUTHOR

Nelson H. F. Beebe, Ph.D.
Center for Scientific Computing
Department of Mathematics
University of Utah
Salt Lake City, UT 84112
USA
Tel: +1 801 581 5254
FAX: +1 801 581 4148
Email: <beebe@math.utah.edu>
URL: http://www.math.utah.edu/~beebe