# Minimal use: read from STDIN, format to STDOUT...
use Text::Autoformat;
autoformat;
# In-memory formatting...
$formatted = autoformat $rawtext;
# Configuration...
$formatted = autoformat $rawtext, { %options };
# Margins (1..72 by default)...
$formatted = autoformat $rawtext, { left=>8, right=>70 };
# Justification (left by default)...
$formatted = autoformat $rawtext, { justify => 'left' };
$formatted = autoformat $rawtext, { justify => 'right' };
$formatted = autoformat $rawtext, { justify => 'full' };
$formatted = autoformat $rawtext, { justify => 'centre' };
# Filling (does so by default)...
$formatted = autoformat $rawtext, { fill=>0 };
# Squeezing whitespace (does so by default)...
$formatted = autoformat $rawtext, { squeeze=>0 };
# Select appropriate tabspacing (default is 8 spaces per tab):
$formatted = autoformat $rawtext, { tabspace=>4 };
# Case conversions...
$formatted = autoformat $rawtext, { case => 'lower' };
$formatted = autoformat $rawtext, { case => 'upper' };
$formatted = autoformat $rawtext, { case => 'sentence' };
$formatted = autoformat $rawtext, { case => 'title' };
$formatted = autoformat $rawtext, { case => 'highlight' };
$formatted = autoformat $rawtext, { case => \&my_case_func };
# Selective reformatting
$formatted = autoformat $rawtext, { ignore=>qr/^\t/ };
In comp.lang.perl.misc you wrote:
: > <CN = Clooless Noobie> writes:
: > CN> PERL sux because:
: > CN> * It doesn't have a switch statement and you have to put $
: > CN>signs in front of everything
: > CN> * There are too many OR operators: having |, || and 'or'
: > CN>operators is confusing
: > CN> * VB rools, yeah!!!!!!!!!
: > CN> So anyway, how can I stop reloads on a web page?
: > CN> Email replies only, thanks - I don't read this newsgroup.
: >
: > Begone, sirrah! You are a pathetic, Bill-loving, microcephalic
: > script-infant.
: Sheesh, what's with this group - ask a question, get toasted! And how
: *dare* you accuse me of Ianuphilia!
both the venerable Unix fmt tool and Perl's standard Text::Wrap module produce:
In comp.lang.perl.misc you wrote: : > <CN = Clooless Noobie>
writes: : > CN> PERL sux because: : > CN> * It doesn't
have a switch statement and you have to put $ : > CN>signs in
front of everything : > CN> * There are too many OR
operators: having |, || and 'or' : > CN>operators is confusing
: > CN> * VB rools, yeah!!!!!!!!! : > CN> So anyway, how
can I stop reloads on a web page? : > CN> Email replies only,
thanks - I don't read this newsgroup. : > : > Begone, sirrah!
You are a pathetic, Bill-loving, microcephalic : >
script-infant. : Sheesh, what's with this group - ask a
question, get toasted! And how : *dare* you accuse me of
Ianuphilia!
Other formatting modules --- such as Text::Correct and Text::Format --- provide more control over their output, but produce equally poor results when applied to arbitrary input. They simply don't understand the structural conventions of the text they're reformatting.
In comp.lang.perl.misc you wrote:
: > <CN = Clooless Noobie> writes:
: > CN> PERL sux because:
: > CN> * It doesn't have a switch statement and you
: > CN> have to put $ signs in front of everything
: > CN> * There are too many OR operators: having |, ||
: > CN> and 'or' operators is confusing
: > CN> * VB rools, yeah!!!!!!!!! So anyway, how can I
: > CN> stop reloads on a web page? Email replies
: > CN> only, thanks - I don't read this newsgroup.
: >
: > Begone, sirrah! You are a pathetic, Bill-loving,
: > microcephalic script-infant.
: Sheesh, what's with this group - ask a question, get toasted!
: And how *dare* you accuse me of Ianuphilia!
Note that the various quoting conventions have been observed. In fact, their structure has been used to determine where some paragraphs begin. Furthermore "autoformat" correctly distinguished between the leading '*' bullets of the nested list (which were outdented) and the leading emphatic '*' of ``*dare*'' (which was inlined).
Once a paragraph has been isolated, "autoformat" fills and re-wraps its lines according to the margins that are specified in its argument list. These are placed after the text to be formatted, in a hash reference:
$tidied = autoformat($messy, {left=>20, right=>60});
By default, "autoformat" uses a left margin of 1 (first column) and a right margin of 72.
You can also control whether (and how) "autoformat" breaks words at the end of a line, using the 'break' option:
# Turn off all hyphenation
use Text::Autoformat qw(autoformat break_wrap);
$tidied = autoformat($messy, {break=>break_wrap});
# Default hyphenation
use Text::Autoformat qw(autoformat break_at);
$tidied = autoformat($messy, {break=>break_at('-')});
# Use TeX::Hyphen module's hyphenation (module must be installed)
use Text::Autoformat qw(autoformat break_TeX);
$tidied = autoformat($messy, {break=>break_TeX});
Normally, "autoformat" only reformats the first paragraph it encounters, and leaves the remainder of the text unaltered. This behaviour is useful because it allows a one-liner invoking the subroutine to be mapped onto a convenient keystroke in a text editor, to provide one-paragraph-at-a-time reformatting:
% cat .exrc
map f !Gperl -MText::Autoformat -e'autoformat'
(Note that to facilitate such one-liners, if "autoformat" is called in a void context without any text data, it takes its text from "STDIN" and writes its result to "STDOUT").
To enable "autoformat" to rearrange the entire input text at once, the "all" argument is used:
$tidied_all = autoformat($messy, {left=>20, right=>60, all=>1});
"autoformat" can also be directed to selectively reformat paragraphs, using the "ignore" argument:
$tidied_some = autoformat($messy, {ignore=>qr/^[ \t]/});
The value for "ignore" may be a "qr"'d regex, a subroutine reference, or the special string 'indented'.
If a regex is specified, any paragraph whose original text matches that regex will not be reformatted (i.e. it will be printed verbatim).
If a subroutine is specified, that subroutine will be called once for each paragraph (with $_ set to the paragraph's text). The subroutine is expected to return a true or false value. If it returns true, the paragraph will not be reformatted.
If the value of the "ignore" option is the string 'indented', "autoformat" will ignore any paragraph in which every line begins with a whitespace.
You may also specify multiple "ignore" options by including them in an array-ref:
$tidied_mesg = autoformat($messy, {ignore=>[qr/1/,'indented']});
One other special case of ignorance is ignoring mail headers and signature. This option is specified using the "mail" argument:
$tidied_mesg = autoformat($messy_mesg, {mail=>1});
Note that the "ignore" or "mail" options automatically imply "all".
* bulleted,
* simply numbered (i.e. 1., 2., 3., etc.), or
* hierarchically numbered (1, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2, 2.1. and so forth).
In such lists, each bulleted item is implicitly a separate paragraph, and is formatted individually, with the appropriate indentation:
* bulleted,
* simply numbered (i.e. 1., 2., 3.,
etc.), or
* hierarchically numbered (1, 1.1,
1.2, 1.3, 2, 2.1. and so forth).
More importantly, if the points are numbered, the numbering is checked and reordered. For example, a list whose points have been rearranged:
1. Analyze problem
3. Design algorithm
1. Code solution
5. Test
4. Ship
would be renumbered automatically by "autoformat":
1. Analyze problem
2. Design algorithm
3. Code solution
4. Test
5. Ship
The same reordering would be performed if the ``numbering'' was by letters ("a." "b." "c." etc.) or Roman numerals ("i." "ii." "iii.)" or by some combination of these ("1a." "1b." "2a." "2b." etc.) Handling disordered lists of letters and Roman numerals presents an interesting challenge. A list such as:
A. Put cat in box.
D. Close lid.
E. Activate Geiger counter.
should be reordered as "A." "B." "C.," whereas:
I. Put cat in box.
D. Close lid.
XLI. Activate Geiger counter.
should be reordered "I." "II." "III."
The "autoformat" subroutine solves this problem by always interpreting alphabetic bullets as being letters, unless the full list consists only of valid Roman numerals, at least one of which is two or more characters long.
Note that renumbering starts at the first number actually given, rather than restarting at the first possible number. To renumber from 1 (or A.) you must change the first numbered bullet to that.
If automatic renumbering isn't wanted, just specify the 'renumber' option with a false value.
Note that normal numbers above 1000 at the start of a line are no longer considered to be paragraph numbering. Numbered paragraphs running that high are exceptionally rare, and much rarer than paragraphs that look like these:
Although it has long been popular (especially in the year
2001) to point out that we now live in the Future, many
of the promised miracles of Future Life have failed to
eventuate. This is a new phenomenon (it didn't happen in
1001) because the idea that the future might be different
is a new phenomenon.
which the former numbering rules caused to be formatted like this:
Although it has long been popular (especially in the year
2001) to point out that we now live in the Future, many of the
promised miracles of Future Life have failed to eventuate.
This is a new phenomenon (it didn't happen in
2002) because the idea that the future might be different is a
new phenomenon.
but which are now formatted:
Although it has long been popular (especially in the year 2001)
to point out that we now live in the Future, many of the
promised miracles of Future Life have failed to eventuate. This
is a new phenomenon (it didn't happen in 1001) because the idea
that the future might be different is a new phenomenon.
If you want numbers less than 1000 (or other characters strings currently treated as bullets) to be ignored in this way, you can turn of list formatting entirely by setting the 'lists' option to a false value.
You can also select which kinds of lists are recognized, by using a string as the value of lists:
# Don't recognize Roman numerals or alphabetics as list markers...
autoformat { lists => 'number, bullet' }, $text;
# Don't recognize bullets or numbers as list markers...
autoformat { lists => 'roman, alpha' }, $text;
# Recognize everything except Roman numerals as list markers...
autoformat { lists => 'number, bullet, alpha' }, $text;
The string should contain one or more of the following words: "number", "bullet", "alpha", "roman". "autoformat()" will ignore any list type that doesn't appear in the 'lists' string.
: > CN> So anyway, how can I stop reloads on a web page? Email
: > CN> replies only, thanks - I don't read this newsgroup.
: > Begone, sirrah! You are a pathetic, Bill-loving,
: > microcephalic script-infant.
: Sheesh, what's with this group - ask a question, get toasted!
: And how *dare* you accuse me of Ianuphilia!
"autoformat" recognizes the various quoting conventions used in this example and treats it as three paragraphs to be independently reformatted.
You may also override the default set of recognized quoters by specifying a 'quoter' argument when calling "autoformat()". For example, to format lines such as:
// This is a comment
// in the standard C(++)
// comment-to-EOL
// format
specify:
autoformat($text, { quoter =E<gt> qr{//} })
Instead of completely replacing the existing set of quoters, you can extend them by specifying a pattern that includes the metasequence "<QUOTER>", which is then replaced by the module's standard pattern for quoters. So, for example, to add "//" to the set of existing quoters:
autoformat($text, { quoter =E<gt> qr{//|<QUOTER>} })
Block quotations present a different challenge. A typical formatter would render the following quotation:
"We are all of us in the gutter, but some of us are looking at
the stars"
-- Oscar Wilde
like so:
"We are all of us in the gutter, but some of us are looking at
the stars" -- Oscar Wilde
"autoformat" recognizes the quotation structure by matching the following regular expression against the text component of each paragraph:
/ \A(\s*) # leading whitespace for quotation (["']|``) # opening
quotemark (.*) # quotation (''|\2) # closing quotemark \s*?\n #
trailing whitespace after quotation (\1[ ]+) # leading
whitespace for attribution
# (must be indented more than
# quotation)
(--|-) # attribution introducer ([^\n]*?\n) # first
attribution line ((\5[^\n]*?$)*) # other attribution lines
# (indented no less than first line)
\s*\Z # optional whitespace to end of paragraph /xsm
When reformatted (see below), the indentation and the attribution structure will be preserved:
"We are all of us in the gutter, but some of us are looking
at the stars"
-- Oscar Wilde
"We are all of us in the gutter, but some of us are looking at
the stars"
This phenomenon is known as ``widowing'' and is heavily frowned upon in typesetting circles. It looks ugly in plaintext too, so "autoformat" avoids it by stealing extra words from earlier lines in a paragraph, so as to leave enough for a reasonable last line. The heuristic used is that final lines must be at least 10 characters long (though this number may be adjusted by passing a "widow => minlength" argument to "autoformat").
If the last line is too short, the paragraph's right margin is reduced by one column, and the paragraph is reformatted. This process iterates until either the last line exceeds nine characters or the margins have been narrowed by 10% of their original separation. In the latter case, the reformatter gives up and uses its original formatting.
R3> Now is the Winter of our discontent made
R3> glorious Summer by this son of York. And all
R3> the clouds that lour'd upon our house In the
R3> deep bosom of the ocean buried.
Full justification is interesting in a fixed-width medium like plaintext because it usually results in uneven spacing between words. Typically, formatters provide this by distributing the extra spaces into the first available gaps of each line:
R3> Now is the Winter of our discontent made
R3> glorious Summer by this son of York. And all
R3> the clouds that lour'd upon our house In
R3> the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
This produces a rather jarring visual effect, so "autoformat" reverses the strategy and inserts extra spaces at the end of lines:
R3> Now is the Winter of our discontent made
R3> glorious Summer by this son of York. And all
R3> the clouds that lour'd upon our house In
R3> the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
Most readers find this less disconcerting.
The answer can be determined by adding the length of leading whitespace before the first word, plus half the length of the full set of words on the line. That is, for a single line:
$line =~ /^(\s*)(.*?)(\s*)$/ $centre =
length($1)+0.5*length($2);
By making the same estimate for every line, and then comparing the estimates, it is possible to deduce whether all the lines are centred with respect to the same axis of symmetry (with an allowance of ±1 to cater for the inevitable rounding when the centre positions of even-length rows were originally computed). If a common axis of symmetry is detected, "autoformat" assumes that the lines are supposed to be centred, and switches to centre-justification mode for that paragraph.
Note that this behaviour can to switched off entirely by setting the "autocentre" argument false.
'POVERTY, MISERY, ETC. are the lot of the PhD candidate. alas!'
becomes:
'Poverty, misery, etc. are the lot of the PhD candidate. Alas!'
Note that "autoformat" is clever enough to recognize that the period after abbreviations such as "etc." is not a sentence terminator.
If the argument is specified as 'sentence ' (with one or more trailing whitespace characters) those characters are used to replace the single space that appears at the end of the sentence. For example, "autoformat($text, {case=>'sentence '}") would produce:
'Poverty, misery, etc. are the lot of the PhD candidate. Alas!'
'What I Did On My Summer Vacation In Monterey'
'What I Did on my Summer Vacation in Monterey'
For example, to convert a string to hostage-case:
my $ransom_note = sub {
return join "", # ^ Reconcatenate
map {/[aeiou]/i ? lc : uc} # | uPPeR aND LoWeR each
split //, # | Break into chars
shift; # | Take argument
};
$text = autoformat($text, {case => $ransom_note });
# "FoR eXaMPLe, To CoNVeRT a STRiNG To HoSTaGe-CaSe:"
Or to highlight particular words:
my @SPECIAL = qw( perl camel wall );
sub highlight_specials {
my ($word) = @_;
return $word ~~ @SPECIAL ? uc($word) : $word;
}
$text = autoformat($text, {case => \&highlight_specials});
# "It is easier for a CAMEL to pass through a WALL of PERL..."
For example:
# Reformat all paras except those containing "verbatim"...
print autoformat { all => 1, ignore => qr/verbatim/i }, $text;
# Reformat all paras except those less that 3 lines long...
print autoformat { all => 1, ignore => sub { tr/\n/\n/ < 3
} }, $text;
# Reformat all paras except those that are indented...
print autoformat { all => 1, ignore => qr/^\s/m }, $text;
# Reformat all paras except those that are indented (easier)...
print autoformat { all => 1, ignore => 'indented' }, $text;
print autoformat { tabspace => 4 }, $text;
Text::Aligner - provides a single function for justifying strings according to various styles.
Text::Format - a class that provides methods for formatting text in various ways.
Data::Formatter::Text - format various Perl data structures as text, in different ways according to the type of data.
This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. See perlartistic.
IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR REDISTRIBUTE THE SOFTWARE AS PERMITTED BY THE ABOVE LICENCE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE SOFTWARE (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE SOFTWARE TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER SOFTWARE), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.