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Name

vgrind - grind nice program listings

Synopsis

vgrind [ -2fntwWx ] [ -d defs-file ] [ -h header ] [ -llanguage ] [ -sn ] [ -opagelist ] [ -Pprinter ] [ -Toutput-device ] filename...

Availability

SUNWdoc

Description

vgrind formats the program sources named by the filename arguments in a nice style using troff(1) . Comments are placed in italics, keywords in bold face, and as each function is encountered its name is listed on the page margin.

vgrind runs in two basic modes, filter mode or regular mode. In filter mode vgrind acts as a filter in a manner similar to tbl(1) . The standard input is passed directly to the standard output except for lines bracketed by the troff-like macros:

ends processing

These lines are formatted as described above. The output from this filter can be passed to troff for output. There need be no particular ordering with eqn(1) or tbl.

In regular mode vgrind accepts input filenames, processes them, and passes them to troff for output. If no filename is given, or if the ‘-’ argument is given, vgrind reads from the standard input (default if -f is specified).

In both modes vgrind passes any lines beginning with a decimal point without conversion.

Options

Note: The syntax of options with arguments is important. Some require a SPACE between the option name and the argument, while those that do not have a SPACE below will not tolerate one.

-2
Produce two column output. Specifying this option changes the default point size to 8 (as if the -s8 option were supplied). It also arranges for output to appear in landscape mode, by supplying the -L flag to the formatter and changing the page height and width accordingly.
-f
Force filter mode.
-n
Do not make keywords boldface.
-w
Consider TAB characters to be spaced four columns apart instead of the usual eight.
-x
Output the index file in a ‘pretty’ format. The index file itself is produced whenever vgrind is run with a file called index present in the current directory. The index of function definitions can then be run off by giving vgrind the -x option and the file index as argument.
-d defs-file
Specify an alternate language definitions file (default is /usr/lib/vgrindefs).
-h header
Specify a header to appear in the center of every output page.
-llanguage
Specify the language to use. Among the languages currently known are: Bourne shell (-lsh), C (-lc, the default), C++ (-lc++), C shell (-lcsh), emacs ML isp, (-lml), FORTRAN (-lf), Icon (-lI), ISP (-i), LDL (-lLDL ), Model (-lm), Pascal (-lp), and RATFOR (-lr).
-sn
Specify a point size to use on output (exactly the same as the argument of a troff .ps point size request).

vgrind passes the following options to the formatter specified by the TROFF environment variable, see ENVIRONMENT below.

-t
Similar to the same option in troff; that is, formatted text goes to the standard output.
-W
Force output to the (wide) Versatec printer rather than the (narrow) Varian.
-opagelist
Print only those pages whose page numbers appear in the comma-separated pagelist of numbers and ranges. A range N-M means pages N through M; an initial -N means from the beginning to page N; and a final N- means from N to the end.
-Pprinter
Send output to the named printer.
-Toutput-device
Format output for the specified output-device.

Environment

In regular mode vgrind feeds its intermediate output to the text formatter given by the value of the TROFF environment variable, or to troff if this variable is not defined in the environment. This mechanism allows for local variations in troff’s name.

Files

index
file where source for index is created
/usr/lib/vgrindefs
language descriptions
/usr/lib/vfontedpr
preprocessor
/usr/share/lib/tmac/tmac.vgrind
macro package

See Also

troff(1)

Bugs

vgrind assumes that a certain programming style is followed:

C
Function names can be preceded on a line only by SPACE , TAB , or an asterisk. The parenthesized arguments must also be on the same line.
FORTRAN
Function names need to appear on the same line as the keywords function or subroutine.
MLisp
Function names should not appear on the same line as the preceding defun.
Model
Function names need to appear on the same line as the keywords is beginproc.
Pascal
Function names need to appear on the same line as the keywords function or procedure.

If these conventions are not followed, the indexing and marginal function name comment mechanisms will fail.

More generally, arbitrary formatting styles for programs mostly look bad. The use of SPACE characters to align source code fails miserably; if you plan to vgrind your program you should use TAB characters. This is somewhat inevitable since the fonts vgrind uses are variable width.

The mechanism of ctags(1) in recognizing functions should be used here.

The -w option is a crock, but there is no other way to achieve the desired effect.

The macros defined in tmac.vgrind do not coexist gracefully with those of other macro packages, making filter mode difficult to use effectively.

vgrind does not process certain special characters in csh(1) scripts correctly.

The tmac.vgrind formatting macros wire in the page height and width used in two column mode, effectively making two column output useless for paper sizes other than the standard American size of 8.5 by 11 inches. For other paper sizes, it is necessary to edit the size values given in tmac.vgrind. A better solution would be to create a troff output device specification intended specifically for landscape output and record size information there.

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