General Purpose PostScript Generating Utility
GNU a2ps
with pretty-printing features, strong support for many alphabets, and
customizable layout.
This is Edition 4.13 of the a2ps
2 September 2004.
Introduction
User's Guide
How to print
Interfacing with Other Programs
Invoking a2ps
Command line options
Escapes
Configuration Files
Your Variables
Your Delegations
Library Files
Font Files
Encodings
Encoding Files
Pretty Printing
Type Setting Style Sheets
PreScript
PreTeX
Style Sheets Semantics
Style Sheets Implementation
A Tutorial on Style Sheets
PostScript
Designing PostScript Prologues
Contributions
card
fixps
fixnt
pdiff
psmandup
psset
Frequently asked questions
Why Does...?
How Can I ...?
Please tell me...
Genesis
1. Introduction
This document describes GNU a2ps
versions may be found on the
and intends to offer information
about the concepts or tools etc. that are related to printing
PostScript. This is why it is now that big: to offer you all the
information you might want and Akim Demaille.
1.1 Description
a2ps
The format used is nice and compact: normally two pages on each physical
page, borders surrounding pages, headers with useful information (page
number, printing date, file name or supplied header), line numbering,
pretty-printing, symbol substitution etc. This is very useful for
making archive listings of programs or just to check your code in the
bus. Actually a2ps
printed with a2ps
While at the origin its names was derived from "ASCII to PostScript",
today we like to think of it as "Any to PostScript". Indeed, a2ps
supports delegations, i.e., you can safely use a2ps
PostScript, LaTeX, JPEG etc., even compressed.
A short list of features of a2ps
-
Customizable through various configuration files (see section 4. Configuration Files)
-
Powerful escapes to define the headers, table of contents etc. the way you want
(see section 3.2 Escapes);
-
Variables to push even further the customizability in a comfortable
manner (see section 4.9 Your Variables);
-
Open approach of encodings (see section 6. Encodings);
-
Excellent support of the Latin 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 encodings, thanks to
Ogonkify (see section `Overview' in Ogonkify manual),
written by Juliusz Chroboczek.
-
Fully customizable output style: fonts, background and foreground
colors, line numbering style etc. (see section 8.6 Designing PostScript Prologues).
-
Possibility to delegate the processing of some files to other filters
(see section 4.10 Your Delegations).
-
Many contributions, e.g., pretty-print diffs, print reference cards of
programs, sanitize broken PostScript files, print Duplex on Simplex
printers etc. (see section 9. Contributions).
-
And finally, the ability to pretty-print sources written in quite a
few various languages (see section 7. Pretty Printing).
1.2 Reporting Bugs
We try hard to make a2ps
But sometimes there can still be bad surprises, even after having
compiled and checked a2ps
You may encounter some of these problems yourself. In any case, please
never abandon without giving us a chance. We need information from
everybody so that mistakes get fixed as fast as possible.
So, if you have a problem (configuration error, compilation error,
runtime error, documentation error or unclear), first check in the FAQ
(see section 10. Frequently asked questions), then on the page but it appears that the version of a2ps
consider upgrading.
If the problem persists. But symbolic arguments can be abbreviated when there are no
ambiguity, so here, you can just use `-Av'.
The option `-P lw' means to print on the printer named `lw',
and finally, the long option `--prologue' requires the use one of
the alternative printing styles. There are other prologues (See section 3.1.6 Input Options, option `--prologue'), and you can even design yours
(see section 8.6 Designing PostScript Prologues).
2.2.2 Special Printers
There are three special printers pre-defined.
The first one, void, sends the output to the trash.
Its main use is to see how many pages would have been used.
| | gargantua ~ $ a2ps -P void parsessh.c
[parsessh.c (C): 33 pages on 17 sheets]
[Total: 33 pages on 17 sheets] sent to the printer `void'
|
The second, display sends the output to Ghostview, so that
you can check the output without printing. Of course if you don't have
Ghostview, it won't work... And it is up to you to configure
another displaying application (see section 4.5 Your Printers).
The last, file saves the output into a file named after the
file you printed (e.g., saves into `foo.ps' when you print
`foo.c').
2.2.3 Using Delegations
a2ps
In that case it delegates the task to other programs. What you should
retain from this, is, forget that there are delegations. Indeed,
the interface with the delegations has been designed so that you don't
need to be aware that they exist to use them. Do as usual.
As an example, if you need to print a PostScript file, just hit:
| | gargantua ~ $ a2ps article.ps -d
[article.ps (ps, delegated to PsNup): 7 pages on 4 sheets]
[Total: 8 pages on 4 sheets] sent to the default printer
|
While honoring your defaults settings, a2ps
two virtual pages per physical page to psnup, a powerful filter
part of the famous psutils by Angus Duggan.
Suppose now that you want to display a Texinfo file. Then, provided you
have all the programs a2ps
| | gargantua ~ $ a2ps a2ps.texi -P display
[a2ps.texi (texinfo, delegated to texi2dvi): 75 pages on 38 sheets]
[Total: 76 pages on 38 sheets] sent to the printer `display'
|
Once the read documentation, you know you want to print just pages
10 to 20, plus the cover. Just hit:
| | gargantua ~ $ a2ps a2ps.texi --pages=1,10-20 -d
[a2ps.texi (texinfo, delegated to texi2dvi): 13 pages on 7 sheets]
[Total: 14 pages on 7 sheets] sent to the default printer
|
A final word: compressed files can be treated in the very same way:
| | gargantua ~ $ a2ps a2ps.texi.gz -a1,10-20 -d
[a2ps.texi (compressed, delegated to Gzip-a2ps): 13 pages on 7 sheets]
[Total: 14 pages on 7 sheets] sent to the default printer
|
You should be aware that:
-
the option `-Z' enables the delegations if they are not (see
`--list=defaults' for your settings);
-
the set of delegations is customizable, to know the delegations your
a2ps
2.2.4 Printing Duplex
If you still want to save more paper, and you are amongst the set of
happy users of Duplex printers, a2ps
(See section A. Glossary, for definitions). The option to specify Duplex
printing is `--sides=mode' (see section 3.1.9 PostScript Options).
Here is how to print the documentation in Duplex and send it to the
Duplex printer `margot':
| | quasimodo ~ a2ps/doc $ a2ps -s2 -Pmargot a2ps.texi
[a2ps.texi (texinfo, delegated to texi2dvi): 109 pages on 28 sheets]
[Total: 110 pages on 28 sheets] sent to the printer `margot'
|
This is also valid for several files.
Actually, you can do something even more tricky: print a small book!
This is much more complicated than printing Duplex, because the pages
needs to be completely reorganized another way. This is precisely the
job of psbook, yet another PsUtil from Angus Duggan. But there
is a user option which encapsulates the magic sequence of options:
`book'. Therefore, just run
| | quasimodo a2ps/doc $ a2ps -=book -Pmargot a2ps.texi
[a2ps.texi (texinfo, delegated to texi2dvi): 109 pages on 109 sheets]
[Total: 109 pages on 109 sheets] sent to the printer `margot'
|
and voila` !, a booklet printed on margot!
We strongly discourage you to try with several files at once, because
the tools then easily get lost. And, after all, the result will be
exactly the same once you collated all the booklets together.
Another limitation is that this does not work if it is not sent to a
printer. This kind of weird limitations will be solved in the future.
2.2.5 Checking the Defaults
If a2ps
the default settings given by your system administrator. Checking
those default values is easy:
| | ~ % a2ps --list=defaults
Configuration status of a2ps 4.12a
==================================
Sheets:
-------
medium = A4, portrait
page layout = 1 x 1, rows first
borders = yes
file alignment = page
interior margin = 0
More stuff deleted here
Internals:
----------
verbosity level = 2
file command = /usr/bin/file -L
temporary directory = /tmp
library path =
/home/akim/.a2ps
/usr/share/a2ps/sheets
/usr/share/a2ps/ps
/usr/share/a2ps/encoding
/usr/share/a2ps/afm
/usr/share/ogonkify/afm
/usr/share/a2ps/ppd
/usr/share/a2ps/fonts
/usr/share/ogonkify/fonts
/usr/share/a2ps
|
Remember that the on-line help is always available. Moreover, if your
screen is small, you may pipe it into more. Just trust
this:
2.3 Important parameters
Many things are parameterizable in a2ps@c, but two things are just
essential to make sure everything goes right:
- The paper
- Make sure that the paper a2ps
(See section 3.1.3 Sheet Options, option `--medium').
- The encoding
- Make sure that the encoding a2ps
standard alphabet in your country (See section 3.1.6 Input Options, option
`--encoding').
Both values may be checked with `a2ps --list=defaults'.
2.4 Localizing
a2ps
mother tongue. It uses three special features for non-English
languages:
- the tongue
- i.e., the language used by the interface,
- the date
- i.e., the format and the words used in the language to specify a date.
To enable these features, properly set your environment variable
LANG (see the documentation of your system, for instance
`man locale', `man environ' etc.).
The problem with this approach is that a lot more than just messages and
time information is affected: especially the way numbers are written
changes, what may cause problems with awk and such.
So if you just want messages and time format to be localized, then
define:
| | set LC_MESSAGES=fr ; export LC_MESSAGES
set LC_TIME=fr ; export LC_TIME
|
2.5 Interfacing with Other Programs
Here are some tips on how to use a2ps
2.5.1 Interfacing With a Mailer
When you print from a mailer (or a news reader), your mailer calls a tool,
say a2ps
a2ps
better results, make sure to tell a2ps
option `mail' (or `longmail' for longer inputs) encapsulates most
typical tuning users want to print mails (for instance, don't print all the
headers).
Most specifically, if your mailer is:
elm
-
Once you are in elm, hit o to enter in the options edition menu,
hit p to edit the printer command, and enter `a2ps -=mail
%s -d'. The option `-d' means to print on the default printer.
pine
-
Jan Chrillesen suggests us how to use a2ps
with the Pine mail-reader. Add the following to `.pinerc'
(of course you can put it in `pine.conf' as well):
| | # Your printer selection
printer=a2ps -=mail -d
# Special print command
personal-print-command=a2ps -=mail -d
|
2.5.2 Netscape
This is actually valid for any program that generates PostScript that
you want to post-process with a2ps@c. Use the following command:
Not too hard, isn't it?
Nevertheless, this setting suppose your world is OK, your file(1)
detects correctly PostScript files, and your a2ps
delegate. In case one one these conditions is not met, use:
Do not forget to tell Netscape whether your printer supports colors, and
the type of paper it uses.
3. Invoking a2ps
Calling a2ps
If no Files... are given, a2ps
`-' appears in the Files..., it designates the standard input
too.
3.1 Command line options
To read the options and arguments that you give, a2ps
getopt, hence:
-
the options (short with arguments or long) must be separated by spaces.
-
the order between options and files does not matter: `a2ps -4m
main.c' and `a2ps main.c -4m' are identical.
-
the order between options does matter, especially between
options that influence the same parameters. For instance `a2ps -1
-l132' is not the same as `a2ps -l132 -1' (the latter being
equivalent to `a2ps -1').
-
short options may be grouped together: `a2ps -4mg main.c -P printer'
-
when there are no ambiguities, long options can be abbreviated, e.g.,
`--pro' will be understood as `--prologue',
-
`--' ends the options. Anything behind `--' is considered to
be a file: `a2ps -- -2' prints the file `-2'(1).
Here after a boolean is considered as true (i.e. setting the
option on), if boolean is `yes', or `1'; as false if it
equals `no' or `0'; and raise an error otherwise. The
corresponding short option takes no arguments, but corresponds to a
positive answer.
When an argument is presented between square brackets, it means that it is
optional. Optional arguments to short option must never be separated from the
option.
3.1.1 Tasks Options
Task options specify the task a2ps
it executes the task and exits successfully.
- Option: --version
- print version and exit successfully.
- Option: --help
- Print a short help, and exit successfully.
- Option: --copyright
- Display Copyright and copying conditions, and exit successfully.
- Option: --guess
- Act like
file does: display the (key of the) type of the
Files.
For instance, on a C file, you expect it to answer `c', and
upon a PostScript file, `ps'.
This can be very useful on broken systems to understand why a file is
printed with a bad style sheet (see section 5.4 Style Sheet Files).
- Option: --which
- Look in the library for the files which names are given as arguments.
For instance:
| | ~ % a2ps --which bw.pro gray.pro
/usr/local/share/a2ps/ps/bw.pro
/usr/local/share/a2ps/ps/gray.pro
|
If there are several library files matching the name, only the first one
is reported: this allows to check which occurrence of a file is used by
a2ps@c.
- Option: --glob
- Look in the library for the files which names match the patterns given
as arguments. For instance:
| | ~ % a2ps --glob 'g*.pro'
/usr/local/share/a2ps/ps/gray.pro
/usr/local/share/a2ps/ps/gray2.pro
|
- Option: --list=topic
- Display a report on a2ps@c' status with respect to topic, and
exit successfully.
topic can be any non-ambiguous abbreviation of:
- `defaults'
- `options'
- Give an extensive report on a2ps
- `features'
- Known media, encodings, languages, prologues, printers, variables,
delegations and user options are reported. In a word, anything that you
may define.
- `delegations'
- Detailed list of the delegations. See section 4.10 Your Delegations.
- `encodings'
- Detailed list of known encodings. See section 6.2.3 Some Encodings.
- `media'
- Detailed list of known media. See section 4.4 Your Media.
- `prologues'
- Detailed list of PostScript prologues. See section 8.6 Designing PostScript Prologues.
- `printers'
- Detailed list of printers and named outputs. See section 4.5 Your Printers.
- `style-sheets'
- Detailed list of the known style sheets. See section 7.2 Known Style Sheets.
- `user-options'
- Detailed list of the user options. See section 4.6 Your Shortcuts.
- `variables'
- Detailed list of the variables. See section 4.9 Your Variables.
There are also options meant for the maintainers only, presented for
sake of completeness.
- `texinfo-style-sheets'
- `ssh-texi'
- Detailed list of known style sheets in Texinfo format. If the
sheet verbosity is set, report version numbers, requirements and
ancestors.
- `html-style-sheets'
- `ssh-html'
- Detailed list of the style sheets in
HTML format.
- `texinfo-encodings'
- `edf-texi'
- Detailed list of encodings, in Texinfo format.
- `texinfo-prologues'
- `pro-texi'
- Detailed list of prologues, in Texinfo format.
3.1.2 Global Options
These options are related to the interface between you and a2ps@c.
- Option: -q
-
- Option: --quiet
-
- Option: --silent
- be really quiet
- Option: -v[level]
-
- Option: --verbose[=level]
- tell what we are doing. At
-
level = 0, report nothing,
-
level = 1, a2ps
-
level = 2 (default), it reports it for each file,
-
above, it gives internal details.
There is also an interface made for the maintainer with finer grained
selection of the verbosity level. level is a list of tokens (non
ambiguous abbreviations are valid) separated by either `,' or
`+'. The tokens may be:
- `configuration'
- `options'
- reading the configurations files and the options,
- `encodings'
- the encodings,
- `expert'
- more detailed information is provided: PPD listings is exhaustive,
- `files'
- inputs and outputs,
- `fonts'
- the fonts,
- `escapes'
- `variables'
- `meta-sequences'
- the expansion of escapes and variables,
- `parsers'
- any parsing process (style sheets, PPD files etc.),
- `pathwalk'
- `pw'
- the search for files,
- `ppd'
- PPD processing,
- `sheets'
- the style sheets,
- `stats'
- statistics on some internal data structures,
- `tools'
- launched programs or shell commands ; triggers the escape `?V' on
(see section 3.2.3 Available Escapes),
- `all'
- all the messages.
When a2ps
A2PS_VERBOSITY. If it is set, this defines the verbosity level
for the whole session (options `--verbose', and `-q' etc.
have then no influence). The valid values for A2PS_VERBOSITY are
exactly the valid arguments of the option `--verbose'. This helps
tracking down configuration problems that occur before a2ps
even a chance to read the command line.
- Option: -=shortcut
-
- Option: --user-option=shortcut
- use the shortcut defined by the user. See section 4.6 Your Shortcuts.
Shortcuts may be freely mixed with regular options and arguments.
There are a few predefined user-options:
- `lp'
- emulates a line printer, i.e., turn off most `pretty' features.
- `mail'
- `longmail'
- preferred options to print a mail or a news. `longmail' prints more
text on a single sheet.
- `manual'
- make the job be printed on the manually fed tray.
- Option: --debug
- enable debugging features. They are:
-
print the overall BoundingBox in PostScript;
-
down load a PostScript debugger which helps understanding why a
printer may reject a file.
- Option: -D key[=value]
-
- Option: --define=key[=value]
- Without value, unset the variable key. Otherwise, set it to
value. See section 4.9 Your Variables, for more details. Note that
`-Dfoo=' gives foo an empty value, though `-Dfoo' unsets
foo.
3.1.3 Sheet Options
This options specify the general layout, how the sheet should be used.
- Option: -M medium
-
- Option: --medium=medium
-
use output medium medium. See the output of `a2ps
--list=media' for the list of supported media. Typical values are
`A3', `A4', `A5', `B4', `B5', `Letter',
`Legal'.
`A4dj', `Letterdj' are also defined for Desk Jet owners, since
that printer needs bigger margins.
The special medium `libpaper' means that you want a2ps
ask the library libpaper for the medium to use. This choice is
valid only if libpaper was available when a2ps
See the man page of paperconf for more information.
- Option: -r
-
- Option: --landscape
- print in landscape mode
- Option: -R
-
- Option: --portrait
- print in portrait mode
- Option: --columns=num
- specify the number of columns of virtual pages per physical page.
- Option: --rows=num
- specify the number of rows of virtual pages per physical page.
- Option: --major=direction
- specify whether the virtual pages should be first filled in rows
(direction = `rows') or in columns (direction =
`columns').
- Option: -1
- 1 x 1 portrait, 80 chars/line, major rows (i.e. alias for `--columns=1 --rows=1 --portrait --chars-per-line=80 --major=rows').
- Option: -2
- 2 x 1 landscape, 80 chars/line, major rows.
- Option: -3
- 3 x 1 landscape, 80 chars/line, major rows.
- Option: -4
- 2 x 2 portrait, 80 chars/line, major rows.
- Option: -5
- 5 x 1 landscape, 80 chars/line, major rows.
- Option: -6
- 3 x 2 landscape, 80 chars/line, major rows.
- Option: -7
- 7 x 1 landscape, 80 chars/line, major rows.
- Option: -8
- 4 x 2 landscape, 80 chars/line, major rows.
- Option: -9
- 3 x 3 portrait, 80 chars/line, major rows.
- Option: -j
-
- Option: --borders=boolean
- print borders around virtual pages.
- Option: -A mode
-
- Option: --file-align=mode
- Align separate files according to mode. This option allows the
printing of more than one file on the same page. mode can be any
one of:
- `virtual'
- Each file starts on the next available virtual page (i.e., leave no
empty virtuals).
- `rank'
- Each file starts at the beginning of the next row or column depending on
the `--major' setting.
- `page'
- Each file starts on a new page.
- `sheet'
- Each file starts on a new sheet. In Simplex mode, this is the same as
`page', in Duplex mode, files always start on a front side.
- an integer num
- Each file starts on a page which is a multiple of num plus 1. For
instance, for `2', the files must start on odd pages.
- Option: --margin[=num]
- Specify the size of the margin (num PostScript points, or 12
points without arguments) to leave in the inside (i.e. left for the
front side page, and right for the back side). This is intended to ease
the binding.
3.1.4 Page Options
This options are related to the content of the virtual pages.
Please note that the options `-f', `-L', `-l', `-m',
and `-1' .. `-9' all have an influence on the font size. Only
the last one will win (i.e., `a2ps -L66 -l80' is the same as
`a2ps -l80').
- Option: --line-numbers[=number]
- print the line numbers from number lines to number lines.
Default is `1'.
- Option: -C
- Alias for `--line-numbers=5'.
- Option: -f size[unit]
-
- Option: --font-size=size[unit]
- scale font to size for body text. size is a float number,
and unit can be `cm' for centimeters, `points' for
PostScript points, and `in' for inches. Default unit in
`points'.
To change the fonts used, change the current prologue (see section 8.6 Designing PostScript Prologues.
- Option: -l num
-
- Option: --chars-per-line=num
- Set the font size so that num columns appear per virtual pages.
num is the real number of columns devoted to the body of the text,
i.e., no matter whether lines are numbered or not.
- Option: -L num
-
- Option: --lines-per-page=num
- Set the font size so that num lines appear per virtual pages.
This is useful for printing preformatted documents which have a fixed
number of lines per page. The minimum number of lines per page is set
at 40 and maximum is at 160. If a number less than 40 is supplied,
scaling will be turned off.
- Option: -m
-
- Option: --catman
- Understand UNIX manual output ie: 66 lines per page and
possible bolding and underlining sequences. The understanding of
bolding and underlining is there by default even if `--catman' is
not specified. You may want to use the `ul' prologue (See section 3.1.6 Input Options, option `--prologue') if you prefer underlining over
italics.
If your file is actually a UNIX manual input, i.e., a roff file,
then depending whether you left a2ps
readable version of the text described, or a pretty-printed version of
the describing file (see section 4.10 Your Delegations).
- Option: -T num
-
- Option: --tabsize=num
- set tabulator size to num. This option is ignored if
--interpret=no is given.
- Option: --non-printable-format=format
- specify how non-printable chars are printed. format can be
- `caret'
- Use classical Unix representation: `^A', `M-^B' etc.
- `space'
- A space is written instead of the non-printable character.
- `question-mark'
- A `?' is written instead of the non-printable character.
- `octal'
- For instance `\001', `177' etc.
- `hexa'
- For instance `\x01', `\xfe' etc.
- `emacs'
- For instance `C-h', `M-C-c' etc.
3.1.5 Headings Options
These are the options through which you may define the information you
want to see all around the pages.
All these options support text as an argument, which is composed
of plain strings and escapes. See section 3.2 Escapes, for details.
- Option: -B
-
- Option: --no-header
- no page headers at all.
- Option: -b[text]
-
- Option: --header[=text]
- set the page header
- Option: --center-title[=text]
-
- Option: --left-title[=text]
-
- Option: --right-title[=text]
- Set virtual page center, left and right titles to text.
- Option: -u[text]
-
- Option: --underlay[=text]
-
use text as under lay (or water mark), i.e., in a
light gray, and under every page.
- Option: --left-footer[=text]
-
- Option: --footer[=text]
-
- Option: --right-footer[=text]
- Set sheet footers to text.
3.1.6 Input Options
- Option: -a[Page range]
-
- Option: --pages[=Page range]
-
With no argument, print all the page, otherwise select the pages to
print. Page range is a list of interval, such as `-a1':
print only the first page, `-a-3,4,6,10-': print the first 3 pages,
page 4 and 6, and all the page after 10 (included). Giving `toc'
prints the table of content whatever its page number is.
The pages referred to are the input pages, not the output pages,
that is, in `-2', printing with `-a1' will print the first
virtual page, i.e., you will get half the page filled.
Note that page selection does work with the delegations (see section 4.10 Your Delegations).
- Option: -c
-
- Option: --truncate-lines=boolean
- Cut lines too large to be printed inside the borders. The maximum line
size depends on format and font size used and whether line numbering is
enabled.
- Option: -i
-
- Option: --interpret=boolean
- interpret tab and ff chars. This means that `^L' jumps to a new
(virtual) pages, `tab' advances to the next tabulation.
- Option: --end-of-line=type
- Specify what sequence of characters denotes the end of line. type
can be:
n
unix
- `\n'.
r
mac
- `\r'.
nr
- `\n\r'.
As far as we know, this type of end-of-line is not used.
pc
rn
- `\r\n'. This is the type of end-of-line on MS-DOS.
any
auto
- Any of the previous cases. This last case prevents the bad surprises
with files from PC (trailing `^M').
- Option: -X key
-
- Option: --encoding=key
-
Use the input encoding identified by key. See section 6.2.3 Some Encodings,
and the result of
`a2ps --list=encodings' to know what encodings are supported.
Typical values are `ASCII', `latin1'... `latin6',
`ison' etc.
- Option: --stdin=filename
- Give the name filename to the files read through the standard
input.
- Option: -t name
-
- Option: --title=name
- Give the name name to the document. Escapes can be used
(see section 3.2 Escapes).
This is used for instance in the name given to the document from within
the PostScript code (so that Ghostview and others can display a
file with its real title, instead of just the PostScript file name).
It is not the name of the output. It is just a logical title.
- Option: --prologue=prologue
-
Use prologue as the PostScript prologue for a2ps@c.
prologue must be in a file named `prologue.pro', which
must be in a directory of your library path (see section 5. Library Files).
Available prologues are:
- `bold'
- This style is meant to replace the old option
-b of a2ps 4.3.
It is a copy of the black and white prologue, but in which all the fonts
are in Bold.
- `bw'
- Style is plain: pure black and white, with standard fonts.
- `color'
- Colors are used to highlight the keywords.
- `diff'
- This style is meant to be used with the
udiff, wdiff
style sheets, to underline the differences. New things are in bold
on a diff background, while removed sequences are in italic.
- `fixed'
- This style uses exclusively fixed size fonts. You should use this style
if you want the tabulations to be properly printed.
There are no means to use a fixed size Symbol font, therefore you should
not use the heavy highlighting style.
- `gray'
- Gray background is used for comments and labels.
- `gray2'
- Black background is used for comments and labels.
- `matrix'
- The layout is the same as `bw', but alternating gray and white lines.
There are two macros defining the behavior:
`pro.matrix.cycle' defines the length of the cycle (number of white
and gray lines). It defaults to 6.
`pro.matrix.gray' defines the number of gray lines. Default is 3.
- `ul'
- This style uses bold faces and underlines, but never italics. This is
particularly meant for printing formatted man pages.
- Option: --print-anyway=boolean
- force binary printing. By default, the whole print job is stopped as
soon as a binary file is detected. To detect such a file we make use of
a very simple heuristic: if the first sheet of the file contains more
than 40% of non-printing characters, it's a binary file. a2ps
file(1) what it thinks of the type of the file. If file(1)
answers `data', the file will also be considered as binary, hence
not printed.
- Option: -Z
-
- Option: --delegate=boolean
- Enable delegation of some files to delegated applications. If
delegating is on, then a2ps
but will call an application which handles the file in another way. If
delegation is off, then a2ps
Typically most people don't want to pretty-print a PostScript source
file, but want to print what describes that file. Then set
the delegations on.
See 4.10 Your Delegations for information on delegating, and option
`--list=delegations' for the applications your a2ps
- Option: --toc[=format]
- Generate a Table of Contents, which format is an escape
(see section 3.2 Escapes) processed as a PreScript file (see section 7.3.2 PreScript). If
no format is given (i.e., you wrote `--toc'), use the default
table of contents shape (
#{toc}). If the given format is empty
(i.e., you wrote `--toc='), don't issue the table of contents.
Note that it is most useful to define a variable (see section 4.9 Your Variables), for instance, in a configuration file:
| | Variable: toc.mine \
\\Keyword{Table of Content}\n\
#-1!f\
|$2# \\keyword{$-.20n} sheets $3s< to $3s> ($2s#) \
pages $3p<-$3p> $4l# lines\n||\
\\Keyword{End of toc}\n
|
and to give that variable as argument to `--toc': `a2ps
*.c --toc=#{toc.mine}'.
Note too that you can generate only the table of content using
`--pages':
3.1.7 Pretty Printing Options
These options are related to the pretty printing features of a2ps@c.
- Option: --highlight-level=level
- Specify the level of highlighting. level can be
- `none'
- no highlighting
- `normal'
- regular highlighting
- `heavy'
- even more highlighting.
See the documentation of the style sheets (`--list=style-sheets')
for a description of `heavy' highlighting.
- Option: -g
- Alias for `--highlight-level=heavy'.
- Option: -E [language]
-
- Option: --pretty-print[=language]
- With no arguments, set automatic style selection on. Otherwise, set
style to language. Note that setting language to
`plain' turns off pretty-printing. See section 7.2 Known Style Sheets, and the
output of `--list=style-sheets' for the available style sheets.
If language is `key.ssh', then don't look in the
library path, but use the file `key.ssh'. This is to ease
debugging non installed style sheets.
- Option: --strip-level=num
- Depending on the value of num:
- `0'
- everything is printed;
- `1'
- regular comments are not printed
- `2'
- strong comments are not printed
- `3'
- no comment is printed.
This option is valuable for instance in java in which case strong
comments are the so called documentation comments, or in SDL for
which some graphical editors pollutes the specification with internal
data as comments.
Note that the current implementation is not satisfactory: some undesired
blank lines remain. This is planed to be fixed.
3.1.8 Output Options
These are the options to specify what you want to do out of what a2ps
produces. Only a single destination is possible at a time, i.e., if
ever there are several options `-o', `-P' or `-d', the
last one is honored.
- Option: -o file
-
- Option: --output=file
- leave output to file file. If file is `-', leave
output to the standard output.
- Option: --version-control=type
- to avoid loosing a file, a2ps
when the output file already exists, is regular (that is, no backup is
done on special files such as `/dev/null'), and is writable (in
this case, disabling version control makes a2ps
as if version control was disabled: permission denied).
The type of backups made can be set with the VERSION_CONTROL
environment variable, which can be overridden by this option. If
VERSION_CONTROL is not set and this option is not given, the
default backup type is `existing'. The value of the
VERSION_CONTROL environment variable and the argument to this
option are like the GNU Emacs `version-control' variable;
they also recognize synonyms that are more descriptive. The valid
values are (unique abbreviations are accepted):
- `none'
- `off'
- Never make backups (override existing files).
- `t'
- `numbered'
- Always make numbered backups.
- `nil'
- `existing'
- Make numbered backups of files that already have them, simple backups of
the others.
- `never'
- `simple'
- Always make simple backups.
- Option: --suffix=suffix
- The suffix used for making simple backup files can be set with the
SIMPLE_BACKUP_SUFFIX environment variable, which can be
overridden by this option. If neither of those is given, the default is
`~', as it is in Emacs.
- Option: -P name
-
- Option: --printer=name
-
send output to printer name. See item `Printer:' and
`Unknown printer:' in 4.5 Your Printers and results of option
`--list=defaults' to see the bindings between printer names and
commands.
It is possible to pass additional options to lpr or lp via
the variable `lp.options', for more information see 10.2.5 How Can I Pass Options to `lpr'.
- Option: -d
- send output to the default printer. See item `DefaultPrinter:' in
4.5 Your Printers.
3.1.9 PostScript Options
The following options are related only to variations you want to produce
onto a PostScript output.
- Option: --ppd[=key]
- With no argument, set automatic PPD selection, otherwise set
the PPD to key.
FIXME: what to read.
- Option: -n num
-
- Option: --copies=num
- print num copies of each page
- Option: -s duplex-mode
-
- Option: --sides=duplex-mode
-
Specify the number of sheet sides, or, more generally, the Duplex mode
(see section A. Glossary). The valid values for duplex-mode are:
- `1'
- `simplex'
- One page per sheet.
- `2'
- `duplex'
- Two pages per sheet, DuplexNoTumble mode.
- `tumble'
- Two pages per sheet, DuplexTumble mode.
Not only does this option require Duplex from the printer, but it also
enables duplex features from a2ps
pages to back pages etc.).
- Option: -S key[:value]
-
- Option: --setpagedevice=key[:value]
-
Pass a page device definition to the generated PostScript output. If no
value is given, key is removed from the definitions.
Note that several `--setpagedevice' can be accumulated.
For example, command
| | ubu $ a2ps -SDuplex:true -STumble:true NEWS
[NEWS (plain): 15 pages on 8 sheets]
[Total: 15 pages on 8 sheets] sent to the default printer
|
prints file `report.pre' in duplex (two sides) tumble (suitable for
landscape documents). This is also valid for delegated files:
| | a2ps -SDuplex:true -STumble:true a2ps.texi
|
Page device operators are implementation dependent but they are
standardized. See section 8.2 Page Device Options, for details.
- Option: --statusdict=key[:value]
-
- Option: --statusdict=key[::value]
-
Pass a statusdict definition to the generated PostScript output.
statusdict operators and variables are implementation dependent;
see the documentation of your printer for details. See section 8.3 Statusdict Options, for details. Several `--statusdict' can be accumulated.
If no value is given, key is removed from the definitions.
With a single colon, pass a call to an operator, for instance:
| | a2ps --statusdict=setpapertray:1 quicksort.c
|
prints file `quicksort.c' by using paper from the paper tray 1
(assuming that printer supports paper tray selection).
With two colons, define variable key to equal value. For
instance:
| | a2ps --statusdict=papertray::1 quicksort.c
|
produces
in the PostScript.
- Option: -k
-
- Option: --page-prefeed
-
enable page prefeeding. It consists in positioning the sheet in the
printing area while the PostScript is interpreted (instead of waiting
the end of the interpretation of the page before pushing the sheet). It
can lead to an significant speed up of the printing.
a2ps
printers won't fail.
- Option: -K
-
- Option: --no-page-prefeed
- disable page prefeeding.
3.2 Escapes
The escapes are some sequences of characters that will be replaced
by their values. They are very much like variables.
3.2.1 Use of Escapes
They are used in several places in a2ps@c:
- Page markers
- Headers, footers, titles and the water mark (see section 3.1.5 Headings Options),
in general to print the name of file, page number etc. On a new sheet
a2ps
then the frame of the first page, (ditto with the others), and finally
the sheet header and footers. This order must be taken into account for
some escapes (e.g., `$l.', `$l^').
- Named output
- To specify the generic name of the file to produce, or how to access a
printer (see section 4.5 Your Printers).
- Delegation
- To specify the command associated to a delegation (see section 4.10 Your Delegations).
- Table of Content
- To specify an index/table of content printed at the end of the job.
- Variables in PostScript prologue
- To allow the user to change some parameters to your prologues
(see section 8.6 Designing PostScript Prologues).
3.2.2 General Structure of the Escapes
All format directives can also be given in format
escape width directive
where
- escape
- In general
- `%'
- escapes are related to general information (e.g., the current
date, the user's name etc.),
- `#'
- escapes are related to the output (e.g., the output file name) or
to the options you gave (e.g., the number of virtual pages etc.), or to
special constructions (e.g., enumerations of the files, or tests etc.),
- `$'
- escapes are related to the current input file (e.g., its name,
its current page number etc.),
- `\'
- introduces classical escaping, or quoting, sequences (e.g., `\n', `\f'
etc.).
- width
- Specifies the width of the column to which the escape is printed.
There are three forms for width
- `+paddinginteger'
- the result of the expansion is prefixed by the character padding
so that the whole result is as long as integer. For instance
`$+.10n' with a file name `$n'=`foo.c' gives
`.....foo.c'.
If no padding is given, ` ' (white space) is used.
- `-paddinginteger'
- Idem as above, except that completion is done on the left: `$+.10n'
gives `foo.c.....'.
- `integer'
- which is a short cut for `+integer'. For example, escape
`$5P' will expand to something like ` 12'.
- directive
- See section 3.2.3 Available Escapes.
3.2.3 Available Escapes
Supported escapes are:
- `\\'
- character `\'
- `\%'
- character `%'
- `\$'
- character `$'
- `\#'
- character `#'
- `#?cond|if_true|if_false|'
- this may be used for conditional assignment. The separator (presented
here as `|') may be any character. if_true and
if_false may be defined exactly the same way as regular headers,
included escapes and the `#?' construct.
The available tests are:
- `#?1'
- `#?2'
- `#?3'
- true if tag 1, 2 or 3 is not empty. See item `$t1' for
explanation.
- `#?d'
- true if Duplex printing is requested (`-s2').
- `#?j'
- true if bordering is asked (`-j').
- `#?l'
- true if printing in landscape mode.
- `#?o'
- true if only one virtual page per page (i.e., `#v' is 1).
- `#?p'
- a page range has been specified (i.e., `#p' is not empty).
- `#?q'
- true if a2ps
- `#?r'
- true if major is rows (`--major=rows').
- `#?v'
- true if printing on the back side of the sheet (verso).
- `#?V'
- true if verbosity level includes the `tools' flag (See section 3.1.2 Global Options. option `--verbosity').
- `#!key|in|between|'
- Used for enumerations. The separator (presented here as `|') may
be any character. in and between are escapes.
The enumerations may be:
- `#!$'
- enumeration of the command line options. In this case in in never
used, but is replaced by the arguments.
- `#!f'
- enumeration of the input files in the other they were given.
- `#!F'
- enumeration of the input files in the alphabetical order of their names.
- `#!s'
- enumeration of the files appearing in the current sheet.
For instance, the escapes `The files printed were: #!f|$n|,
|.' evaluated with input `a2ps NEWS main.c -o foo.ps', gives
`The files printed were: NEWS, main.c.'.
As an exception, `#!' escapes use the width as the
maximum number of objects to enumerate if it is positive, e.g.,
`#10!f|$n|, |' lists only the ten first file names. If width
is negative, then it does not enumerate the -width last objects
(e.g., `#-1!f|$n|, |' lists all the files but the last).
- `${var}'
- value of the environment variable var if defined, nothing
otherwise.
- `${var:-word}'
- if the environment variable var is defined, then its value,
otherwise word.
- `${var:+word}'
- if the environment variable var is defined, then word,
otherwise nothing.
- `$[num]'
- value of the numth argument given on the command line. Note that
$[0] is the name under which a2ps
- `#{key}'
- expansion of the value of the variable key if defined, nothing
otherwise (see section 4.9 Your Variables)
- `#{key:-word}'
- if the variable var is defined, then the expansion of its,
otherwise word.
- `#{key:+word}'
- if the variable var is defined, then word, otherwise
nothing.
- `#.'
- the extension corresponding to the current output language
(e.g. `ps').
- `%*'
- current time in 24-hour format with seconds `hh:mm:ss'
- `$*'
- file modification time in 24-hour format with seconds `hh:mm:ss'
- `$#'
- the sequence number of the current input file
- `%#'
- the total number of files
- `%a'
- the localized equivalent for `Printed by User Name'.
User Name is obtained from the variable `user.name'
(see section 4.9.2 Predefined Variables).
- `%A'
- the localized equivalent for `Printed by User Name from
Host Name'. The variables `user.name' and `user.host'
are used (see section 4.9.2 Predefined Variables).
- `%c'
- trailing component of the current working directory
- `%C'
- current time in `hh:mm:ss' format
- `$C'
- file modification time in `hh:mm:ss' format
- `%d'
- current working directory
- `$d'
- directory part of the current file (`.' if the directory part is
empty).
- `%D'
- current date in `yy-mm-dd' format
- `$D'
- file modification date in `yy-mm-dd' format
- `%D{string}'
- format current date according to string with the
strftime(3) function.
- `$D{string}'
- format file's last modification date according to string with the
strftime(3) function.
- `%e'
- current date in localized short format (e.g., `Jul 4, 76' in
English, or `14 Juil 89' in French).
- `$e'
- file modification date in localized short format.
- `%E'
- current date in localized long format (e.g., `July 4, 76' in
English, or `Samedi 14 Juillet 89' in French).
- `$E'
- file modification date in localized long format.
- `$f'
- full file name (with directory and suffix).
- `\f'
- character `\f' (
form feed).
- `#f0'
- `#f9'
- ten temporary file names. You can do anything you want with them, a2ps
removes them at the end of the job. It is useful for the delegations
(see section 4.10 Your Delegations) and for the printer commands (see section 4.5 Your Printers).
- `%F'
- current date in `dd.mm.yyyy' format.
- `$F'
- file modification date in `dd.mm.yyyy' format.
- `#h'
- medium height in PostScript points
- `$l^'
- top most line number of the current page
- `$l.'
- current line number. To print the page number and the line interval in
the right title, use `--right-title="$q:$l^-$l."'.
- `$l#'
- number of lines in the current file.
- `%m'
- the host name up to the first `.' character
- `%M'
- the full host name
- `\n'
- the character `\n' (
new line).
- `%n'
- shortcut for the value of the variable `user.login'
(see section 4.9.2 Predefined Variables).
- `$n'
- input file name without the directory part.
- `%N'
- shortcut for the value of the variable `user.name'
(see section 4.9.2 Predefined Variables).
- `$N'
- input file name without the directory, and without its suffix (e.g., on
`foo.c', it will produce `foo').
- `#o'
- name of the output, before substitution (i.e., argument of `-P',
or of `-o').
- `#O'
- name of the output, after substitution. If output goes to a file, then
the name of the file. If the output is a symbolic printer (see section 4.5 Your Printers), the result of the evaluation. For instance, if the symbolic
printer `file' is defined as `> $n.%.', then `#O' returns
`foo.c.ps' when printing `foo.c' to PostScript. `#o'
would have returned `file'.
- `#p'
- the range of the page to print from this page. For instance if the user
asked `--pages=1-10,15', and the current page is 8, then `#p'
evaluates to `1-3,8'.
- `$p^'
- number of the first page of this file appearing on the current sheet.
Note that `$p.', evaluated at the end of sheet, is also the number
of the last page of this file appearing on this sheet.
- `$p-'
- interval of the page number of the current file appearing on the current
sheet. It is the same as `$p^-$p.', if `$p^' and `$p.'
are different, otherwise it is equal to `$p.'.
- `%p.'
- current page number
- `$p.'
- page number for this file
- `%p#'
- total number of pages printed
- `$p#'
- number of pages of the current file
- `$p<'
- number of the first page of the current file
- `$p>'
- number of the last page of the current file
- `%q'
- localized equivalent for `Page %p.'
- `$q'
- localized equivalent for `Page $p.'
- `%Q'
- localized equivalent for `Page %p./%p#'
- `$Q'
- localized equivalent for `Page $p./$p#'
- `$s<'
- number of the first sheet of the current file
- `%s.'
- current sheet number
- `$s.'
- sheet number for the current file
- `$s>'
- number of the last sheet of the current file
- `%s#'
- total number of sheets
- `$s#'
- number of sheets of the current file
- `%t'
- current time in 12-hour am/pm format
- `$t'
- file modification time in 12-hour am/pm format
- `$t1'
- `$t2'
- `$t3'
- Content of tag 1, 2 and 3. Tags are pieces of text a2ps
files, according to the style. For instance, in
mail-folder
style, tag 1 is the title of the mail, and tag 2 its author.
- `%T'
- current time in 24-hour format `hh:mm'
- `$T'
- file modification time in 24-hour format `hh:mm'
- `#v'
- number of virtual sheets
- `%V'
- the version string of a2ps@c.
- `#w'
- medium width in PostScript points
- `%W'
- current date in `mm/dd/yy' format
- `$W'
- file modification date in `mm/dd/yy' format
4. Configuration Files
a2ps
order, they are:
-
the system configuration file (usually `/usr/local/etc/a2ps.cfg')
unless you have defined the environment variable `A2PS_CONFIG', in
which case a2ps
-
the user's home configuration file (`$HOME/.a2ps/a2psrc')
-
the local file (`./.a2psrc')
Because a2ps
local lpr command) and architecture independent information (such
as the type of your printers), users have found useful that
`a2ps.cfg' be dedicated to architecture dependent information. A
sub configuration file, `a2ps-site.cfg' (see section 4.1 Including Configuration Files) is included from `a2ps.cfg'.
The file `a2ps.cfg' is updated when you update a2ps@c, while
`a2ps-site.cfg' is not, to preserve local definitions.
In the configuration files, empty lines and lines starting with `#'
are comments.
The other lines have all the following form:
where Topic: is a keyword related to what you are customizing, and
Arguments the customization. Arguments may be spread on
several lines, provided that the last character of a line to continue is
a `\'.
In the following sections, each Topic: is detailed.
4.1 Including Configuration Files
- Configuration Setting: Include: file
-
Include (read) the configuration file. if file is a
relative path (i.e., it does not start with `/'), then it is
relatively to the current configuration file.
This is especially useful for the site specific configuration file
`etc/a2ps.cfg': you may tune your printers etc. in a separate file
for easy upgrade of a2ps
4.2 Your Library Path
To define the default library path, you can use:
- Configuration Setting: LibraryPath: path
-
Set the library path the path.
- Configuration Setting: AppendLibraryPath: path
-
Add path at the end of the current library path.
- Configuration Setting: PrependLibraryPath: path
-
Add path at the beginning of the current library path.
Note that for users configuration files, it is better not to set the
library path, because the system's configuration has certainly been
built to cope with your system's peculiarities. Use
`AppendLibraryPath:' and `PrependLibraryPath:'.
4.3 Your Default Options
- Configuration Setting: Options: options+
-
Give a2ps
sequence of regular command line options (see section 3. Invoking a2ps).
It is the correct way to define the default behavior you expect from
a2ps@c. If for instance you want to use Letter as medium, then
use:
It is exactly the same as always giving a2ps
`--medium=Letter' at run time.
The quoting mechanism is the same as that of a shell. For instance
| | Options: --right-title="Page $p" --center-title="Hello World!"
Options: --title="arg 'Jack said \\\"hi\\\"' has double quotes"
|
4.4 Your Media
- Configuration Setting: Medium: name dimensions
-
Define the medium name to have the dimensions (in PostScript
points, i.e., 1/72 of inch).
There are two formats supported:
- long
- in which you must give both the size of the whole sheet, and the size of
the printable area:
| | # A4 for Desk Jets
# name w h llx lly urx ury
Medium: A4dj 595 842 24 50 571 818
|
where wxh are the dimension of the sheet, and the four other
stand for lower left x and y, upper right x and y.
- short
- in which a surrounding margin of 24 points is used
| | # A4
# name w h
Medium: A4 595 842
|
is the same as
| | # A4
# name w h
Medium: A4 595 842 24 24 571 818
|
4.5 Your Printers
A general scheme is used, so that whatever the way you should address
the printers on your system, the interface is still the same. Actually,
the interface is so flexible, that you should understand `named destination'
when we write `printer'.
- Configuration Setting: Printer: name PPD-key destination
-
- Configuration Setting: Printer: name destination
-
- Configuration Setting: Printer: name PPD-key
-
Specify the destination of the output when the option `-P
name' is given. If PPD-key is given, declare the printer
name to be described by the PPD file `PPD-key.ppd'. If
destination is not given, used that of the `UnknownPrinter:'.
The destination must be of one of the following forms:
- `| command'
- in which case the output is piped into command.
- `> file'
- in which case the output is saved into file.
- Configuration Setting: UnknownPrinter: [PPD-key] destination
-
Specify the destination of the output when when the option `-P name'
is given, but there is no `Printer:' entry for name.
- Configuration Setting: DefaultPrinter: [PPD-key] destination
-
Specify the destination of the output when when the option `-d'
(send to default output) is given.
Escapes expansion is performed on destination (see section 3.2 Escapes).
Recall that `#o' is evaluated to the destination
name, i.e., the argument given to `-P'.
For instance
| | # My Default Printer is called dominique
DefaultPrinter: | lp -d dominique
# `a2ps foo.c -P bar' will pipe into `lp -d bar'
UnknownPrinter: | lp -d #o
# `a2ps -P foo' saves into the file `foo'
Printer: foo > foo.ps
Printer: wc | wc
Printer: lw | lp -d printer-with-a-rather-big-name
# E.g. `a2ps foo.c bar.h -P file' will save into `foo.c.ps'
Printer: file > $n.#.
# E.g. `a2ps foo.c bar.h -P home' will save into `foo.ps'
# in user's home
Printer: home > ${HOME}/$N.#.
# Here we address a printer which is not PostScript
Printer: deskj | gs -q -sDEVICE=ljet3d -sOutputFile=- - \
| lpr -P laserwriter -h -l
|
MS-DOS users, and non-PostScript printer owners should take advantage in
getting good configuration of these entries.
4.6 Your Shortcuts
You can define some kind of `Macro Options' which stand for a set of
options.
- Configuration Setting: UserOption: shortcut options...
-
Define the shortcut to be the list of options.... When a2ps
is called with `-=shortcut' (or
`--user-option=shortcut'), consider the list of
options....
Examples are
| | # This emulates a line printer: no features at all
# call a2ps -=lp to use it
UserOption: lp -1m --pretty-print=plain -B --borders=no
# When printing mail, I want to use the right style sheet with strong
# highlight level, and stripping `useless' headers.
UserOption: mail -Email -g --strip=1
|
4.7 Your PostScript magic number
a2ps
Adobe said
Thou shalt start your PostScript DSC conformant files with
The bad news is that some printers will reject this header. Then you
may change this header without any worry since the PostScript produced
by a2ps
are no PostScript printers that don't understand these files.}.
- Configuration Setting: OutputFirstLine: magic-number
-
Specify the header of the produced PostScript file to be magic-number.
Typical values include `%!PS-Adobe-2.0', or just `%!'.
4.8 Your Page Labels
In the PostScript file is dropped information on where sheets begin and
end, so that post processing tools know where is the physical page 1, 2 etc.
With this information can be also stored a label, i.e., a human readable text
(typically the logical page numbers), which
is for instance what Ghostview shows as the list of page numbers.
a2ps
- Configuration Setting: PageLabelFormat: format
-
Specify the format to use to label the PostScript pages.
format can use Escapes (see section 3.2 Escapes). Two
variables are predefined for this: `#{pl.short}' and
`#{pl.long}'.
4.9 Your Variables
There are many places in a2ps
of extending things. It once became clear that variables where
needed in a2ps@c.
4.9.1 Defining Variables
- Configuration Setting: Variable: key value
-
Define the escape `#{key}' to be a short cut for
value. key must not have any character from `:(){}'.
As as example, here is a variable for psnup, which encloses all
the option passing one would like. Delegations are then easier to
write:
| | Variable: psnup psnup -#v -q #?j|-d|| #?r||-c| -w#w -h#h
|
It is strongly suggested to follow a `.' (dot) separated hierarchy,
starting with:
- `del'
- for variables that are related to delegations.
- `pro'
- for variables used in prologues (see section 8.6 Designing PostScript Prologues). Please, specify the name of the prologue (e.g.,
`pro.matrix.gray').
- `ps'
- for variables related to PostScript matters, such as the page label
(which is associated to
ps.page_label), the header etc.
- `pl'
- for page label formats. See section 4.8 Your Page Labels, the option
`--page-label' in 3.1.6 Input Options.
- `toc'
- for toc formats. See the option `--toc' in 3.1.6 Input Options.
- `user'
- for user related information. See section 4.9.2 Predefined Variables.
This naming convention has not fully stabilized. We apologize for the
inconvenience this might cause to users.
4.9.2 Predefined Variables
There are a few predefined variables. The fact that a2ps
at startup changes nothing to their status: they can be modified like
any other variable using --define (see section 3.1.2 Global Options).
In what follows, there are numbers (i) like this, or (ii) this. It
means that a2ps
(non empty value), this is the value given to the variable. Otherwise
it tries solution (ii), etc. The rationale behind the order is usually
from user modifiable values (e.g. environment variables) through
system's hard coded values (e.g., calls to getpwuid) and finally
arbitrary values.
- `user.comments'
- Comments on the user. Computed by (i) the system's database (the part
of
pw_gecos after the first `,'), (ii) not defined.
- `user.home'
- The user's home directory. Determined by (i) the environment variable
HOME, (ii) the system's database (using getpwuid), (iii)
the empty string.
- `user.host'
- The user's host name. Assigned from (i) the system (
gethostname
or uname), (ii) the empty string.
- `user.login'
- The user's login (e.g. `bgates'). Computed by (i) the environment
variable
LOGNAME, (ii) the environment variable USERNAME,
(iii) the system's database (using getpwuid), (iv) the translated
string `user'.
- `user.name'
- The user's name (e.g. `William Gates'). Computed by (i) the
system's database (
pw_gecos up to the first `,'), (ii)
capitalized value of the variable `user.login' unless it was the
translated string `user', (iii) the translated string `Unknown
User'.
4.10 Your Delegations
There are some files you don't really want a2ps
typically page description files (e.g., PostScript files, roff files,
etc.). You can let a2ps
applications. The behavior at run time depends upon the option
`--delegate' (see section 3.1.6 Input Options).
4.10.1 Defining a Delegation
- Configuration Setting: Delegation: name in:out command
-
Define the delegation name. It is to be applied upon files of
type in when output type is out(2) thanks to
command. Both in and out are a2ps
defined in `sheets.map' (see section 7.7.3 The Entry in `sheets.map').
command should produce the file on its standard output. Of course
escapes substitution is performed on command (see section 3.2 Escapes).
In particular, command should use the input file
`$f'.
| | # In general, people don't want to pretty-print PostScript files.
# Pass the PostScript files to psnup
Delegation: PsNup ps:ps \
psselect #?V||-q| -p#?p|#p|-| $f | \
psnup -#v -q #?j|-d|| #?r||-c| -w#w -h#h
|
Advantage should be taken from the variables, to encapsulate the
peculiarities of the various programs.
| | # Passes the options to psnup.
# The files (in and out) are to be given
Variable: psnup psnup -#v #?V||-q| #?j|-d|| #?r||-c| -w#w -h#h
# Passes to psselect for PS page selection
Variable: psselect psselect #?V||-q| -p#?p|#p|-|
# In general, people don't want to pretty-print PostScript files.
# Pass the PostScript files to psnup
Delegation: PsNup ps:ps #{psselect} $f | #{psnup}
|
Temporary file names (`#f0' to `#f9') are available for
complex commands.
| | # Pass DVI files to dvips.
# A problem with dvips is that even on failure it dumps its prologue,
# hence it looks like a success (output is produced).
# To avoid that, we use an auxiliary file and a conditional call to
# psnup instead of piping.
Delegation: dvips dvi:ps #{dvips} $f -o #f0 && #{psnup} #f0
|
4.10.2 Guide Line for Delegations
First of all, select carefully the applications you will use for the
delegations. If a filter is known to cause problems, try to avoid it in
delegations(3). As a thumb rule, you should check that the PostScript
generating applications produce files that start by:
a2ps
in order to output correctly the page device definitions. It can happen
that your filters don't output this section. In that case, you should
insert a call to fixps right after the PostScript generation:
| | ########## ROFF files
# Pass the roff files to groff. Ask grog how groff should be called.
# Use fixps to ensure there is a %%BeginSetup/%%EndSetup section.
Delegation: Groff roff:ps \
eval `grog -Tps '$f'` | fixps #?V!!-q! | #{d.psselect} | #{d.psnup}
|
There are some services expected from the delegations. The delegations
you may write should honor:
- the input file
- available via the escape `$f'. You should be aware that there are
people who have great fun having spaces or dollars in their file names,
so you probably should always use `'$f''. Some other variables are
affected. Yes, I know, we need a special mechanism for `'' itself.
Well, we'll see that later `;-)'.
- the medium
- the dimension of the medium selected by the user are available through
`#w' and `#h'.
- the page layout
- the number of virtual pages is `#v'.
- the page range
- the page range (in a form `1-2,4-6,10-' for instance) is available
by `#p'.
- the verbosity level
- please, do not make your delegations verbose by default. The silent
mode should always be requested, unless `#?V' is set (see the above
example with
groff).
If ever you need several commands, do not use `;' to separate them,
since it may prevent detection of failure. Use `&&' instead.
The slogan "the sooner, the better" should be applied here: in
the processing chain, it is better to ask a service to the first
application that supports it. An example will make it clear: when
processing a DVI file, dvips knows better the page numbers
than psselect would. So a DVI to PostScript delegation
should ask the page selection (`#p') to dvips, instead of
using psselect later in the chain. An other obvious reason here
is plain efficiency (globally, less data is processed).
4.10.3 Predefined Delegations
The purpose of this section is not to document all the predefined
delegations, for this you should read the comments in the system
configuration file `a2ps.cfg'. We just want to explain some choices,
and give hints on how to make the best use of these delegations.
- Delegation: dvips (DVI to PostScript)
- There is a problem when you use a naive implementation of this
delegation: landscape jobs are not recognized, and therefore n-upping
generally fails miserably. Therefore, a2ps
is landscape by looking for the keyword `landscape' in it, using
strings(1):
| | Delegation: dvips dvi:ps\
if strings $f | sed 3q | fgrep landscape > /dev/null 2>&1; then \
#{d.dvips} -T#hpt,#wpt $f -o #f0 && #?o|cat|#{d.psnup} -r| #f0;\
else \
#{d.dvips} $f -o #f0 && #{d.psnup} #f0; \
fi
|
In order to have that rule work correctly, it is expected from the
TeX, or LaTeX file to include something like:
| | \renewcommand{\printlandscape}{\special{landscape}}
\printlandscape
|
in the preamble.
We don't use a pipe because dvips always outputs data (its prologue)
even if it fails, what prevents error detection.
- Delegation: LaTeX (LaTeX to DVI)
- We use a modern version of the shell script
texi2dvi, from the
package Texinfo, which runs makeindex, bibtex and
latex as many times as needed. You should be aware that if the
file includes files from other directories, it may miss some
compilation steps. Other cases (most typical) are well handled.
4.11 Your Internal Details
There are settings that only meant for a2ps
yourself.
- Configuration Setting: FileCommand: command
-
The command to run to call
file(1) on a file. If possible, make
it follow the symbolic links.
5. Library Files
To be general and to allow as much customization as possible, a2ps
avoids to hard code its knowledge (encodings, PostScript routines,
etc.), and tries to split it in various files. Hence it needs a path,
i.e., a list of directories, in which it may find the files it needs.
The exact value of this library path is available by `a2ps
--list=defaults'. Typically its value is:
| | gargantua ~ $ a2ps --list=defaults
Configuration status of a2ps 4.13
More stuff deleted here
Internals:
verbosity level = 2
file command = /usr/ucb/file -L
temporary directory =
library path =
/inf/soft/infthes/demaille/.a2ps
/usr/local/share/a2ps/sheets
/usr/local/share/a2ps/ps
/usr/local/share/a2ps/encoding
/usr/local/share/a2ps/afm
/usr/local/share/a2ps/printers
/usr/local/share/a2ps
|
You may change this default path through the configuration files
(see section 4.2 Your Library Path).
If you plan to define yourself some files for a2ps@c, they should be in
one of those directories.
5.1 Documentation Format
In various places a documentation can be given. Since some
parts of this document and of web pages are extracted from documentations,
some tags are needed to provide a better layout. The format is
a mixture made out of Texinfo like commands, but built so that
quick and easy processing can be made.
These tags are:
- `code('text`)code'
- Typeset text like a piece of code. This should be used
for keys, variables, options etc. For instance the documentation
of the
bold prologue mentions the bw prologue:
| | Documentation
This style is meant to replace the old option
code(-b)code of a2ps 4.3. It is a copy of the
black and white prologue, but in which all the
fonts are in Bold.
EndDocumentation
|
- `href('link`)href('text`)href'
- Specifies a hyper text link displayed as text.
- `@example'
- `@end example'
- They must be alone on the line. The text between these tags is
displayed in a code-like fonts. This should be used for including a
piece of code. For instance, in the documentation of the
gnuc
style sheet:
| | documentation is
"Declaration of functions are highlighted"
"emph(only)emph if you start the function name"
"in the first column, and it is followed by an"
"opening parenthesis. In other words, if you"
"write"
"@example"
"int main (void)"
"@end example"
"it won't work. Write:"
"@example"
"int"
"main (void)"
"@end example"
end documentation
|
- `@itemize'
- `@item' text
- `@end itemize'
- Typeset a list of items. The opening and closing tags must be alone on
the line.
5.2 Map Files
Many things are defined through files. There is a general scheme to
associate an object to the files to use: map files. They are typically
used to:
-
resolve aliases. For instance the ISO-8859-1 encoding is also called
ISO Latin 1, or Latin 1 for short. The `encoding.map' file will
map these three names to the same Encoding Description File.
-
cope with broken files systems. For instance,
the-one-you-know-I-don't-need-to-name cannot handle files named
`Courier-BoldOblique.afm': it is the same as
`Courier-Bold.afm'. The `fonts.map' file is here to associate
a font file name to a font name.
The syntax of these files is:
-
any empty line, or any line starting by a `#' is a comment.
-
a line with the format
requests that the file designated by path be included at this
point.
-
any other line has the format
meaning that when looking for key (e.g., name of a font, an
encoding etc.), a2ps
encoding description file name etc.).
The map files used in a2ps
- `encoding.map'
- Resolving encodings aliases.
- `fonts.map'
- Mapping font names to font file names.
- `sheets.map'
- Rules to decide what style sheet to use.
5.3 Font Files
Even when a PostScript printer knows the fonts you want to use, using
these fonts requires some description files.
5.3.1 Fonts Map File
See section 5.2 Map Files, for a description of the map files. This file
associates the font-key to a font name. For instance:
| | Courier pcrr
Courier-Bold pcrb
Courier-BoldOblique pcrbo
Courier-Oblique pcrro
|
associates to font named Courier, the key pcrr. To be
recognized, the font name must be exact: courier and
COURIER are not admitted.
5.3.2 Fonts Description Files
There are two kinds of data a2ps
-
the AFM file (`font-key.afm'), which describes the metrics
information corresponding to font;
-
in the case font is not known from the printer, the PFA or PFB
file which is down loaded to the printer. These files are actually the
PostScript programs which execution produces the characters to be drawn
on the page, in this font.
5.3.3 Adding More Font Support
a2ps
name of the files in which are stored the fonts (see section 5.3.1 Fonts Map File). To this end, a very primitive but still useful shell script is
provided: make_fonts_map.sh.
First, you need to find the directories which store the fonts you want
to use, and extend the library path so that a2ps
directories. For instance, add:
| | AppendLibraryPath: /usr/local/share/ghostscript/fonts
|
Then run make_fonts_map.sh. It should be located in the
`afm/' directory of the system's a2ps
`/usr/local/share/a2ps/afm/make_fonts_map.sh'.
This script asks a2ps
collecting AFM files, and digging information in them.
Once the script has finished, a file `fonts.map.new' was created.
Check its integrity, and if it's correct, either replace the old
`fonts.map' with it, or rename `fonts.map.new' as
`fonts.map' and place it higher in the the library path (for
instance in your `~/.a2ps/' directory).
5.4 Style Sheet Files
The style sheets are defined in various files. See see section 7. Pretty Printing for the structure of these files. As for most other features,
there is main file, a road map, which defines in which condition a style
sheet should be used (see section 5.2 Map Files). This file is
`sheets.map'.
Its format is simple:
or
The patterns need not be on separate lines. There are two kinds
of patterns:
- /pattern/flags
- if the current file name matches pattern, then select style
style-key (i.e. file `style-key.ssh').
- <pattern>flags
- if the result of a call to
file(1) matches pattern, then
select style style-key.
Currently flags can only be `i', standing for an insentive
match. Please note that the matching is not truly case insensitive:
rather, a lower case version of the string is compared to the pattern
as is, i.e., the pattern should itself be lower case.
The special style-key `binary' tells a2ps
the file should not be printed, and will be ignored, unless option
`--print-anyway' is given.
If a style name can't be found, the plain style is used.
The map file is read bottom up, so that the "last" match is honored.
Two things are to retain from this:
-
if the file is presented through
stdin, then a2ps
file(1). However, unless you specify a fake file name with
`--stdin', pattern matching upon the name is turn off. In general
you can expect correct delegations, but almost never pretty printing.
-
if
file is wrong on some files, a2ps
In this case, do try option `--guess', compare it with the output
of file, and if the culprit is file, go and complain to
your system administrator :-), or fix it by defining your own filename
pattern matching rules.
Consider the case of Texinfo files as an example (the language in which
this documentation is written). Files are usually named
`foo.texi', `bar.txi', or even `baz.texinfo'.
file(1) is able to recognize Texinfo files:
| | doc % file a2ps.texi
a2ps.texi: Texinfo source text
|
Therefore the sheets.map would look like:
| | # Texinfo files
texinfo: /*.txi/ /*.texi/ /*.texinfo/
<Texinfo source*>
|
6. Encodings
a2ps
use. This chapter presents what an encoding is, how the encodings
support is handled within a2ps@c, and some encodings it supports.
6.1 What is an Encoding
This section is actually taken from the web pages of
Alis Technologies inc.
Document encoding is the most important but also the most sensitive and
explosive topic in Internet internationalization. It is an essential
factor since most of the information distributed over the Internet is in
text format. But the history of the Internet is such that the
predominant - and in some cases the only possible - encoding is the very
limited ASCII, which can represent only a handful of languages, only
three of which are used to any great extent: English, Indonesian and
Swahili.
All the other languages, spoken by more than 90% of the world's
population, must fall back on other character sets. And there is a
plethora of them, created over the years to satisfy writing constraints
and constantly changing technological limitations. The ISO
international character set registry contains only a small fraction;
IBM's character registry is over three centimeters thick; Microsoft and
Apple each have a bunch of their own, as do other software manufacturers
and editors.
The problem is not that there are too few but rather too many choices,
at least whenever Internet standards allow them. And the surplus is a
real problem; if every Arabic user made his own choice among the three
dozen or so codes available for this language, there is little
likelihood that his "neighbor" would do the same and that they would
thus be able to understand each other. This example is rather extreme,
but it does illustrate the importance of standards in the area of
internationalization. For a group of users sharing the same language to
be able to communicate,
-
the code used in the shared document must always be identified
(labeling)
-
they must agree on a small number of codes - only one, if possible
(standards);
-
their software must recognize and process all codes (versatility)
Certain character sets stand out either because of their status as an
official national or international standard, or simply because of their
widespread use.
First off, there is the ISO 8859 standards series that standardize a
dozen character sets that are useful for a large number of languages
using the Latin, Cyrillic, Arabic, Greek and Hebrew alphabets. These
standards have a limited range of application (8 bits per character, a
maximum of 190 characters, no combining) but where they suffice (as they
do for 10 of the 20 most widely used languages), they should be used on
the Internet in preference to other codes. For all other languages,
national standards should preferably be chosen or, if none are
available, a well-known and widely-used code should be the second
choice.
Even when we limit ourselves to the most widely used standards, the
overabundance remains considerable, and this significantly complicates
life for truly international software developers and users of several
languages, especially when such languages can only be represented by a
single code. It was to resolve this problem that both Unicode and the
ISO 10646 International standard were created. Two standards? Oh no!
Their designers soon realized the problem and were able to cooperate to
the extent of making the character set repertoires and coding
identical.
ISO 10646 (and Unicode) contain over 30,000 characters capable of
representing most of the living languages within a single code. All of
these characters, except for the Han (Chinese characters also
used in Japanese and Korean), have a name. And there is still room to
encode the missing languages as soon as enough of the necessary research
is done. Unicode can be used to represent several languages, using
different alphabets, within the same electronic document.
6.2 Encoding Files
The support of the encodings in a2ps
to say, adding, removing or changing anything in its support for an encoding
does not require programming, nor even being a programmer.
See section 6.1 What is an Encoding, if you want to know more about this.
6.2.1 Encoding Map File
See section 5.2 Map Files, for a description of the map files.
The meaningful lines of the `encoding.map' file have the form:
| | alias key
iso-8859-1 latin1
latin1 latin1
l1 latin1
|
where
- alias
- specifies any name under which the encoding may be used. It influences
the option `--encoding', but also the encodings dynamically
required, as for instance in the
mail style sheet (support for
MIME).
When encoding is asked, the lower case version of encoding
must be equal to alias.
- key
- specifies the prefix of the file describing the encoding
(`key.edf', 6.2.2 Encoding Description Files).
6.2.2 Encoding Description Files
The encoding description file describing the encoding key is named
`key.edf'. It is subject to the same rules as any other
a2ps
-
please make the name portable: alpha-numerical, at most 8 characters,
-
empty lines and lines starting by `#' are ignored.
The entries are
- `Name:'
- Specifies the full name of the encoding. Please, try to use the
official name if there is one.
- `Documentation/EndDocumentation'
- Introduces the documentation on the encoding (see section 5.1 Documentation Format).
Typical informations expected are
the other important names this encoding has, and the languages it covers.
| | Documentation
Also known as ISO Latin 1, or Latin 1. It is a superset
of ASCII, and covers most West-European languages.
EndDocumentation
|
- `Substitute:'
- Introduces a font substitution. The most common fonts (e.g.,
Courier, Times-Roman...) do not support many encodings
(for instance it does not support Latin 2). To avoid that Latin 2 users
have to replace everywhere calls to Courier, a2ps
specify that whenever a font is called in an encoding, then another font
should be used.
For instance in `iso2.edf' one can read:
| | # Fonts from Ogonkify offer full support of ISO Latin 2
Substitute: Courier Courier-Ogonki
Substitute: Courier-Bold Courier-Bold-Ogonki
Substitute: Courier-BoldOblique Courier-BoldOblique-Ogonki
Substitute: Courier-Oblique Courier-Oblique-Ogonki
|
- `Default:'
- Introduces the name of the font that should be used when
a font (not substituted as per the previous item) is called
but provides to poor a support of the encoding. The
Courier
equivalent is the best choice.
- `Vector:'
- Introduces the PostScript encoding vector, that is a list of the 256
PostScript names of the characters. Note that only the printable
characters are named in PostScript (e.g., `bell' in ASCII
(
^G) should not be named). The special name `.notdef' is to
be used when the character is not printable.
Warning. Make sure to use real, official, PostScript names.
Using names such as `c123' may be the sign you use unusual names.
On the other hand PostScript names such as `afii8879' are common.
6.2.3 Some Encodings
Most of the following information is a courtesy of
Alis Technologies inc. and of
Roman Czyborra's page about
The ISO 8859 Alphabet Soup.
See section 6.1 What is an Encoding, is an instructive presentation of the
encodings.
The known encodings are:
- Encoding: ASCII (`ascii.edf')
- US-ASCII.
- Encoding: HPRoman (`hp.edf')
- The 8 bits Roman encoding for HP.
- Encoding: IBM-CP437 (`ibm-cp437.edf')
- This encoding is meant to be used for PC files with drawing lines.
- Encoding: IBM-CP850 (`ibm-cp850.edf')
- Several characters may be missing, especially Greek letters and some
mathematical symbols.
- Encoding: ISO-8859-1 (`iso1.edf')
- The ISO-8859-1 character set, often simply referred to as Latin 1,
covers most West European languages, such as French, Spanish, Catalan,
Basque, Portuguese, Italian, Albanian, Rhaeto-Romanic, Dutch, German,
Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Faroese, Icelandic, Irish,
Scottish, and English, incidentally also Afrikaans and Swahili, thus
in effect also the entire American continent, Australia and the
southern two-thirds of Africa. The lack of the ligatures Dutch IJ,
French OE and ,,German" quotation marks is considered tolerable.
The lack of the new C=-resembling Euro currency symbol U+20AC has
opened the discussion of a new Latin0.
- Encoding: ISO-8859-2 (`iso2.edf')
- The Latin 2 character set supports the Slavic languages of Central
Europe which use the Latin alphabet. The ISO-8859-2 set is used for
the following languages: Czech, Croat, German, Hungarian, Polish,
Romanian, Slovak and Slovenian.
Support is provided thanks to Ogonkify.
- Encoding: ISO-8859-3 (`iso3.edf')
- This character set is used for Esperanto, Galician, Maltese and Turkish.
Support is provided thanks to Ogonkify.
- Encoding: ISO-8859-4 (`iso4.edf')
- Some letters were added to the ISO-8859-4 to support languages such as
Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian. It is an incomplete precursor of the
Latin 6 set.
Support is provided thanks to Ogonkify.
- Encoding: ISO-8859-5 (`iso5.edf')
- The ISO-8859-5 set is used for various forms of the Cyrillic
alphabet. It supports Bulgarian, Byelorussian, Macedonian, Serbian and
Ukrainian.
The Cyrillic alphabet was created by St. Cyril in the 9th century from
the upper case letters of the Greek alphabet. The more ancient
Glagolithic (from the ancient Slav glagol, which means "word"), was
created for certain dialects from the lower case Greek letters. These
characters are still used by Dalmatian Catholics in their liturgical
books. The kings of France were sworn in at Reims using a Gospel in
Glagolithic characters attributed to St. Jerome.
Note that Russians seem to prefer the KOI8-R character set to the ISO
set for computer purposes. KOI8-R is composed using the lower half
(the first 128 characters) of the corresponding American ASCII
character set.
- Encoding: ISO-8859-7 (`iso7.edf')
- ISO-8859-7 was formerly known as ELOT-928 or ECMA-118:1986. It is
meant for modern Greek.
- Encoding: ISO-8859-9 (`iso9.edf')
- The ISO 8859-9 set, or Latin 5, replaces the rarely used Icelandic
letters from Latin 1 with Turkish letters.
Support is provided thanks to Ogonkify.
- Encoding: ISO-8859-10 (`iso10.edf')
- Latin 6 (or ISO-8859-10) adds the last letters from Greenlandic and
Lapp which were missing in Latin 4, and thereby covers all
Scandinavia.
Support is provided thanks to Ogonkify.
- Encoding: ISO-8859-13 (`iso13.edf')
- Latin7 (ISO-8859-13) is going to cover the Baltic Rim and re-establish
the Latvian (lv) support lost in Latin6 and may introduce the local
quotation marks.
Support is provided thanks to Ogonkify.
- Encoding: ISO-8859-15 (`iso15.edf')
- The new Latin9 nicknamed Latin0 aims to update Latin1 by replacing
some less needed symbols (some fractions and accents) with forgotten
French and Finnish letters and placing the U+20AC Euro sign in the
cell of the former international currency sign.
Very few fonts yet offer the possibility to print the Euro sign.
- Encoding: KOI8 (`koi8.edf')
- KOI-8 (+Ëë) is a subset of ISO-IR-111 that can be used in Serbia, Belarus
etc.
- Encoding: MS-CP1250 (`ms-cp1250.edf')
- Microsoft's CP-1250 encoding (aka CeP).
- Encoding: Macintosh (`mac.edf')
- For the Macintosh encoding. The support is not sufficient, and a lot
of characters may be missing at the end of the job (especially Greek
letters).
7. Pretty Printing
The main feature of a2ps
Two different levels of pretty printing can be reached:
-
basic (normal highlight level) in which what you print is what you
wrote.
-
string (heavy highlight level), in which in general, some keywords are
replaced by a Symbol character which best represents them. For
instance, in most languages `<=' and `>=' will be replaced by
the corresponding single character from the font Symbol.
Note that the difference is up to the author of the style sheet.
7.1 Syntactic limits
a2ps
handles lexical structures, i.e., if in your favorite language
| | IF IF == THEN THEN THEN := ELSE ELSE ELSE := IF
|
is legal, then a2ps
just looks for some keywords, or some sequences.
7.2 Known Style Sheets
- Style Sheet: 68000 (`68000.ssh')
- Althought designed at the origin for the 68k's assembler, this style
sheet seems to handle rather well other dialects.
- Style Sheet: a2ps configuration file (`a2psrc.ssh')
- Meant to print files such as `a2ps.cfg', or `.a2ps/a2psrc', etc.
- Style Sheet: a2ps style sheet (`ssh.ssh')
- Second level of highligthing (option `-g')) substitutes the LaTeX symbols.
- Style Sheet: Ada (`ada.ssh')
- This style sheets cover Ada 95. If you feel the need for Ada 83,
you'll have to design another style sheet.
- Style Sheet: ASN.1 (`asn1.ssh')
- Written by Philippe Coucaud.
ASN.1 (Abstract Syntax Notation One) is used to define the protocol data
units (PDUs) of all application layer protocols to date.
- Style Sheet: Autoconf (`autoconf.ssh')
- Suitable for both
configure.in and library m4 files.
- Style Sheet: AWK (`awk.ssh')
- Written by Edward Arthur.
This style is devoted to the AWK pattern scanning and processing language.
It is supposed to support classic awk, nawk and gawk.
- Style Sheet: B (`b.ssh')
- Written by Philippe Coucaud.
B is a formal specification method mostly used to describe critical
systems. It is based on the mathematical sets theory.
- Style Sheet: BC (`bc.ssh')
- bc is an arbitrary precision calculator language.
- Style Sheet: Bourne Shell (`sh.ssh')
- Some classical program names, or builtin, are highlighted in the
second level of pretty-printing.
- Style Sheet: C (`c.ssh')
- This style does not highlight the function definitions.
Another style which highlights them, GNUish C, is provided (gnuc.ssh).
It works only if you respect some syntactic conventions.
- Style Sheet: C Shell (`csh.ssh')
- Written by Jim Diamond.
Some classical program names, and/or builtins, are highlighted in
the second level of pretty-printing.
- Style Sheet: C++ (`cxx.ssh')
- Should handle all known variations of C++. Most declarations (classes
etc.) are not highlighted as they should be. Please, step forward!
- Style Sheet: CAML (`caml.ssh')
- This style is obsolete: use OCaml instead.
- Style Sheet: ChangeLog (`chlog.ssh')
- This style covers the usual ChangeLog files.
- Style Sheet: Claire (`claire.ssh')
- Claire is a high-level functional and object-oriented language with
advanced rule processing capabilities. It is intended to allow the
programmer to express complex algorithms with fewer lines and in an
elegant and readable manner.
To provide a high degree of expressivity, Claire uses:
-
A very rich type system including type intervals and second-order
types (with dual static/dynamic typing),
-
Parametric classes and methods,
-
An object-oriented logic with set extensions,
-
Dynamic versioning that supports easy exploration of search spaces.
To achieve its goal of readability, Claire uses
-
set-based programming with an intuitive syntax,
-
simple-minded object-oriented programming,
-
truly polymorphic and parametric functional programming,
-
a powerful-yet-readable extension of DATALOG to express logical conditions,
-
an entity-relation approach with explicit relations, inverses,
unknown values and relational
-
operations.
More information on claire can be found on
claire home page.
- Style Sheet: Common Lisp (`clisp.ssh')
- Written by Juliusz Chroboczek.
It is not very clear what should be considered as a `keyword' in
Common Lisp. I like binders, control structures and declarations to
be highlighted, but not assignments.
Names of defstructs are not highlighted because this would not work
with defstruct options.
- Style Sheet: Coq Vernacular (`coqv.ssh')
- This style is devoted to the Coq v 5.10 vernacular language.
- Style Sheet: CORBA IDL (`cidl.ssh')
- Written by Bob Phillips.
A first attempt at a style sheet for OMG CORBA IDL.
I believe I captured all the keywords for CORBA 2.2 IDL.
I also stole code from gnuc.ssh to print the method names
in bold face. I'm not sure I quite like my own choices
for Keyword_strong and Keyword, so I'm looking for feedback.
Note that, as with gnuc.ssh, for a method name to be noted as such,
the left parenthesis associated with the argument list for the method
must appear on the same line as the method name.
- Style Sheet: CPP (`cpp.ssh')
- C traditional preprocessor handling, mostly meant to be inherited.
- Style Sheet: dc_shell (`dc_shell.ssh')
- Written by Philippe Le Van.
Synopsys Design Compiler is a synthesis tool used by
electronic companies for the design of their chips.
This sheet is very incomplete, we have a lot of keywords to
add, eventually options to highlight...
The Label_strong style is used for commands which change the design.
- Style Sheet: Eiffel (`eiffel.ssh')
- Eiffel is an object oriented language that also includes a
comprehensive approach to software construction: a method.
The language itself is not just a programming language but also covers
analysis, design and implementation.
Heavy highlight uses symbols to represent common math operators.
- Style Sheet: Emacs Lisp (`elisp.ssh')
- Written by Didier Verna.
This style sheet includes support for some extensions dumped with XEmacs.
- Style Sheet: Encapsulated PostScript (`eps.ssh')
- Illegal PostScript operators are highlighted as Errors.
- Style Sheet: Extended Tcl (`tclx.ssh')
- Written by Phil Hollenback.
Extensions to plain Tcl.
- Style Sheet: Fortran (`fortran.ssh')
- Written by Denis Girou, Alexander Mai.
There are several Fortran dialects, depending whether, on the one
hand, you use Fortran 77 or Fortran 90/95, and, on the other hand,
Fixed form comments, or Free form comments.
The style sheets for77kwds and for90kwds implements keywords only,
while the style sheets for-fixed and for-free implements comments
only.
This style sheet tries to support any of the various flavors
(Fortran 77/90/95, fixed or free form). For more specific uses, you
should use either:
-
for77-fixed, for Fortran 77 fixed form,
-
for77-free, for Fortran 77 free form,
-
for90-fixed, for Fortran 90/95 fixed form,
-
for90-free, for Fortran 90/95 free form.
- Style Sheet: Fortran 77 Fixed (`for77-fixed.ssh')
- Written by Denis Girou, Alexander Mai.
Dedicated to Fortran 77 in fixed form, i.e., comments are
lines starting with c, C, or *, and only those lines are comments.
- Style Sheet: Fortran 77 Free (`for77-free.ssh')
- Written by Denis Girou, Alexander Mai.
Dedicated to Fortran 77 in free form, i.e., comments are introduced by !
anywhere on the line, and nothing else is a comment.
- Style Sheet: Fortran 77 Keywords (`for77kwds.ssh')
- Written by Denis Girou, Alexander Mai.
This sheet implements only Fortran 77 keywords, and avoids implementing
comments support. This is to allow for implementation of either fixed
or free source form.
See the documentation of the style sheet fortran for more details.
- Style Sheet: Fortran 90 Fixed (`for90-fixed.ssh')
- Written by Denis Girou, Alexander Mai.
Dedicated to Fortran 90/95 in fixed form, i.e., comments are
lines starting with c, C, or *, and only those lines are comments.
- Style Sheet: Fortran 90 Free (`for90-free.ssh')
- Written by Denis Girou, Alexander Mai.
Dedicated to Fortran 90/95 in free form, i.e., comments are introduced by !
anywhere on the line, and nothing else is a comment.
- Style Sheet: Fortran 90 Keywords (`for90kwds.ssh')
- Written by Denis Girou, Alexander Mai.
This sheet implements the superset which Fortran 90 and Fortran 95 provide
over Fortran 77.
See the documentation of the style sheet fortran for more details.
- Style Sheet: Fortran Fixed (`for-fixed.ssh')
- Written by Denis Girou, Alexander Mai.
Implements comments of Fortran in fixed form, i.e., comments are
lines starting with c, C, or *, and only those lines are comments.
No other highlighting is done.
See the documentation of the style sheet fortran for more details.
- Style Sheet: Fortran Free (`for-free.ssh')
- Written by Denis Girou, Alexander Mai.
Dedicated to Fortran in free form, i.e., comments are introduced by !
anywhere on the line, and nothing else is a comment.
- Style Sheet: GNUish C (`gnuc.ssh')
- Declaration of functions are highlighted only if you start
the function name in the first column, and it is followed by an
opening parenthesis. In other words, if you write
it won't work. Write:
- Style Sheet: GNUMakefile (`gmake.ssh')
- Written by Alexander Mai.
Special tokens of GNUmakefiles and non terminal declarations are highlighted.
- Style Sheet: Haskell (`haskell.ssh')
- Written by Ilya Beylin.
Haskell: non-strict functional programming language
http::/www.haskell.org/
- Style Sheet: HTML (`html.ssh')
- Written by Wesley J. Chun.
This style is meant to pretty print HTML source files, not to simulate
its interpretation (i.e., `<bold>foo</bold>' does not print `foo'
in bold). If you really meant to print the result of the HTML file
interpreted, then you should turn the delegations on, and make sure
`a2ps' has HTML delegations.
- Style Sheet: IDL (`idl.ssh')
- Written by Robert S. Mallozzi, Manfred Schwarb.
Style sheet for IDL 5.2 (Interactive Data Language).
Obsolete routines are not supported.
http://www.rsinc.com.
- Style Sheet: InstallShield 5 (`is5rul.ssh')
- Written by Alex.
InstallShield5 _TM_ RUL script.
- Style Sheet: Java (`java.ssh')
- Written by Steve Alexander.
Documentation comments are mapped to strong comments, and any other
comment is plain comment.
- Style Sheet: JavaScript (`js.ssh')
- Written by Scott Pakin.
Keywords used are everything listed in the Client-Side JavaScript
Reference 1.3, plus "undefined" (why isn't that listed?) and
"prototype". I omitted the semi-standard a2ps optional operators for
equality, because JavaScript's use of both strict- and non-strict equality
might ambiguate the output. Finally, regular expressions are formatted
like strings.
- Style Sheet: LACE (`lace.ssh')
- This is meant for the Eiffel equivalent of the Makefiles.
- Style Sheet: Lex (`lex.ssh')
- In addition to the C constructs, it highlights the declaration of
states, and some special `%' commands.
- Style Sheet: Lout (`lout.ssh')
- Written by Jean-Baptiste Nivoit.
This is the style for Lout files.
- Style Sheet: Mail Folder (`mail.ssh')
- To use from elm and others, it is better to specify `-g -Email',
since the file sent to printer is no longer truly a mail folder.
This style also suits to news. `--strip' options are also useful
(they strip "useless" headers).
Whenever the changes of encoding are clear, a2ps sets itself the
encoding for the parts concerned.
Tag 1 is the subject, and Tag 2 the author of the mail/news.
Note: This style sheet is _very_ difficult to write. Please don't
report behavior you don't like. Just send me improvements,
or write a Bison parser for mails.
- Style Sheet: Makefile (`make.ssh')
- Special tokens, and non terminal declarations are highlighted.
- Style Sheet: Management Information Base (`mib.ssh')
- Written by Kelly Wiles.
The MIB file is of ASN.1 syntax.
- Style Sheet: Maple (`maple.ssh')
- Written by Richard J Mathar.
Some classical program names, and/or builtins, are highlighted in
the second level of pretty-printing.
- Style Sheet: MATLAB 4 (`matlab4.ssh')
- Written by Marco De la Cruz.
Note that comments in the code should have a space after the %.
- Style Sheet: Modula 2 (`modula2.ssh')
- Written by Peter Bartke.
- Style Sheet: Modula 3 (`modula3.ssh')
- Modula-3 is a member of the Pascal family of languages. Designed in
the late 1980s at Digital Equipment Corporation and Olivetti, Modula-3
corrects many of the deficiencies of Pascal and Modula-2 for practical
software engineering. In particular, Modula-3 keeps the simplicity of
type safety of the earlier languages, while providing new facilities
for exception handling, concurrency, object-oriented programming, and
automatic garbage collection. Modula-3 is both a practical
implementation language for large software projects and an excellent
teaching language.
This sheet was designed based on Modula 3 home page.
- Style Sheet: o2c (`o2c.ssh')
- Style Sheet: Oberon (`oberon.ssh')
- Created by N. Wirth, Oberon is the successor of the Pascal and
Modula-2 family of programming languages. It was specifically designed
for systems programming, and was used to create the Oberon system in
cooperation with J. Gutknecht. A few years later, the Oberon language
was extended with additional object-oriented features to result in the
programming language Oberon-2.
Implementation of the sheet based on The Oberon Reference Site.
- Style Sheet: Objective C (`objc.ssh')
- Written by Paul Shum.
- Style Sheet: OCaml (`ocaml.ssh')
- Written by Markus Mott.
This style should also suit other versions of ML (caml light, SML etc.).
- Style Sheet: OCaml Yacc (`mly.ssh')
- Written by Jean-Baptiste Nivoit.
Should handle CAML Special Light parser files.
- Style Sheet: Octave (`octave.ssh')
- Written by C.P. Earls.
- Style Sheet: Oracle parameter file (`initora.ssh')
- Written by Pierre Mareschal.
For init.ora parameter files.
- Style Sheet: Oracle PL/SQL (`plsql.ssh')
- Written by Pierre Mareschal.
This style is to be checked.
- Style Sheet: Oracle SQL (`sql.ssh')
- Written by Pierre Mareschal.
a2ps-sql Pretty Printer Version 1.0.0 beta - 18-MAR-97
For comments, support for -- /*..*/ and //.
This style is to be checked.
- Style Sheet: Oracle SQL-PL/SQL-SQL*Plus (`oracle.ssh')
- Written by Pierre Mareschal.
18-MAR-97
For comments, support for -- /*..*/ and //.
This style is to be checked.
- Style Sheet: Pascal (`pascal.ssh')
- The standard Pascal is covered by this style.
But some extension have been added too, hence modern Pascal programs
should be correctly handled.
Heavy highlighting maps mathematical symbols to their typographic
equivalents.
- Style Sheet: Perl (`perl.ssh')
- Written by Denis Girou.
As most interpreted languages, Perl is very free on its syntax, what
leads to significant problems for a pretty printer. Please, be kind
with our try. Any improvement is most welcome.
- Style Sheet: PostScript (`ps.ssh')
- Only some keywords are highlighted, because otherwise listings are quickly
becoming a big bold spot.
- Style Sheet: PostScript Printer Description (`ppd.ssh')
- Support for Adobe's PPD files.
- Style Sheet: Pov-Ray (`pov.ssh')
- Written by Jean-Baptiste Nivoit.
Should handle Persistence Of Vision input files.
- Style Sheet: PreScript (`pre.ssh')
- This style defines commands in the canonic syntax of a2ps.
It is meant to be used either as an input language, and to
highlight the table of contents etc.
It can be a good choice of destination language for people who
want to produce text to print (e.g. pretty-printing, automated
documentation etc.) but who definitely do not want to learn
PostScript, nor to require the use of LaTeX.
- Style Sheet: PreTeX (`pretex.ssh')
- This style sheets provides LaTeX-like commands to format text.
It is an alternative to the PreScript style sheet, in which formating
commands are specified in a more a2ps related syntax.
It provides by the use of LaTeX like commands, a way to describe the
pages that this program should produce.
- Style Sheet: Prolog (`prolog.ssh')
- Help is needed on this sheet.
- Style Sheet: Promela (`promela.ssh')
- There is no way for this program to highlight send and receive primitives.
- Style Sheet: Python (`python.ssh')
- Python is an easy to learn, powerful programming language. It has
efficient high-level data structures and a simple but effective
approach to object-oriented programming. Python's elegant syntax and
dynamic typing, together with its interpreted nature, make it an ideal
language for scripting and rapid application development in many areas
on most platforms.
The Python interpreter and the extensive standard library are freely
available in source or binary form for all major platforms from the
Python web site, and can be freely distributed.
The same site also contains distributions of and pointers to many free
third party Python modules, programs and tools, and additional
documentation.
The Python interpreter is easily extended with new functions and data
types implemented in C or C++ (or other languages callable from
C). Python is also suitable as an extension language for customizable
applications.
- Style Sheet: Reference Card (`card.ssh')
- This style sheet is meant to process help messages generated by
Unix applications. It highlights the options (-short or --long),
and their arguments.
Normal use of this style sheet is through the shell script card
(part of the a2ps package), but a typical hand-driven use is:
| | program --help | a2ps -Ecard
|
- Style Sheet: REXX (`rexx.ssh')
- Written by Alexander Mai.
This style sheet supports REXX.
You can get information about REXX from the REXX Language Association.
- Style Sheet: Sather (`sather.ssh')
- Sather is an object oriented language designed to be simple,
efficient, safe, flexible and non-proprietary. One way of placing it
in the `space of languages' is to say that it aims to be as efficient
as C, C++, or Fortran, as elegant as and safer than Eiffel, and
support higher-order functions and iteration abstraction as well as
Common Lisp, CLU or Scheme.
Implementation of the sheet based on the Sather home page.
Heavy highlighting uses symbols for common mathematical operators.
- Style Sheet: Scheme (`scheme.ssh')
- This style sheet is looking for a maintainer and/or comments.
- Style Sheet: SDL-88 (`sdl88.ssh')
- Written by Jean-Philippe Cottin.
--strip-level=2 is very useful: it cancels the graphical information
left by graphic editors. Only the pure specification is then printed.
- Style Sheet: Sed (`sed.ssh')
- Comments and labels are highlighted. Other ideas are welcome!
A lot of work is still needed.
- Style Sheet: Shell (`shell.ssh')
- This style sheet is not meant to be used directly, but rather an as
ancestor for shell style sheets.
- Style Sheet: SQL 92 (`sql92.ssh')
- Written by Pierre Mareschal.
18-MAR-97
This style is to be checked.
- Style Sheet: Standard ML (`sml.ssh')
- Written by Franklin Chen, Daniel Wang.
This style sheet takes advantage of the Symbol font to replace many
ASCII operators with their natural graphical representation. This
is enabled only at heavy highlighting.
- Style Sheet: Symbols (`symbols.ssh')
- This style sheet should be a precursor for any style sheet which
uses LaTeX like symbols.
- Style Sheet: TC Shell (`tcsh.ssh')
- Written by Jim Diamond.
C shell with file name completion and command line editing.
- Style Sheet: TeX (`tex.ssh')
- Written by Denis Girou.
This is the style for (La)TeX files.
It's mainly useful for people who develop (La)TeX packages.
With `-g', common mathematical symbols are represented graphically.
- Style Sheet: Texinfo (`texinfo.ssh')
- Heavy highlighting prints the nodes on separate pages
which title is the name of the node.
- Style Sheet: TeXScript (`texscript.ssh')
- TeXScript is the new name of what used to be called PreScript.
New PreScript has pure a2ps names, PreTeX has pure TeX names,
and TeXScript mixes both.
- Style Sheet: Tiger (`tiger.ssh')
- Tiger is a toy language that serves as example of the book
Modern Compiler Implementation
by Andrew W. Appel.
- Style Sheet: tk (`tk.ssh')
- Written by Larry W. Virden.
Since everything, or almost, is a string, what is printed is not
always what you would like.
- Style Sheet: Tool Command Language (`tcl.ssh')
- Written by Larry W. Virden.
Since everything, or almost, is a string, what is printed is not
always what you would like.
- Style Sheet: Unified Diff (`udiff.ssh')
- This style is meant to be used onto the output unidiffs, that is to say
output from `diff -u'.
Typical use of this style is:
| | diff -u old new | a2ps -Eudiff
|
The prologue diff helps to highlight the differences
(`a2ps -Ewdiff --prologue=diff').
- Style Sheet: Unity (`unity.ssh')
- Written by Jean-Philippe Cottin.
The graphic conversion of the symbols (option `-g') is nice.
- Style Sheet: VERILOG (`verilog.ssh')
- Written by Edward Arthur.
This style is devoted to the VERILOG hardware description language.
- Style Sheet: VHDL (`vhdl.ssh')
- Written by Thomas Parmelan.
Non-textual operators are not highlighted.
Some logical operators are printed as graphical symbols
in the second level of pretty-printing.
- Style Sheet: Visual Basic for Applications (`vba.ssh')
- Written by Dirk Eddelbuettel.
- Style Sheet: Visual Tcl (`vtcl.ssh')
- Written by Phil Hollenback.
All the Vtcl keywords that aren't in Tcl or TclX.
- Style Sheet: VRML (`vrml.ssh')
- Written by Nadine Richard.
According to
Grammar Definition Version 2.0 ISO/IEC CD 14772.
- Style Sheet: wdiff (`wdiff.ssh')
- This style is meant to be used onto the output of Franc,ois Pinard's
program
wdiff. wdiff is a utility that underlines the differences
of words between to files. Where diff make only the difference between
lines that have changed, wdiff reports words that have changed inside the lines.
Typical use of this style is:
| | wdiff old new | a2ps -Ewdiff
|
wdiff can be found in usual GNU repositories. The prologue diff
helps to highlight the differences (`a2ps -Ewdiff --prologue=diff').
- Style Sheet: XS (`xs.ssh')
- Written by Kestutis Kupciunas.
This style covers Perl XS language.
- Style Sheet: Yacc (`yacc.ssh')
- Special tokens, and non terminal declarations are highlighted.
- Style Sheet: Z Shell (`zsh.ssh')
- Zsh is a UNIX command interpreter (shell) usable as an interactive
login shell and as a shell script command processor. Of the standard
shells, zsh most closely resembles ksh but includes many enhancements.
Zsh has comand line editing, builtin spelling correction, programmable
command completion, shell functions (with autoloading), a history
mechanism, and a host of other features.
This style sheet highlights some classical program names and builtins
in the second level of pretty-printing.
7.3 Type Setting Style Sheets
This section presents a few style sheets that define page description
languages (compared to most other style sheet meant to pretty print
source files).
7.3.1 Symbol
The style sheet Symbol introduces easy to type keywords to obtain
the special characters of the PostScript font Symbol. The
keywords are named to provide a LaTeX taste. These keywords are also
the names used when designing a style sheet, hence to get the full list,
see 7.6.1 A Bit of Syntax.
If you want to know the correspondence, it is suggested to print the
style sheet file of Symbol:
7.3.2 PreScript
PreScript has been designed in conjunction with a2ps@c. Since
bold sequences, special characters etc. were implemented in a2ps@c, we
thought it would be good to allow direct access to those features:
PreScript became an input language for a2ps@c, where special
font treatments are specified in an ssh syntax (see section 7.6 Style Sheets Implementation).
The main advantages for using PreScript are:
-
it is fairly simple,
-
a2ps
every UNIX platform.
It can be a good candidate for generation of PostScript output
(syntactic pretty-printers, generation of various reports etc.).
7.3.2.1 Syntax
Every command name begins with a backslash (`\'). If the command
uses an argument, it is given between curly braces with no spaces
between the command name and the argument.
The main limit on PreScript is that no command can be used inside
another command. For instance the following line will be badly
interpreted by a2ps@c:
| | \Keyword{Problems using \keyword{recursive \copyright} calls}
|
The correct way to write this in PreScript is
| | \Keyword{Problems using} \keyword{recursive} \copyright \Keyword{calls}.
|
Everything from an unquoted % to the end of line is ignored
(comments).
7.3.2.2 PreScript Commands
These commands required arguments.
- `\keyword{text}'
- `\Keyword{text}'
- Highlight lightly/strongly the given text. Should be used only
for a couple of adjacent words.
- `\comment{text}'
- `\Comment{text}'
- The text is given a special face. The text may be removed
if option `--strip' is used.
- `\label{text}'
- `\Label{text}'
- text should be considered as a definition, or an important point
in the structure of the whole text.
- `\string{text}'
- Write text with string's face (e.g., in font Times).
- `\error{text}'
- Write text with error's face (generally a very different face, so
that you see immediately).
- `\symbol{text}'
- text is written in the PostScript symbol font. This feature is
not compatible with LaTeX. It is recommended, when possible, to use
the special keywords denoting symbols, which are compatible with
LaTeX (see section 7.3.1 Symbol).
- `\header{text}'
- `\footer{text}'
- Use text as header (footer) for the current page. If several
headers or footers are defined on the same page, the last one is taken
into account.
- `\encoding{key}'
- Change dynamically the current encoding. After this command, the text is
printed using the encoding corresponding to key.
7.3.2.3 Examples
PreScript and a2ps
formating. For instance, on the `passwd' file:
| | ypcat passwd |
awk -F: \
'{print "\Keyword{" $5 "} (" $1 ") \rightarrow\keyword{" $7 "}"}'\
| a2ps -Epre -P
|
7.3.3 PreTeX
The aim of the PreTeX style sheet is to provide something similar to
PreScript, but with a more LaTeX like syntax.
7.3.3.1 Special characters
`$' is ignored in PreTeX for compatibility with LaTeX,
and `%' introduces a comment. Hence they are the only symbols which
have to be quoted by a `\'. The following characters should also be
quoted to produce good LaTeX files, but are accepted by
PreScript: `_', `&', `#'.
Note that inside a command, like \textbf, the quotation
mechanism does not work in PreScript (\textrm{#$%}
writes `#$%') though LaTeX still requires quotation. Hence whenever
special characters or symbols are introduced, they should be at the
outer most level.
7.3.3.2 PreTeX Commands
These commands required arguments.
- `\section{Title}'
- `\subsection{Title}'
- `\subsubsection{Title}.'
- Used to specify the title of a section, subsection or subsubsection.
- `\textbf{text}'
- `\textit{text}'
- `\textbi{text}'
- `\textrm{text}'
- write text in bold, italic, bold-italic, Times. Default font is
Courier.
- `\textsy{text}'
- text is written in the PostScript symbol font. This feature is
not compatible with LaTeX. It is recommended, when possible, to use the
special keywords denoting symbols, which are compatible with LaTeX
(See the style sheet
Symbol).
- `\header{text}'
- `\footer{text}'
- Use text as header (footer) for the current page. If several
headers or footers are defined on the same page, the last one is taken
into account.
- `\verb+text+'
- Quote text so that no special sequence will be interpreted. In
`\verb+quoted string+' `+' can be any symbol in
`+', `!', `|', `#', `='.
- `\begin{document}'
- `\end{document}'
- `\begin{itemize}'
- `\end{itemize}'
- `\begin{enumerate}'
- `\end{enumerate}'
- `\begin{description}'
- `\end{description}'
- These commands are legal in LaTeX but have no sense in PreTeX.
Hence there are simply ignored and not printed (if immediately followed
by an end-of-line).
7.3.3.3 Differences with LaTeX
The following symbols, inherited from the style sheet Symbol, are
not supported by LaTeX:
`\Alpha', `\apple', `\Beta', `\carriagereturn',
`\Chi', `\Epsilon', `\Eta', `\florin', `\Iota',
`\Kappa', `\Mu', `\Nu', `\Omicron', `\omicron',
`\radicalex', `\register', `\Rho', `\suchthat',
`\Tau', `\therefore', `\trademark', `\varUpsilon',
`\Zeta'.
LaTeX is more demanding about special symbols. Most of them must be
in so-called math mode, which means that the command must be inside
`$' signs. For instance, though
| | If \forall x \in E, x \in F then E \subseteq F.
|
is perfectly legal in PreTeX, it should be written
| | If $\forall x \in E, x \in F$ then $E \subseteq F$.
|
for LaTeX. Since in PreTeX every `$' is discarded (unless
quoted by a `\'), the second form is also admitted.
7.3.4 TeXScript
TeXScript is a replacement of the old version of
PreScript: it combines both the a2ps@c-like and the
LaTeX-like syntaxes through inheritance of both PreScript and
PreTeX.
In addition it provides commands meant to ease processing of file for
a2ps
Everything between `%%TeXScript:skip' and `%%TeXScript:piks'
will be ignored in TeXScript, so that there can be inserted
command definitions for LaTeX exclusively.
The commands `\textbi' (for bold-italic) and `\textsy' (for
symbol) do not exist in LaTeX. They should be defined in the
preamble:
| | %%TeXScript:skip
\newcommand{\textbi}[1]{\textbf{\textit{#1}}}
\newcommand{\textsy}[1]{#1}
%%TeXScript:piks
|
There is no way in TeXScript to get an automatic numbering. There is
no equivalent to the LaTeX environment enumerate. But every
command beginning by \text is doubled by a command beginning by
`\magic'. a2ps
Hence, if one specifies that arguments of those functions should be
ignored in the preamble of the LaTeX document, the numbering is
emulated. For instance
| | \begin{enumerate}
\magicbf{1.}\item First line
\magicbf{2.}\item Second line
\end{enumerate}
|
will be treated the same way both in TeXScript and LaTeX.
`\header' and `\footer', are not understood by LaTeX.
7.4 Faces
A face is an attribute given to a piece of text, which specifies
how it should look like. Since a2ps
source files, the faces it uses are related to the syntactic entities
that can be encountered in a file.
The faces a2ps
- `Plain'
- This corresponds to the text body.
- `Keyword'
- `Keyword_strong'
- These are related to the keywords that may appear in a text.
- `Comment'
- `Comment_strong'
- These are related to comments in the text. Remember that comments
should be considered as non essential ("Aaaeaaarg" says the
programmer); indeed, the user might suppress the comments thanks (?) to
the option `--strip-level'. Hence, never use these faces
just because you think they look better on, say, strings.
- `Label'
- `Label_strong'
- These are used when a point of extreme importance, or a sectioning
point, is met. Typically, functions declarations etc.
- `String'
- Used mainly for string and character literals.
- `Error'
- Used to underline the presence of an error. For instance in
Encapsulated PostScript, some PostScript operators are forbidden: they
are underlined as errors.
Actually, there is also the face `Symbol', but this one is
particular: it is not legal changing its font.
7.5 Style Sheets Semantics
a2ps
one per language. In the following is described how the style sheets
are defined. You may skip this section if you don't care how
a2ps
7.5.1 Name and key
Every style sheet has both a key, and a name. The name can be clean and
beautiful, with any character you might want. The key is in fact the
prefix part of the file name, and is alpha-numerical, lower case, and
less than 8 characters long.
Anywhere a2ps
uses the key} (in the `sheets.map' file, with the option `-E',
etc.).
As an example, C++ is implemented in a file called `cxx.ssh', in
which the name is declared to be `C++'.
The rationale is that not every system accepts any character in the file
name (e.g., no `+' in MS-DOS). Moreover, it allows to make
symbolic links on the ssh files (e.g., `ln -s cxx.ssh c++.ssh'
let's you use `-E c++').
7.5.2 Comments
ssh files can include the name of its author, a version number, a
documentation note and a requirement on the version of a2ps@c. For
instance, if a style sheet requires a2ps
version 4.9.5 will reject it.
7.5.3 Alphabets
a2ps
especially keywords. Hence it needs two alphabets: the first one
specifying by which letters an identifier can begin, and the second one
for the rest of the word. If you prefer, a keyword starts with a
character belonging to the first alphabet, and a character not
pertaining to the second is a separator.
7.5.4 Case sensitivity
If the style is case insensitive, then matching is case insensitive
(keywords, operators and sequences).
7.5.5 P-Rules
A P-rule (Pretty printing rule), or rule for short, is a
structure which consists of two items:
- lhs
-
- left-hand side
- its source string, with which the source file is compared;
- rhs
-
- right hand side
- a list of faced strings which will replace the text matched in the
pretty-printed output. A faced string is composed of
-
a string, or a reference to a part of the source string
(see section `Back-reference Operator' in Regex manual)
-
the face to use to print it
Just a short example: `(foo, bar, Keyword_strong)' as a rule
means that every input occurrence of `foo' will be replaced by
`bar', written with the Keyword_strong face.
If the destination string is empty, then a2ps
string. This is different from giving the source string as a
destination string if the case is different. An example will make it
fairly clear.
Let foobar be a case insensitive style sheet including the
rules `(foo, "", Keyword)' and `(bar, bar, Keyword)'. Then,
on the input `FOO BAR', a2ps
Keyword.
a2ps
comes from that some keywords are sensitive to the delimiters around
them (such as `unsigned' and `int' in C, which are
definitely not the same thing as `unsignedint'), and others not (in
C, `!=' is "different from" both in `a != b' and
`a!=b').
The first ones are called keywords in a2ps
seconds are operators. Operators are matched anywhere they
appear, while keywords need to have separators around them
(see section 7.5.3 Alphabets).
Let us give a more complicated example: that of the Yacc rules.
A rule in Yacc is of the form:
Suppose you want to highlight these rules. To recognize them, you will
write a regular expression specifying that:
-
it must start at the beginning of the line,
-
then there is string composed of symbols, which is what you want to
highlight,
-
and a colon, which can be preceded by blank characters.
The regexp you want is: `/^[a-zA-Z0-9_]*[\t ]*:/'. But with the
rule
| | /^[a-zA-Z0-9_]*[\t ]*:/, "", Label_strong
|
the blanks and the colon are highlighted too. Hence you need to
specify some parts in the regexp (see section `Back-reference Operator' in Regex manual), and use a longer
list of destination strings. The correct rule is
| | (/^([a-zA-Z0-9_]*)([\t ]*:)/, \1 Label_strong, \2 Plain)
|
Since it is a bit painful to read, regexps can be spread upon several
lines. It is strongly suggested to break them by groups, and to
document the group:
| | (/^([a-zA-Z0-9_]*)/ # \1. Name of the rule
/([\t ]*:)/ # \2. Trailing space and colon
\1 Label_strong, \2 Plain)
|
7.5.6 Sequences
A sequence is a string between two markers, along with a
list of exceptions. A marker is a fixed string. Typical examples are
comments, string (with usually `"' as opening and closing markers,
and `\\' and `\"' as exceptions) etc. Three faces are used:
one for the initial marker, one for the core of the sequence, and a last
one for the final maker.
7.5.7 Optional entries
There are two levels of pretty-printing encoded in the style sheets. By
default, a2ps
option `-g' is specified, in which case, heavy highlighting
is invoked, i.e., optional keywords, operators and sequences are
considered.
7.6 Style Sheets Implementation
In the previous section (see section 7.5 Style Sheets Semantics) were explained
the various items needed to understand the machinery involved in pretty
printing. Here, their implementation, i.e., how to write a style sheet
file, is explained. The next section (see section 7.7 A Tutorial on Style Sheets), exposes a step by step simple example.
7.6.1 A Bit of Syntax
Here are the lexical rules underlying the style sheet language:
-
the separators are white space, form feed, new line, and tab.
-
`#' introduces a comment, ended at the end of the line.
-
special characters are the separators, plus `#', `"',
`,', `(', `)', `+' and `/'. Any other
character is a regular character.
-
the list of the structuring keywords is
alphabet, alphabets, are, case,
documentation, end, exceptions, first,
in, insensitive, is, keywords,
operators, optional, second, sensitive,
sequences, style
-
the list of the keywords designating faces is
Comment, Comment_strong, Encoding, Error,
Index1, Index2, Index3, Index4,
Invisible, Keyword, Keyword_strong, Label,
Label_strong, Plain, String, Symbol,
Tag1, Tag2, Tag3, Tag4
-
the list of keywords designating special sequences is
C-char, C-string
-
the list of keywords representing special characters is
---, \Alpha, \Beta, \Chi, \Delta,
\Downarrow, \Epsilon, \Eta, \Gamma,
\Im, \Iota, \Kappa, \Lambda,
\Leftarrow, \Leftrightarrow, \Mu, \Nu,
\Omega, \Omicron, \Phi, \Pi, \Psi,
\Re, \Rho, \Rightarrow, \Sigma, \Tau,
\Theta, \Uparrow, \Upsilon, \Xi,
\Zeta, \aleph, \alpha, \angle,
\approx, \beta, \bullet,
\cap, \carriagereturn, \cdot, \chi,
\circ, \clubsuit, \cong, \copyright,
\cup, \delta, \diamondsuit, \div,
\downarrow, \emptyset, \epsilon, \equiv,
\eta, \exists, \florin, \forall,
\gamma, \geq, \heartsuit, \in,
\infty, \int, \iota, \kappa, \lambda,
\langle, \lceil, \ldots, \leftarrow,
\leftrightarrow, \leq, \lfloor, \mu,
\nabla, \neq, \not, \not\in,
\not\subset, \nu, \omega, \omicron,
\oplus, \otimes, \partial, \perp,
\phi, \pi, \pm, \prime, \prod,
\propto, \psi, \radicalex, \rangle,
\rceil, \register, \rfloor, \rho,
\rightarrow, \sigma, \sim, \spadesuit,
\subset, \subseteq, \suchthat, \sum,
\supset, \supseteq, \surd, \tau,
\theta, \therefore, \times, \trademark,
\uparrow, \upsilon, \varUpsilon,
\varcopyright, \vardiamondsuit, \varphi,
\varpi, \varregister, \varsigma, \vartheta,
\vartrademark, \vee, \wedge, \wp,
\xi, \zeta
It is a good idea to print the style sheet `symbols.ssh' to see
them:
-
a string starts and finishes with `"', and may contain anything.
Regular
C escaping mechanism is used.
-
a regular expression starts and finishes with `/', and may contain
anything. Regular
C escaping mechanism is used. Regexps can be
split in several parts, a` la C strings (i.e., `/part 1/ /part
2/').
-
any sequence of regular characters which is not a keyword, is a string
(consider this as a shortcut, avoiding extraneous `"').
7.6.2 Style Sheet Header
The definition of the name of the style sheet is:
| | style name is
# body of the style sheet
end style
|
The following constructions are optional:
version
- To define the version number of the style sheet
| | version is version-number
|
written
- To define the author(s).
Giving your email is useful for bug reports about style sheets.
requires
- To specify the version of a2ps
which requires a higher version number than its own.
| | requires a2ps a2ps-version-number
|
documentation
- To leave extra comments people should read.
| | documentation is
strings
end documentation
|
strings may be a list of strings, without comas, in which case new
lines are automatically inserted between each item. See section 5.1 Documentation Format, for details on the format.
Please, write useful comments, not `This style is devoted to C
files', since the name is here for that, nor `Report errors to
mail@me.somewhere', since written by is there for that.
| | documentation is
"Not all the keywords are used, to avoid too much"
"bolding. Heavy highlighting (code(-g)code), covers"
"the whole language."
end documentation
|
7.6.3 Syntax of the Words
There are two things a2ps
and whether the style is case insensitive.
alphabet
- To define two different alphabets, use
| | first alphabet is string
second alphabet is string
|
If both are identical, you may use the shortcut
The default alphabets are
| | first alphabet is
"abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ_"
second alphabet is
"abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ_\
0123456789"
|
Note that it is on purpose that no characters interval are used.
case
| | case insensitive # e.g., C, C++ etc.
case sensitive # e.g., Perl, Sather, Java etc.
|
The default is case insensitive.
7.6.4 Inheriting from Other Style Sheets
It is possible to extend an existing style. The syntax is:
| | ancestors are
ancestor_1[, ancestor_2...]
end ancestors
|
where ancestor1 etc. are style sheet keys.
For semantics, the rules are the following:
-
the ancestors are read in order;
-
the definition of the current style is read last;
-
it is always the last item read which wins (last defined alphabets, case
sensitivity, keywords, operators and sequences).
As an example, both C++ and Objective C style sheets
extend the C style sheet:
| | style "Objective C" is
#[...]
ancestors are
c
end ancestors
#[...]
end style
|
To the biggest surprise of the author, mutually dependent style sheets
do work!
7.6.5 Syntax for the P-Rules
See section 7.5.5 P-Rules, for the definition of P-rule.
Because of various short cuts, there are many ways to declare a rule:
| | rules ::= rule_1 `,' rule_2...
rule ::= `(' lhs rhs `)'
| lhs srhs ;
lhs ::= string | regex ;
rhs ::= srhs `,' ...
srhs ::= latex-keyword | expansion face
expansion ::= string | `\'num | <nothing>;
face ::= face-keyword | <nothing>;
|
The rules are the following:
-
If the left-hand side (lhs) is a regular expression, then it is compiled
with the following syntax bits:
| | #define RE_SYNTAX_A2PS \
(/* Allow char classes. */ \
RE_CHAR_CLASSES \
/* Be picky. */ \
| RE_CONTEXT_INVALID_OPS \
/* Allow intervals with `{' and `}', forbid invalid ranges. */\
| RE_INTERVALS | RE_NO_BK_BRACES | RE_NO_EMPTY_RANGES \
/* `(' and `)' are the grouping operators. */ \
| RE_NO_BK_PARENS \
/* `|' is the alternation. */ \
| RE_NO_BK_VBAR)
|
Basically it means that all of the possible operators are used, and that
they are in non-backslashed form. For instance `(' and `)'
stand for the group operator, while `\\(' stands for the character
`('. See section `Regular Expression Syntax' in Regex manual, for a detailed description of the regular
expressions.
-
If no expansion is specified, then the matched string is used.
For instance `(/fo*/, NULL, Keyword)' applied on the source
`fooooo' produces `fooooo' in
Keyword.
-
If no face is given, then
-
if the context defines the default face, then this face is used;
-
if no default face is given,
PLAIN is used.
7.6.6 Declaring the keywords and the operators
Basically, keywords and operators are lists of rules. The syntax is:
| | keywords are
rules
end keywords
|
or
| | keywords in face-keyword are
rules
end keywords
|
in which case the default face is set to face-keyword.
As an example:
| | keywords in Keyword_strong are
/foo*/,
"bar" "BAR" Keyword,
-> \rightarrow
end keywords
|
is valid.
The syntax for the operators is the same, and both constructs can be
qualified with an optional flag, in which case they are taken
into account in the heavy highlighting mode (see section 3.1.7 Pretty Printing Options).
This is an extract of the C style sheet:
| | optional operators are
-> \rightarrow,
&& \wedge,
|| \vee,
!= \neq,
== \equiv,
# We need to protect these, so that <= is not replaced in <<=
<<=,
>>=,
<= \leq,
>= \geq,
! \not
end operators
|
Note how `<<=' and `>>=' are protected (there are defined to
be written as is when met in the source). This is to prevent the two
last characters of `<<=' from being converted into a `less or
equal' sign.
The order in which you define the elements of a category (but the
sequences) does not matter. But since a2ps
may save time if the alphabetical C-order is more or less
followed.
You should be aware that when declaring a keyword with a regular
expression as lhs, then a2ps
matching only if there are no character of the first alphabet both just
before, and just after the string.
In term of implementation, it means that
| | keywords are
/foo|bar/
end keywords
|
is exactly the same as
| | operators are
/\\b(foo|bar)\\b/
end operators
|
This can cause problems if you use anchors (e.g. $, or ^)
in keywords: the matcher will be broken. In this particular case,
define your keywords as operators, taking care of the `\\b' by
yourself.
See section `Match-word-boundary Operator' in Regex manual, for details on `\b'.
7.6.7 Declaring the sequences
Sequences admit several declarations too:
| | sequences ::= sequences are
sequence_1 `,' sequence_2...
end sequences
sequence ::= rule in_face close_opt exceptions_opt
| C-string
| C-char
;
close_opt ::= rule
| closers are
rules
end closers
| <nothing>
;
exceptions_opt ::= exceptions are
rules
end exceptions
| <nothing>
;
|
The rules are:
-
The default face is then in_face.
-
If no closing rule is given, `"\n"' (i.e., end-of-line) is used.
As a first example, here is the correct definition for a C string:
| | sequences are
"\"" Plain String "\"" Plain
exceptions are
"\\\\", "\\\""
end exceptions
end sequences
|
Since a great deal of languages uses this kind of constructs, you may
use C-string to mean exactly this, and C-char for
manifest characters defined the C way.
The following example comes from `ssh.ssh', the style sheet for
style sheet files, in which there are two kinds of pseudo-strings: the
strings (`"example"'), and the regular expressions
(`/example/'). We do not want the content of the pseudo-strings in
the face String.
| | sequences are
# The comments
"#" Comment,
# The name of the style sheet
"style " Keyword_strong (Label + Index1) " is" Keyword_strong,
# Strings are exactly the C-strings, though we don't want to
# have them in the "string" face
"\"" Plain "\""
exceptions are
"\\\\", "\\\""
end exceptions,
# Regexps
"/" Plain "/"
exceptions are
"\\\\", "\\\/"
end exceptions
end sequences
|
The order between sequences does matter. For instance in Java,
`/**' introduces strong comments, and `/*' comments.
`/**' must be declared before `/*', or it will be
hidden.
There are actually some sequences that could have been implemented as
operators with a specific regular expression (that goes up to the
closer). Nevertheless be aware of a big difference: regular expression
are applied to a single line of the source file, hence, they cannot
match on several lines. For instance, the C comments,
cannot be implemented with operators, though C++ comments can:
7.6.8 Checking a Style Sheet
Once your style sheet is written, you may want to let a2ps
simple tests on it (e.g., checking there are no rules involving upper
case characters in a case insensitive style sheet, etc.). These tests
are performed when verbosity includes the style sheets.
you may also want to use the special convention that when a style sheet
is required with a suffix, then a2ps
path, but precisely from when you are.
Suppose for instance you extended the `c.ssh' style sheet, which is
in the current directory, and is said case insensitive. Run
| | ubu $ a2ps foo.c -Ec.ssh -P void -v sheets
# Long output deleted
Checking coherence of "C" (c.ssh)
a2ps: c.ssh:`FILE' uses upper case characters
a2ps: c.ssh:`NULL' uses upper case characters
"C" (c.ssh) is corrupted.
---------- End of Finalization of c.ssh
|
Here, it is clear that C is not case insensitive.
7.7 A Tutorial on Style Sheets
In this section a simple example of style sheet is entirely covered:
that of `ChangeLog' files.
`ChangeLog' files are some kind of memory of changes done to files,
so that various programmers can understand what happened to the sources.
This helps a lot, for instance, in guessing what recent changes may have
introduced new bugs.
7.7.1 Example and syntax
First of all, here is a sample of a `ChangeLog' file, taken from
the `misc/' directory of the original a2ps
| | Sun Apr 27 14:29:22 1997 Akim Demaille <demaille@inf.enst.fr>
* base.ps: Merged in color.ps, since now a lot is
common [added box and underline features].
Fri Apr 25 14:05:20 1997 Akim Demaille <demaille@inf.enst.fr>
* color.ps: Added box and underline routines.
Mon Mar 17 20:39:11 1997 Akim Demaille <demaille@gargantua.enst.fr>
* base.ps: Got rid of CourierBack and reencoded_backspace_font.
Now the C has to handle this by itself.
Sat Mar 1 19:12:22 1997 Akim Demaille <demaille@gargantua.enst.fr>
* *.enc: they build their own dictionaries, to ease multi
lingual documents.
|
The syntax is really simple: A line specifying the author and the date
of the changes, then a list of changes, all of them starting with an
star followed by the name of the files concerned, then optionally
between parentheses the functions affected, and then some comments.
7.7.2 Implementation
Quite naturally the style will be called ChangeLog, hence:
| | style ChangeLog is
written by "Akim Demaille "
version is 1.0
requires a2ps 4.9.5
documentation is
"This is a tutorial style sheet.\n"
end documentation
...
end style
|
A first interesting and easy entry is that of function names, between
`(' and `)':
| | sequences are
"(" Plain Label ")" Plain
end sequences
|
A small problem that may occur is that there can be several functions
mentioned separated by commas, that we don't want to highlight this way.
Commas, here, are exceptions. Since regular expressions are not yet
implemented in a2ps@c, there is a simple but stupid way to avoid that
white spaces are all considered as part of a function name, namely
defining two exceptions: one which captures a single comma, and a
second, capturing a comma and its trailing space.
For the file names, the problem is a bit more delicate, since they may
end with `:', or when starts the list of functions. Then, we
define two sequences, each one with one of the possible closers, the
exceptions being attached to the first one:
| | sequences are
"* " Plain Label_strong ":" Plain
exceptions are
", " Plain, "," Plain
end exceptions,
"* " Plain Label_strong " " Plain
end sequences
|
Finally, let us say that some words have a higher importance in the core
of text: those about removing or adding something.
| | keywords in Keyword_strong are
add, added, remove, removed
end keywords
|
Since they may appear in lower or upper, of mixed case, the style will
be defined as case insensitive.
Finally, we end up with this style sheet file, in which an optional
highlighting of the mail address of the author is done. Saving the file
is last step. But do not forget that a style sheet has both a name as
nice as you may want (such as `Common Lisp'), and a key on which
there are strict rules: the prefix must be alpha-numerical, lower case,
with no more than 8 characters. Let's chose `chlog.ssh'.
| | # This is a tutorial on a2ps' style sheets
style ChangeLog is
written by "Akim Demaille "
version is 1.0
requires a2ps 4.9.5
documentation is
"Second level of high lighting covers emails."
end documentation
sequences are
"(" Plain Label ")" Plain
exceptions are
", " Plain, "," Plain
end exceptions,
"* " Plain Label_strong ":" Plain
exceptions are
", " Plain, "," Plain
end exceptions,
"* " Plain Label_strong " " Plain
end sequences
keywords in Keyword_strong are
add, added, remove, removed
end keywords
optional sequences are
< Plain Keyword > Plain
end sequences
end style
|
As a last step, you may which to let a2ps
its syntax, and common errors:
| | ubu $ a2ps -vsheet -E/tmp/chlog.ssh ChangeLog -P void
Long output deleted
Checking coherence of "ChangeLog" (/tmp/chlog.ssh)
"ChangeLog" (/tmp/chlog.ssh) is sane.
---------- End of Finalization of /tmp/chlog.ssh
|
It's all set, your style sheet is ready!
7.7.3 The Entry in `sheets.map'
The last touch is to include the pattern rules about `ChangeLog'
files (which could appear as `ChangeLog.old' etc.) in
`sheets.map':
| | # ChangeLog files
chlog: /ChangeLog*/
|
This won't work... Well, not always. Not for instance if you print
`misc/ChangeLog'. This is not a bug, but truly a feature, since
sometimes one gets more information about the type of a file from its
path, than from the file name.
Here, to match the preceding path that may appear, just use `*':
| | # ChangeLog files
chlog: /*ChangeLog*/
|
If you want to be more specific (`FooChangeLog' should not
match), use:
| | # ChangeLog files
chlog: /ChangeLog*/ /*\/ChangeLog*/
|
7.7.4 More Sophisticated Rules
The example we have presented until now uses only basic features, and
does not take advantage of the regexp. In this section we should how
to write more evolved pretty printing rules.
The target will be the lines like:
| | Sun Apr 27 14:29:22 1997 Akim Demaille <demaille@inf.enst.fr>
Fri Apr 25 14:05:20 1997 Akim Demaille <demaille@inf.enst.fr>
|
There are three fields: the date, the name, the mail. These lines all
start at the beginning of line. The last field is the easier to
recognize: is starts with a `<', and finishes with a `>'. Its
rule is then `/<[^>]+>/'. It is now easier to specify the second:
it is composed only of words, at least one, separated by blanks, and is
followed by the mail: `/[[:alpha:]]+([ \t]+[[:alpha:]]+)*/'.
To concatenate the two, we introduce optional blanks, and we put each one
into a pair of `('-`)' to make each one a recognizable
part:
| | ([[:alpha:]]+([ \t]+[[:alpha:]]+)*)
(.+)
(<[^>]+>)
|
Now the first part is rather easy: it starts at the beginning of the
line, finishes with a digit. Once again, it is separated from the
following field by blanks. Split by groups (see section `Grouping Operators' in Regex manual), we have:
| | ^
([^\t ].*[0-9])
([ \t]+)
([[:alpha:]]+([ \t]+[[:alpha:]]+)*)
(.+)
(<[^>]+>)
|
Now the destination is composed of back references to those groups,
together with a face:
| | # We want to highlight the date and the maintainer name
optional operators are
(/^([^\t ].*[0-9])/ # \1. The date
/([ \t]+)/ # \2. Spaces
/([[:alpha:]]+([ \t]+[[:alpha:]]+)*)/ # \3. Name
/(.+)/ # \5. space and <
/(<[^>]+)>/ # \6. email
\1 Keyword, \2 Plain, \3 Keyword_strong,
\5 Plain, \6 Keyword, > Plain)
end operators
|
Notice the way regexps are split, to ease reading.
7.7.5 Guide Line for Distributed Style Sheets
This section is meant for people who wish to contribute style sheets.
There is a couple of additional constraints, explained here.
- The Copyright
- Please, do put a copyright in your file, the same as all other
distributed files have: it should include your name, but also the three
paragraphs stating the sheet is covered by the GPL. I won't distribute
files without these paragraphs.
- The Version
- Do put a version number, so that people can track evolutions.
- The Requirements
- Make sure to include a requirement on the needed version of a2ps@c. If
you don't know what to put, just put the version of the a2ps
- The Documentation
- The documentation string is mandatory. Unless the language your style
sheet covers is widely known, please document a bit what the style sheet
is meant for. If there were choices you made, if there are special
behaviors, document them.
- The `sheets.map' Entries
- Put in a comment on the `sheets.map' lines that correspond to your
style sheet.
- A Test File
- It is better to give a test file, as small as possible, that contains
the most specific and/or most difficult contructs that your style sheet
supports. I need to be able to distribute this file, therefore, do not
put anything that is copyrighted.
Finally, make sure your style sheet behaves well! (see section 7.6.8 Checking a Style Sheet)
8. PostScript
This chapter is devoted to the information which is only relevant to
PostScript.
8.1 Foreword: Good and Bad PostScript
To read this section, the reader must understand what DSC are
(see section A. Glossary).
Why are there good PostScript files, easy to post-process, and bad
files that none of my tools seem to understand? They print fine
though!
Once you understood that PostScript is not a page description format
(like PDF is), you'll have understood most of the problem. Let's
imagine for a second that you are a word processor.
The user asks you to print his/her 100 page document in PostScript. Up
to page 50, there are few different fonts used. Then, on pages 51 to
80, there are now many different heavy fonts.
When/where will you download the fonts?
The most typical choice, sometimes called Optimize for Speed, is,
once you arrived to page 51, to download those fonts once for
the rest of the document. The global processing chain will have worked
quite quickly: little effort from the software, same from the printer;
better yet: you can start sending the file to the printer even before it
is finished! The problem is that this is not DSC conformant, and it is
easy to understand why: if somebody wants to print only the page 60,
then s/he will lack the three fonts which were defined in page 51...
This document is not page independent.
Another choice is to download the three fonts in each page
ranging from 51 to 80, that is the PostScript file contains 30 times the
definition of each font. It is easy for the application to do that, but
the file is getting real big, and the printer will have to interpret 30
times the same definitions of fonts. But it is DSC conformant! And you
can still send the file while you make it.
Now you understand why
Non DSC conformant files are not necessarily badly designed
files from broken applications.
They are files meant to be sent directly to the printer (they are still
perfect PostScript files after all!), they are not meant to be
post-processed. And the example clearly shows why they are
right.
There is a third possibility, sometimes called Optimize for
Portability: downloading the three fonts in the prologue of the
document, i.e., the section before the first page where are given all
the common definitions of the whole file. This is a bit more
complicated to implement (the prologue, which is issued first though,
grows at the same time as you process the file), and cannot be sent
concurrently with the processing (you have to process the whole file to
design the prologue). This file is small (the fonts are downloaded once
only), and DSC conformant. Well, there are problems, of course... You
need to wait before sending the output, it can be costly for the
computer (which cannot transfer as it produces), and for the printer
(you've burnt quite a lot of RAM right since the beginning just to hold
fonts that won't be used before page 51... This can be a real problem
for small printers).
This is what a2ps
If should be clear that documents optimized for speed should never
escape the way between the computer and the printer: no post-processing
is possible.
What you should remember is that some applications offer the possibility
to tune the PostScript output, and they can be praised for that.
Unfortunately, when these very same applications don't automatically
switch to "Optimize for Portability" when you save the PostScript
file, and they can be criticized for that.
So please, think of the people after you: if you create a PostScript
file meant to be exchanged, read, printed, etc; by other people: give
sane DSC conformant, optimized for portability files.
8.2 Page Device Options
Page device is a PostScript level 2 feature that offers an uniform
interface to control the printer's output device. a2ps
page device options inside an if block so they have no effect in level 1
interpreters. Although all level 2 interpreters support page device,
they do not have to support all page device options. For example some
printers can print in duplex mode and some can not. Refer to the
documentation of your printer for supported options.
Here are some usable page device options which can be selected with the
`-S' option (`--setpagedevice'). For a complete listing, see
PostScript Language Reference Manual (section 4.11 Device Setup
in the second edition, or section 6, Device Control in the third
edition).
Collate boolean
- how output is organized when printing multiple copies
Duplex boolean
- duplex (two side) printing
ManualFeed boolean
- manual feed paper tray
OutputFaceUp boolean
- print output `face up' or `face down'
Tumble boolean
- how opposite sides are positioned in duplex printing
8.3 Statusdict Options
The statusdict is a special storage entity in PostScript (called
a dictionary), in which some variables and operators determine the
behavior of the printer. This is an historic horror that existed before
page device definitions were defined. They are even more printer
dependent, and are provided only for the people who don't have a level
printer. In any case, refer to the documentation of your printer for
supported options.
Here are some statusdict definitions in which you might be interested:
manualfeed boolean
- Variable which determine that the manual fed paper tray will be used.
Use is `--statusdict=manualfeed::true'.
setmanualfeed boolean
- Idem as the previous point, but use is
`--statusdict=setmanualfeed:true'.
setduplexmode boolean
- If boolean, then print Duplex. Use if
`--statusdict=setduplexmode:true'.
8.4 Colors in PostScript
Nevertheless, here are some tips on how to design your PostScript
styles. It is strongly recommended to use `gray.pro' or
`color.pro' as a template.
There are two PostScript instructions you might want to use in your new
PostScript prologue:
setgray
- this instruction must be preceded by a number between 0 (black) and 1
(white). It defines the gray level used.
setrgbcolor
- this instruction must be preceded by three numbers between 0 (0 %) and 1
(100%). Those three numbers are related to red, green and blue
proportions used to designate a color.
a2ps
both use an argument as in setrgbcolor. So if you wanted a gray
shade, just give three times the same ratio.
8.5 a2ps
a2ps
as font files, and others are meant for a2ps only.
All a2ps files have two parts, one being the comments, and the other
being the content, separated by the following line:
8.6 Designing PostScript Prologues
It is pretty known that satisfying the various human tastes is an
NEXPTIME-hard problem, so a2ps
through the prologue files. But since the authors feel a little
small against NEXPTIME, they agreed on the fact that you are
the one who will design the look you like.
Hence in this section, you will find what you need to know to be able to
customize a2ps
Basically, a2ps
"meaning" in the text. a2ps
8.6.1 Definition of the faces
There are three things that define a face:
- Its font
- You should never call the font by yourself, because sometimes a2ps
decide that another font would be better. This is what happens for
instance if a font does not support the encoding you use.
Hence, never set the font by yourself, but ask a2ps
done through a line:
| | %Face: face real-font-name size
|
This line tells a2ps
real-font-name. It will replace this line by the correct
PostScript line to call the needed font, and will do everything needed
to set up the font.
The size of the text body is bfs.
- Its background color
- There are two cases:
-
You want a background color, then give the RGB (see section 8.4 Colors in PostScript) ratio and
true to BG:
-
You don't want a background color, then call
BG with
false:
- Its foreground color
- As
BG, call FG with an RGB ratio:
- Its underlining
UL requires a boolean argument, depending whether you want
or not the current face to be underlined.
- Its boxing
- Requiring a boolean,
BX let's a face have a box drawn around.
8.6.2 Prologue File Format
Prologue files for a2ps
(reported with `--list-prologues') can be included in the comment
part:
| | Documentation
This prologue is the same as the prologue code(pb)code, but using
the bold version of the fonts.
EndDocumentation
% code follows this line
|
See section 5.1 Documentation Format, for more on the format.
8.6.3 A step by step example
We strongly suggest our readers not to start from scratch, but to copy
one of the available styles (see the result of `a2ps
--list=prologues'), to drop it in one of a2ps
`$HOME/.a2ps', and to patch it until you like it.
Here, we will start from `color.pro', trying to give it a funky
look.
Say you want the keywords to be in Helvetica, drawn in a flashy pink on
a light green. And strong keywords, in Times Bold Italic in brown on a
soft Hawaiian sea green (you are definitely a fine art amateur).
Then you need to look for `k' and `K':
| | /k {
false BG
0 0 0.9 FG
%Face: Keyword Courier bfs
Show
} bind def
/K {
false BG
0 0 0.8 FG
%Face: Keyword_strong Courier-Bold bfs
Show
} bind def
|
and turn it into:
| | /k {
0.2 1 0.2 true BG
1 0.2 1 FG
%Face: Keyword Helvetica bfs
Show
} bind def
/K {
0.4 0.2 0 true BG
0.5 1 1 FG
%Face: Keyword_strong Times-BoldItalic bfs
Show
} bind def
|
Waouh! It looks great!
A bit trickier: let change the way the line numbers are printed.
First, let's look for the font definition:
| | %%BeginSetup
% The font for line numbering
/f# /Helvetica findfont bfs .6 mul scalefont def
%%EndSetup
|
Let it be in Times, twice bigger than the body font.
| | %%BeginSetup
% The font for line numbering
/f# /Times-Roman findfont bfs 2 mul scalefont def
%%EndSetup
|
How about its foreground color?
| | % Function print line number (<string> # -)
/# {
gsave
sx cw mul 2 div neg 0 rmoveto
f# setfont
0.8 0.1 0.1 FG
c-show
grestore
} bind def
|
Let it be blue. Now you know the process: just put `0 0 1' as
FG arguments.
9. Contributions
This chapter documents the various shell scripts or other tools that are
distributed with the a2ps
reader should also look at the documentation of Ogonkify
(see section `Overview' in Ogonkify manual), written by Juliusz
Chroboczek.
9.1 card
Many users of a2ps
summary of the options. In fact, something closely related to the
output of `a2ps --help'.
The first version of this reference card was a PreScript file
(see section 7.3.2 PreScript) to be printed by a2ps@c. Very soon a much better
scheme was found: using a style sheet to pretty print directly the
output of `a2ps --help'! A first advantage is then that the
reference cards can be printed in the tongue you choose.
A second was that this treatment could be applied to any application
supporting a `--help'-like option.
9.1.1 Invoking card
| | card [options] applications [-- a2ps@c-options]
|
card is a shell script which tries to guess how to get your
applications' help message (typically by the options `--help'
or `-h'), and pretty prints it thanks to a2ps
the environment variable `A2PS' if it is set).
a2ps@c-options are passed to a2ps@c.
Supported options are:
- Option: -h
-
- Option: --help
- print a short help message and exit successfully.
- Option: -V
-
- Option: --version
- report the version and exit successfully.
- Option: -q
-
- Option: --quiet
-
- Option: --silent
- Run silently.
- Option: -D
-
- Option: --debug
- enter in debug mode.
- Option: -l language
-
- Option: --language=language
- specify the language in which the reference card should be printed.
language should be the symbol used by
LC_ALL etc.
(such as `fr', `it' etc.).
If the applications don't support internationalization,
English will be used.
- Option: --command=command
- Don't try to guess the applications' way to report their
help message, but rather use the call command.
A typical example is
| | card --command="cc -flags"
|
It is possible to give options to a2ps
specifying them after `--'. For instance
| | card gmake gtar --command="cc -flags" -- -Pdisplay
|
builds the reference card of GNU make, GNU tar (automatic
detection of `--help' support), and cc thanks to
`-flags'.
9.1.2 Caution when Using card
Remember that card runs the programs you give it, and the
commands you supplied. Hence if there is a silly programs that has a
weird behavior given the option `-h' etc., beware of the result.
It is even clearer using `--command': avoid running `card
--command="rm -rf *"', because the result will be exactly what you think
it will be!
9.2 fixps
The shell script fixps tries its best to fix common problems in
PostScript files that may prevent post processing. It makes heavy use
of the psutils. It is a good idea to use fixps in the
PostScript delegations.
It first tries to make simple fixes, but some really broken files may
require a much deeper treatment. If fixps feels the need for
such a major surgery act, it may give up local changes and ask
Ghostscript for a global rewriting.
9.2.1 Invoking fixps
sanitize the PostScript file (or of the standard input if no
file is given, or if file is `-').
Supported options are:
- Option: -h
-
- Option: --help
- Print a short help message and a list of the fixes that are
performed. Exit successfully.
- Option: -V
-
- Option: --version
- report the version and exit successfully.
- Option: -D
-
- Option: --debug
- enter in debug mode.
- Option: -q
-
- Option: --quiet
-
- Option: --silent
- Run silently.
- Option: -o file
-
- Option: --output=file
- specify the file in which is saved the output.
- Option: -n
-
- Option: --no-fix
- Don't actually fix the file but still honor all of the other
options. In particular, `fixps -qn file' is equivalent to
`cat file'.
- Option: -c
-
- Option: --check
-
- Option: --dry-run
- Don't actually fix the file: just report the diagnostics.
Contrary to the option `fixps -qc' does absolutely nothing (while
it does take some time to do it nicely).
- Option: -f
-
- Option: --force
- Ask
ghoscript for a full rewrite of the file. The output
file is really sane, but can be much longer than the original. For this
reason and others, it is not always a good idea to make a full rewrite.
This option should be used only for files that give major problems.
9.3 fixnt
fixnt (see its
\name\, home page) is
maintained by Holger Bauer and
Michael Rath. It is meant to fix
the problems of the PostScript files generated by the Microsoft
PostScript driver under Windows NT (3.5 and 4.0).
fixps is aware of the cases where fixnt should be used,
hence you should not worry of when to use fixnt.
9.3.1 Invoking fixnt
sanitize the PostScript file file.ps and produce the result on
the standard output.
9.4 pdiff
The shell script pdiff aims to pretty print diffs between files.
It basically uses GNU diff (see section `Overview' in Comparing and Merging Files) or GNU wdiff (see section `The word difference finder' in GNU wdiff) to extract the diff, then calls
a2ps
9.4.1 Invoking pdiff
| | pdiff [options] file-1 file-2 [-- a2ps@c-options]
|
make a pretty comparison between file-1 and file-2.
a2ps@c-options are passed to a2ps@c.
Supported options are:
- Option: -h
-
- Option: --help
- print a short help message and exit successfully.
- Option: -V
-
- Option: --version
- report the version and exit successfully.
- Option: -q
-
- Option: --quiet
-
- Option: --silent
- Run silently.
- Option: -D
-
- Option: --debug
- enter in debug mode.
- Option: -w
-
- Option: --words
- Look for words differences (default). White space differences are not
considered.
- Option: -l
-
- Option: --lines
- Look for lines differences.
It is possible to give options to a2ps
specifying them after `--'. For instance
| | pdiff COPYING COPYING.LIB -- -1 -P display
|
Compares the files `COPYING' and `COPYING.LIB', and prints it
on the printer display (usually Ghostview or gv).
9.5 psmandup
I personally hate to print documents of hundreds of pages on a single
sided printer. Too bad, here there are no Duplex printers. The idea is
then simply first to print the odd pages, then the even in reversed
order. To make sure one flips the page in the meanwhile, the second
half should be printed from the manual feed tray.
Make a shell script that automates this, and you get psmandup.
9.5.1 Invoking psmandup
| | psmandup [options] [file]
|
produce a manual duplex version of the PostScript file (or of the
standard input if no file is given, or if file is
`-'). Once the first half is printed, put the sheet stack in the
manual feed tray for the second half(4).
Be aware that there is a time out for manually fed jobs, usually short,
hence do not miss the moment when the printer asks for the stack. If
ever you missed that moment, see option `--back' to recover the
second half.
Supported options are:
- Option: -h
-
- Option: --help
- print a short help message and exit successfully.
- Option: -V
-
- Option: --version
- report the version and exit successfully.
- Option: -q
-
- Option: --quiet
-
- Option: --silent
- Run silently.
- Option: -D
-
- Option: --debug
- enter in debug mode.
- Option: -o file
-
- Option: --output=file
- specify the file in which is saved the output.
- Option: -n
-
- Option: --no-fix
psmandup will fail on ill designed PostScript (well, actually the
psutils will). To avoid this, by default the PostScript file is
sanitized by fixps.
When given this option, don't run fixps. This is meant to be
used when fixps has already been used higher in the processing
chain.
- Option: -f
-
- Option: --front
- Output only the front pages, with no special PostScript feature request.
- Option: -b
-
- Option: --back
- Output only the back pages, with a manual feed request.
This option is especially useful when the manual feed time out expired
before you could insert back the stack in the manual feed tray.
psmandup assumes the printer is Level 2, and supports manual
feeding. The file should be reasonably sane, otherwise
psmandup fails miserably.
Typical use is
or can be put into a2ps@c' printer commands (see section 4.5 Your Printers).
9.6 psset
The shell script psset inserts calls to setpagedevice in a
PostScript file. This is useful for instance to add Tumble or Manual
feed request. Actually, psmandup uses psset.
You should know nevertheless that a2ps
setpagedevice by itself, i.e., you can run `a2ps
-SManualFeed foo' to print `foo' onto the manually fed tray, or run
`a2ps -s2 foo' to print Duplex. There are no need of psset
from a2ps@c.
9.6.1 Invoking psset
produce a version of the PostScript file (or of the standard input
if no file is given, or if file is `-') that makes
protected calls to the PostScript operator setpagedevice.
Typical use is making file print duplex, or on the manual tray
etc.
The call is protected so that the resulting file is safe, i.e., will
still be portable, even with requests such as `-Sfoo:bar'.
It is safe to run psset with no feature requests. Depending upon
the option `--no-fix', it is either equivalent to doing nothing, or
to running fixps (see section 9.2 fixps).
Supported options are:
- Option: -h
-
- Option: --help
- Print a short help message and exit successfully.
- Option: -V
-
- Option: --version
- report the version and exit successfully.
- Option: -D
-
- Option: --debug
- enter in debug mode.
- Option: -q
-
- Option: --quiet
-
- Option: --silent
- Run silently.
- Option: -o file
-
- Option: --output=file
- specify the file in which is saved the output.
- Option: -n
-
- Option: --no-fix
psset will fail on ill designed PostScript. Actually it is the
psutils that fail. To avoid this, by default the PostScript file is
sanitized by fixps.
When given this option, don't run fixps. This is meant to be
used when fixps has already been used higher in the processing
chain.
- Option: -S key:value
-
- Option: --setpagedevice=key:value
- Insert a
setpagedevice call setting key to value.
Multiple values accumulate. Lists of requests separated with `;'
are valid (e.g., `-SDuplex:true;Tumble:false').
- Option: -a page
-
- Option: --at=page
- Specify the page where the
setpagedevice call should be done.
The page 0, which is the default, corresponds to the `Setup'
section of the document. More precisely, the insertion is performed at
the end of the `Setup' section, so that if there are multiple calls
to psset on the same document (which is of course, a bad idea),
the last call is winning.
In a typical use you should not change the page.
- Option: -m
-
- Option: --manualfeed
- Alias for `-SManualFeed:true', i.e., the request to print using the
manual feed tray.
- Option: -s
-
- Option: --simplex
- Alias for `-SDuplex:false', i.e., force simplex printing.
- Option: -d
-
- Option: --duplex
- Alias for `-SDuplex:true;Tumble:false', i.e., the request to print
in duplex mode, binding along the long edge of the paper.
- Option: -t
-
- Option: --tumble
- Alias for `-SDuplex:true;Tumble:true', i.e., duplex printing
such that binding should happen on the short edge of the medium.
10. Frequently asked questions
Please, before sending us mail, make sure the problem you have is not
known, and explained. Moreover, avoid using the mailing list for asking
question about the options, etc. It has been built for announces and
suggestions, not to contact the authors.
10.1 Why Does...?
Error related questions.
10.1.1 Why Does it Print Nothing?
a2ps
There are two ways that printing can fail: silently, or with a
diagnostic.
First, check that the printer received what you sent. a2ps
may correctly do its job, but have the printer queue fail to deliver the
job. In case of doubt, please check that the printer's leds blink (or
whatever is its way to show that something is being processed).
If the printer does receive the job, but prints nothing at all, check
that you did not give exotic options to an old printer (typically, avoid
printing on two sides on a printer that does not support it). Avoid
using `-S', `--setpagedevice' (see section 8.2 Page Device Options)
and `--statusdict' (see section 8.3 Statusdict Options).
If the trouble persists, please try again but with the option
`--debug' (a PostScript error handler is downloaded), and then send
us:
-
the input file that gives problems
-
the output file created by a2ps
-
the error message that was printed.
10.1.2 Why Does it Print in Simplex?
Though I ask a2ps
printed Simplex.
If your printer is too old, then a2ps
code it needs when `-s2' is specified. This is because your
printer uses an old and not standardized interface for special features.
So you need to
-
specify that you want Duplex mode: `-s2',
-
remove by hand the standardized call to the Duplex feature:
`-SDuplex',
-
add the non standard call to Duplex. Try
`--statusdict=setduplexmode:true'.
Since this is painful to hit, a User Option (see section 4.6 Your Shortcuts)
should help.
10.1.3 Why Does it Print in Duplex?
Though I ask a2ps
printed Duplex.
Actually when you require Simplex, a2ps
reasons. Hence, if your printer is defaulted to Duplex, the job will be
Duplexed. So you have to force a2ps
`-SDuplex:false'. The user options `-=s1' and
`-=simplex' have names easier to remember.
In the next version of a2ps
fixed in a user friendly way.
10.1.4 Why Does it Not Fit on the Paper?
When I print text files with a2ps@c, it prints beyond the frame of
the paper.
You are most probably printing with a bad medium, for instance using A4
paper within a2ps@c, while your printer uses Letter paper. Some jet
printers have a small printable area, and a2ps
both case, read 3.1.3 Sheet Options, option `--medium' for more.
10.1.5 Why Does it Print Junk?
What I get on the printer is long and incomprehensible. It does not
seem to correspond to what I wanted to print.
You are probably printing a PostScript file or equivalent. Try to print
with `-Z': a2ps
program that can help you (see section 4.10 Your Delegations). In case of doubt,
don't hesitate to save into a file, and check the content with
Ghostview, or equivalent:
| | $ a2ps my_weird_file -Z -o mwf.ps
$ gv mwf.ps
|
If your a2ps
fake-printer:
| | $ a2ps my_weird_file -Z -P display
|
If it is incorrect, ask for help around you.
10.1.6 Why Does it Say my File is Binary?
a2ps
There are several reasons that can cause a2ps
binary:
-
there are many non printable characters in the file. Then you need to
use the option `--print-anyway'.
-
the file is sane, composed of printable characters. Then it is very
likely that
file(1) said the type of the file is `data', in
which case a2ps
-
specify the type of the file, for instance `-Eplain';
-
specify to print in any case, `--print-anyway';
-
remove the annoying rule from the system's `sheets.map':
-
insert in your own `~/.a2ps/sheets.map' a rule that overrides that
of the system's `sheets.map':
| | # Load the system's sheets.map
include(/usr/local/share/a2ps/sheets/sheets.map)
# Override the rule for files with type `data' according to file(1)
plain: <data*>
|
But this is not very good, since then this rule is always the first
tested, which means that any file with type `data' according to
file(1) will be printed in `plain' style, even if the file
is called `foo.c'.
-
if your files can be recognized, insert a new rule in a
`sheets.map', such as
| | # file(1) says it's data, but it's pure text
plain: /*.txx/
|
10.1.7 Why Does it Refuse to Change the Font Size
a2ps
(or `--lines-per-page', or `--chars-per-line').
This is probably because you used `-1'..`-9' after the
`--font-size'. This is wrong, because the options
`-1'..`-9' set the font size (so that there are 80 characters
per lines), and many other things (See section 3.1.4 Page Options, option
`--font-size').
Hence `a2ps --font-size=12km -4' is exactly the same thing as
`a2ps -4', but is different from `a2ps -4 --font-size=12km'.
Note that the `pure' options (no side-effects) to specify the number of
virtual pages are `--columns' and `--rows'.
10.2 How Can I ...?
A mini how-to on a2ps@c.
10.2.1 How Can I Leave Room for Binding?
The option `--margin[=size]' is meant for this. See
3.1.3 Sheet Options.
10.2.2 How Can I Print stdin?
a2ps
`-' as file name. Automatic style selection is of course much
weaker: without the file name, a2ps
opinion (see section 5.4 Style Sheet Files). In general it means most
delegations are safe, but there will probably be no pretty-printing.
`You' can supply a name to the standard input
(`--stdin=name') with which it could guess the language.
10.2.3 How Can I Change the Fonts?
See section 8.6 Designing PostScript Prologues, for details. Make sure that all
the information a2ps
10.2.4 How Can I Simulate the Old Option `-b'?
By the past, a2ps
bold. Since now the fonts are defined by prologues (see section 8.6 Designing PostScript Prologues) this option no longer makes sense. A replacement
prologue is provided: `bold'. To use it, give the option
`--prologue=bold'.
10.2.5 How Can I Pass Options to `lpr'
How can I tell a2ps to ask lpr no to print the banner?
How can I pass specific options to lp?
If your `Printer:' fields in the configuration files were properly
filled (see section 4.5 Your Printers), you can use the variable
`lp.options' to pass options to lpr (or lp, depending
on your environment):
| | a2ps -Dlp.options="-h -s" -P printer
|
You can also define `lp.options' once for all, See section 4.9.1 Defining Variables.
Finally, you can use `Printer:' several times to reach a printer
with different lpr options.
10.2.6 How Can I Print on Non PostScript Printers?
I use a2ps
not PostScript. How can I do?
Ghostscript might be the tool you need (see section A. Glossary). It
support conversion to many different non PostScript printers.
Here are some tips on how to use a non PostScript printer. If somebody
feels like writing a more precise documentation, she really is welcome.
Please refer to the Ghostscript documentation for a precise
description of the tuning you need.
Basically, the first step you need is to achieve to call
Ghostscript in a pipe chain. In other words, try to find out the
right arguments Ghostscript needs in order to print with a
command like this:
| | $ cat file.ps | gs more arguments
|
In general it is the same command as for calling Ghostscript with
a filename, except that the file name to use is `-':
| | $ cat file.ps \
| gs -q -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=deskjet -sOutputFile=- - -c quit\
| lp -dprinter-name
|
Once it works, it is then easy to settle the right Printer: line
in your configuration file (see section 4.5 Your Printers). For instance:
| | Printer: djet \
| gs -q -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=deskjet -sOutputFile=- - -c quit\
| lp -d djet
|
Christian Mondrup uses a2ps
with a non PostScript printer. He uses:
| | DefaultPrinter: | //c/gstools/gs5.10/Gswin32c.exe \
-Ic:\gstools\gs5.10;c:\gstools\gs5.10\fonts \
-sDEVICE=ljet4 -sPAPERSIZE=a4 -dNOPAUSE -r300 -dSAFER \
-sOutputFile="\\spool\HP LaserJet 5L (PCL)" \
-q - -c quit
|
10.2.7 How Can I Print Man Pages with Underlines
By the past, when I printed a man page with a2ps@c, it used
underlines, but now it uses italics. I want underlines back!
Use `a2ps --pro=ul'.
10.3 Please tell me...
Wondering something?
10.3.1 Is a2ps
The famous Y2K(5) problem...
Yes, a2ps
more recent than 4.10.3. The expansions of the following escapes were
broken (giving `100' instead of `00'): `%D', `%W',
`$D', `$W'.
Nevertheless, please note that if you required a two digit year, expect
to have `Jan 1st, 00' someday. You are responsible of the
format you want for the date: See section 3.2 Escapes.
10.3.2 Why Have the Options Changed?
The options of this a2ps
True. But the old scheme (up to version 4.6.1) prevented us from
offering more options. We had to drop it, and to fully
redesign the options handling.
Since that profound change, we try to change as little as possible
between versions. Nevertheless, as the time passes, we discover that
some never used options should be renamed, or used for something else.
In these cases, compatibility code is left for a long time.
Anywhere you put options but the command line (e.g., in a2ps
files or in shell scripts), avoid using short options, since short
options are much more likely to be changed (there are not so many, so it is
a precious resource). Since there are as many long options as one wants,
we can leave compatibility code with the long options.
10.3.3 Why not having used yacc and such
There are several reasons why we decided not to use grammars to parse
the files. Firstly it would have made the design of the style sheets
much more tricky, and today a2ps
Secondly, it limits the number of persons who could build a style sheet.
Thirdly, we did not feel the need for such a powerful tool: handling the
keywords and the sequences is just what the users expect.
Fourthly, any extension of a2ps
And last but not least, using a parser requires that the sources are
syntactic bug free, which is too strong a requirement.
Nevertheless, PreScript gives the possibility to have on the one
hand a syntactic parser which would produce PreScript code, and
on the other hand, a2ps@c, which would make it PostScript. This schema
seems to us a good compromise. If it is still not enough for you, you
can use the library.
A. Glossary
This section settles some terms used through out this document, and
provides the definitions of some terms you probably want to know about.
- Adobe
-
Adobe is the firm who designed and owns the PostScript language.
The patent that printer manufacturers must pay to Adobe is the
main reason why PostScript printers are so expansive.
- AFM file
-
AFM stands for Adobe Font Metrics. These files contain everything one
needs to know about a font: the width of the characters, the available
characters etc.
- Charset
-
- Code Set
-
Cf. Encoding.
- Delegate
-
Another filter (application) which a2ps
This feature is especially meant for page description files (see section 4.10 Your Delegations).
- DSC
-
- Document Structuring Conventions
-
Because PostScript is a language, any file describing a document can
have an arbitrary complexity. To ease the post-processing of PostScript
files, the document should follow some conventions. Basically there are
two kinds of conventions to follow:
- Page Independence
- Special comments state where the pages begin and end. With these
comments (and the fact that the code describing a page starts and ends
somewhere, which is absolutely not necessary in PostScript), very simple
programs (such as
psnup, psselect etc.) can post process
PostScript files.
- Requirements
- Special features may be needed to run correctly the file. Some comments
specify what services are expected from the printer (e.g., fonts, duplex
printing, color etc.), and other what features are provided by the file
itself (e.g., fonts, procsets etc.), so that a print manager can decide
that a file cannot be printed on that printer, or that it is possible if
the file is slightly modified (e.g., adding a required font not known by
the printer) etc.
The DSC are edited by Adobe. A document which respects them is said to
be DSC conformant.
a2ps
- Duplex
- DuplexTumble
- DuplexNoTumble
-
To print Duplex is to print double-sided. There are two ways to
print Duplex depending whether the second face is printed upside-down or
not:
- DuplexTumble
- DuplexTumble is suitable when (if it were to be bound) the document
would be bound along the short edge (for instance when you are printing
booklets).
- DuplexNoTumble
- DuplexNoTumble corresponds to binding along the long edge of the medium.
A typical case is when printing one-up.
- Encoding
-
Association of human readable characters, and computers' internal
numbered representation. In other words, they are the alphabets, which
are different according to your country/mother tongue. E.g.: ASCII,
Latin 1, corresponding to Western Europe etc.
To know more about encodings, see 6.1 What is an Encoding.
Ghostscript
gs
-
Ghostscript,
gs for short, is a full PostScript interpreter running under many
various systems (Unices, MS-DOS, Mac etc.). It comes with a large set
of output formats allowing many different applications:
- Displaying
- It can be used either to view PostScript files (in general thanks to a
graphic interface such as
Ghostview or gv ...).
- Converting
- To may useful languages/formats: PDF, rewriting in portable PostScript
or Encapsulated PS etc.
- Translating
- to a printer dedicated language, e.g., PCL. In particular, thanks to
ghostscript, you may print PostScript files on non PostScript
printers.
- Face
-
A virtual style given to some text. For instance, Keyword,
Comment are faces.
- Headings
-
Everything that goes around the page and is not part of the text body.
Typically the title, footer etc.
- Key
-
Many objects used in a2ps@c, such as encodings, have both a key and a name.
The word name is used for a symbol, a label, which is only meant
to be nice to read by a human. For instance `ISO Latin 1' is a name.
a2ps
A key is the identifier of a unique object. This is information
that a2ps
a2ps@c, use the key, not its name. For instance `latin1' is the
unique identifier of the `ISO Latin 1' encoding.
- Logical page
-
Cf. Virtual page.
- lhs
- left hand side
- See P-rule.
- Medium
-
Official name (by Adobe) given to the output physical support. In other
words, it means the description of a sheet, e.g., A4, Letter etc.
- Name
- See Key.
- Page
-
A single side of a sheet.
- Page Description Language
-
A language that describes some text (which may be enriched with
pointers, pictures etc.) and its layout.
HTML, PostScript,
LaTeX, roff and others are such languages. A file written in
those languages is not made to be read as is by a human, but to be
transformed (or compiled) into a readable form.
- PCL
-
FIXME:
- PFA file
-
PostScript Font in ASCII format. This file can be directly down loaded
to provide support for another font.
- PFB file
-
PostScript Font in Binary format. In PFA files there are long sequences
of hexadecimal digits. Here these digits are represented by their
value, hence compressing 2 characters in a PFA into 1 in the PFB. This
is the only advantage since a PFB file cannot be directly sent to
printer: it must first be decompressed (hence turned into a PFA file)
before being used.
- PostScript
-
PostScript is a page description language designed for
Raster output devices. It is even more powerful than that:
unlike to
HTML, or roff, but as TeX and LaTeX, it is
truly a programming language which main purpose is to draw (on sheets).
Most programs are a list of instructions that describes lines, shades of
gray, or text to draw on a page. This is the language that most
printers understand.
Note that the fact that PostScript is a programming language is
responsible of both its success and its failure. It is a big win for
the PostScript programmer who can easily implement a lot of nice visual
effects. It is a big loss because the page descriptions can have an
arbitrary complexity, hence rendering can be really slow (remember the
first Laser you had, or even Ghostscript. PDF has been
invented by Adobe to remedy these problems).
PostScript is a trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated.
- PPD file
-
- PostScript Printer Description file
- These files report everything one needs to know about a printer: the known
fonts, the patches that should be down loaded, the available memory, the
trays, the way to ask it duplex printing, the supported media, etc.
PostScript has pretended to be a device independent page description
language, and the PPD files are here to prove that
device independence was a failure.
- ProcSet
-
Set of (PostScript) procedures.
- Prologue
-
PostScript being a language, a typical PostScript program (i.e. a
typical PostScript file) consists of two parts. The first part is
composed of resources, such as fonts, procsets, etc. and the second part
of calls to these procedures. The first part is called the
prologue, and the second, the script.
- P-rule
-
Pretty printing rule. It is composed of a left-hand side,
(lhs for short), and a right-hand side, (rhs). The
lhs describes when the rule is triggered (i.e., the pattern of text to
match), and the rhs specifies the pretty printed output.
See section 7.5.5 P-Rules, for more semantical details, and see 7.6.5 Syntax for the P-Rules, for implementation.
psutils
-
The psutils is a set of tools for PostScript post processing written
by Angus Duggan. They let
you resize the frame into which the page is drawn, reorder or select
pages, put several pages onto a single sheet, etc. To allow the
psutils to run correctly, the PostScript files must be DSC
conformant, and the bad news is that many PostScript drivers produce
files which are not. For some common cases (e.g., Micro$oft tools),
Angus Duggan included in the package some tools (named fix...ps)
to fix typical problems. fixps is a collection of recipes on
when to run what fix tool.
- Raster Image Processor
- RIP
- The hardware and/or software that translates data from a high-level
language (e.g., PostScript) into dots or pixels in a printer or
image setter.
- Raster Output Device
-
Behind these words is hidden the general class of devices which have
Pixels that can be addressed individually: Laser, Ink or Dot printers,
but also regular screens etc. It is typically opposed to the class of
devices which plot, i.e., have a pen that they move on the paper.
- rhs
- right hand side
- See P-rule.
- RIP
- See Raster Image Processor.
- Script
-
See Prologue.
- Sheet
-
The physical support of the printing: it may support one or two pages,
depending on your printing options.
- Style sheet
-
Set of rules used by a2ps
file. In a2ps@c, each programming language which is supported
is defined via one style-sheet.
- Tumble
-
See Duplex.
- Virtual page
-
Area on a physical page in which a2ps
There may be several virtual pages on a physical page. ("virtual page"
is the name recommended by Adobe).
B. Genesis
Here are some words on a2ps
B.1 History
The initial version was a shell program written by Evan Kirshenbaum. It was very slow and contained many bugs.
A new version was written in C by fixes).
Marcel van der Laan (Dutch)
Lorenzo M. Catucci (Maintains Italian)
Choi Jun Ho (Korean)
Turgut Uyar (Turkish)
Jiri Pavlovsky (Maintains Czech)
Peter Nilsson (Maintains Swedish)
Pedro Miguel Marques Morais (Maintains Portugese)
Vladimir Vodolazkiy (Russian) has a home page.
Paulo Matos (Portugese)
Jon Ross (Maintains Norwegian)
Igor Furlan (Maintains Slovenian)
Marcin 'Qrczak' Kowalczyk (Polish)
Tijs van Bakel (Maintains Dutch)
Dmitry S. Sivachenko (Maintains Russian)
C. Copying
The subroutines and source code in the a2ps
"free"; this means that everyone is free to use them and free to
redistribute them on a free basis. The a2ps@c-related programs are
not in the public domain; they are copyrighted and there are
restrictions on their distribution, but these restrictions are designed
to permit everything that a good cooperating citizen would want to do.
What is not allowed is to try to prevent others from further sharing any
version of these programs that they might get from you.
Specifically, we want to make sure that you have the right to give
away copies of the programs that relate to a2ps@c, that you receive
source code or else can get it if you want it, that you can change these
programs or use pieces of them in new free programs, and that you know
you can do these things.
To make sure that everyone has such rights, we have to forbid you to
deprive anyone else of these rights. For example, if you distribute
copies of the a2ps@c-related code, you must give the recipients all
the rights that you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or
can get the source code. And you must tell them their rights.
Also, for our own protection, we must make certain that everyone
finds out that there is no warranty for the programs that relate to
a2ps@c. If these programs are modified by someone else and passed
on, we want their recipients to know that what they have is not what we
distributed, so that any problems introduced by others will not reflect
on our reputation.
The precise conditions of the licenses for the programs currently
being distributed that relate to a2ps
Public Licenses that accompany them.
Concept Index
Footnotes
A
classical Unix trick to make the difference between the option
`-2', and the file `-2' is to type `./-2'.
Current a2ps
only handles PostScript output, i.e. out=`ps'
Because hiding its use into a2ps just makes
it even more difficult to the users to know why it failed. Let them use
it by hand.
Many people seem to ignore
that you can insert several sheets in the manual feed tray.
Try at least once, it will save you from hours spent feeding page per
page by hand!
Year 2000.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
1.1 Description
1.2 Reporting Bugs
1.3 a2ps
1.4 Helping the Development
2. User's Guide
2.1 Purpose
2.2 How to print
2.2.1 Basics for Printing
2.2.2 Special Printers
2.2.3 Using Delegations
2.2.4 Printing Duplex
2.2.5 Checking the Defaults
2.3 Important parameters
2.4 Localizing
2.5 Interfacing with Other Programs
2.5.1 Interfacing With a Mailer
2.5.2 Netscape
3. Invoking a2ps
3.1 Command line options
3.1.1 Tasks Options
3.1.2 Global Options
3.1.3 Sheet Options
3.1.4 Page Options
3.1.5 Headings Options
3.1.6 Input Options
3.1.7 Pretty Printing Options
3.1.8 Output Options
3.1.9 PostScript Options
3.2 Escapes
3.2.1 Use of Escapes
3.2.2 General Structure of the Escapes
3.2.3 Available Escapes
4. Configuration Files
4.1 Including Configuration Files
4.2 Your Library Path
4.3 Your Default Options
4.4 Your Media
4.5 Your Printers
4.6 Your Shortcuts
4.7 Your PostScript magic number
4.8 Your Page Labels
4.9 Your Variables
4.9.1 Defining Variables
4.9.2 Predefined Variables
4.10 Your Delegations
4.10.1 Defining a Delegation
4.10.2 Guide Line for Delegations
4.10.3 Predefined Delegations
4.11 Your Internal Details
5. Library Files
5.1 Documentation Format
5.2 Map Files
5.3 Font Files
5.3.1 Fonts Map File
5.3.2 Fonts Description Files
5.3.3 Adding More Font Support
5.4 Style Sheet Files
6. Encodings
6.1 What is an Encoding
6.2 Encoding Files
6.2.1 Encoding Map File
6.2.2 Encoding Description Files
6.2.3 Some Encodings
7. Pretty Printing
7.1 Syntactic limits
7.2 Known Style Sheets
7.3 Type Setting Style Sheets
7.3.1 Symbol
7.3.2 PreScript
7.3.2.1 Syntax
7.3.2.2 PreScript Commands
7.3.2.3 Examples
7.3.3 PreTeX
7.3.3.1 Special characters
7.3.3.2 PreTeX Commands
7.3.3.3 Differences with LaTeX
7.3.4 TeXScript
7.4 Faces
7.5 Style Sheets Semantics
7.5.1 Name and key
7.5.2 Comments
7.5.3 Alphabets
7.5.4 Case sensitivity
7.5.5 P-Rules
7.5.6 Sequences
7.5.7 Optional entries
7.6 Style Sheets Implementation
7.6.1 A Bit of Syntax
7.6.2 Style Sheet Header
7.6.3 Syntax of the Words
7.6.4 Inheriting from Other Style Sheets
7.6.5 Syntax for the P-Rules
7.6.6 Declaring the keywords and the operators
7.6.7 Declaring the sequences
7.6.8 Checking a Style Sheet
7.7 A Tutorial on Style Sheets
7.7.1 Example and syntax
7.7.2 Implementation
7.7.3 The Entry in `sheets.map'
7.7.4 More Sophisticated Rules
7.7.5 Guide Line for Distributed Style Sheets
8. PostScript
8.1 Foreword: Good and Bad PostScript
8.2 Page Device Options
8.3 Statusdict Options
8.4 Colors in PostScript
8.5 a2ps
8.6 Designing PostScript Prologues
8.6.1 Definition of the faces
8.6.2 Prologue File Format
8.6.3 A step by step example
9. Contributions
9.1 card
9.1.1 Invoking card
9.1.2 Caution when Using card
9.2 fixps
9.2.1 Invoking fixps
9.3 fixnt
9.3.1 Invoking fixnt
9.4 pdiff
9.4.1 Invoking pdiff
9.5 psmandup
9.5.1 Invoking psmandup
9.6 psset
9.6.1 Invoking psset
10. Frequently asked questions
10.1 Why Does...?
10.1.1 Why Does it Print Nothing?
10.1.2 Why Does it Print in Simplex?
10.1.3 Why Does it Print in Duplex?
10.1.4 Why Does it Not Fit on the Paper?
10.1.5 Why Does it Print Junk?
10.1.6 Why Does it Say my File is Binary?
10.1.7 Why Does it Refuse to Change the Font Size
10.2 How Can I ...?
10.2.1 How Can I Leave Room for Binding?
10.2.2 How Can I Print stdin?
10.2.3 How Can I Change the Fonts?
10.2.4 How Can I Simulate the Old Option `-b'?
10.2.5 How Can I Pass Options to `lpr'
10.2.6 How Can I Print on Non PostScript Printers?
10.2.7 How Can I Print Man Pages with Underlines
10.3 Please tell me...
10.3.1 Is a2ps
10.3.2 Why Have the Options Changed?
10.3.3 Why not having used yacc and such
A. Glossary
B. Genesis
B.1 History
B.2 Thanks
B.3 Translators
C. Copying
Concept Index
Short Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. User's Guide
3. Invoking a2ps
4. Configuration Files
5. Library Files
6. Encodings
7. Pretty Printing
8. PostScript
9. Contributions
10. Frequently asked questions
A. Glossary
B. Genesis
C. Copying
Concept Index
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1.2
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1.3
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Contents
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Index
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About
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where the Example assumes that the current position
is at Subsubsection One-Two-Three of a document of
the following structure:
- 1. Section One
- 1.1 Subsection One-One
- 1.2 Subsection One-Two
- 1.2.1 Subsubsection One-Two-One
- 1.2.2 Subsubsection One-Two-Two
- 1.2.3 Subsubsection One-Two-Three
<== Current Position
- 1.2.4 Subsubsection One-Two-Four
- 1.3 Subsection One-Three
- 1.4 Subsection One-Four
This document was generated
by root on September, 2 2004
using texi2html