Path: utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!scs!spl1!laidbak!att!pacbell!lll-tis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!ucbvax!decwrl!hplabs!hpda!hp-sde!hpfcdc!hpldola!winter
From: winter@hpldola.HP.COM (Kirt Winter)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Flexible Prettyprinters, an example...
Message-ID: <1420009@hpldola.HP.COM>
Date: 31 May 88 14:35:05 GMT
Article-I.D.: hpldola.1420009
References: <1420008@hpldola.HP.COM>
Organization: HP Elec. Design Div. -ColoSpgs
Lines: 38

seibel@cgl.ucsf.edu (George Seibel) writes:

>Here's one for FORTRAN. (yeah, I know, why would a FoRtRaN programmer
>be reading comp.software-eng?!)  Pretty-printing is one of the functions
>of TOOLPACK, along with a macro processor, global inter-procedural analysis,
>coverage analysis, and other nice things.  It doesn't use the "learn by
>example" model, rather it uses a "configuration file" scheme - which
>seems a lot simpler to me.  Each user might customize their own config
>file to produce whatever whacko style they liked.  

When you say "seems a lot simpler" I wonder if I made myself clear in my
original posting.  If you mean simpler to implement the prettyprinter, then
you are certainly correct.  However, if you mean simpler to the user, I must
disagree.

I have included a "dummy" Pascal source file that will capture all style
features that the prettyprinter understands.  The user can change that to
reflect his/her own style.  This requires no knowledge of how the pretty-
printer works, unlike a configuration file (if I understand what you mean by
a configuration file).  I feel that the "learn by example" method is superior
in virtually all respects.

As far as a FORTRAN programmer reading comp.software-eng, I think congrat-
ulations are in order.  Perhaps your insight will catch on.  :-) :-) :-)

What was the quote I heard?   Something like... "I don't know what language
people will be programming in at the turn of the century, but it will be called
FORTRAN."

Kirt

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 Kirt Alan Winter                                        winter@hpldola.hp.com
 Hewlett Packard - EDD                                   (719) 590-5974
 Colorado Springs, Colorado
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 If anyone but me wants to claim these ideas, they are more than welcome to.
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