C-C++ Beautifier HOW-TO  <author>Al Dev (Alavoor Vasudevan) <htmlurl url="mailto:alavoor@yahoo.com" name="alavoor@yahoo.com"> <date>v4.0, 03 July 2000 <abstract> This document will help you to format (beautify) the C/C++ programs so that it is more readable and confirms to your site C/C++ coding standards. The information in this document applies to all the operating sytems that is - Linux, MS DOS, Windows 95/NT, OS/2, IBM OSes, all flavors of Unix like Solaris, HPUX, AIX, SCO, Sinix, BSD, SCO, etc.. and to all other operating systems which support "C" compiler (it means almost all the operating systems on this planet!). </abstract>  <toc>   <sect>Introduction Coding standards for C/C++ or any language is required in order to make the programs more readable/understandable by programmers. There are C/C++ beautifiers (formating tools) to accomplish this goal. Formatted (beautified) code improves the <bf>productivity</bf> of programmers by <bf>2 times</bf>!! On Linux/Unixes there is a command called <bf>"indent"</bf> and <bf>"cb"</bf> . Refer to 'man indent' and 'man cb'. Note that <bf>indent</bf> and <bf>cb</bf> work for only "C" programs. For "C++" programs use <bf>"bcpp"</bf>. Download the beautifier program from one of the following <itemize> <item>C++ : BCPP site is at <url url="http://dickey.his.com/bcpp/bcpp.html"> or at <url url="http://www.clark.net/pub/dickey"> <item>C++ : BCPP ftp site is at <url url="ftp://dickey.his.com/bcpp/bcpp.tar.gz"> <item>C++ : <url url="http://www.consultix-inc.com/c++b.html"> <item>C : <url url="http://www.chips.navy.mil/oasys/c/"> </itemize> I used BCPP to format the C++ programs and it worked fine for me. You may want to check other tools and use the one which you may like the most. BCPP was written by Steven De Toni at <htmlurl url="mailto: steve@alpha.ocbbs.gen.nz " name=" steve@alpha.ocbbs.gen.nz ">  <sect> How can I trust Beautifier programs??!! For 100% assurance you need a <bf>SCIENTIFIC</bf> way to validate and trust a beautifier program. The method described in this section will enable the beautifier program to be accepted as "trust-worthy" and reliable. In order to verify that beautifier programs like <bf>bcpp</bf>, <bf>indent</bf> or <bf>cb</bf> is not damaging or changing the input source-code after formatting, you can use the shell script <ref id="verification" name="verification program"> or use the following technique - Generate the object code from the original input source code using the compiler - <code> g++ -c myprogram.cpp </code> Here g++ is GNU C++ compiler. This will create object output myprogram.o Save this file - <code> mv myprogram.o myprogram_orig.o </code> Now run bcpp - <code> bcpp myprogram.cpp </code> This will create the formatted output program file myprogram.cpp and move the original file to myprogram.cpp.orig. Compile the new file with - <code> g++ -c myprogram.cpp </code> Now use the unix 'diff' command to compare the two object files - <code> diff myprogram.o myprogram_orig.o </code> Both these files <bf>MUST BE IDENTICAL</bf>. This verifies that bcpp is working perfectly. On DOS or Windows 95 you may want to use the free <url name="Cygnus" url="http://www.cygnus.com"> Cygwin 'diff' or 'MKS' utilities. Also you can use the assembler output instead of object output in compiler. Like - <code> g++ -S myprogram.cpp </code> This creates myprogram.s. Verify with - <code> diff myprogram.s myprogram_orig.s </code> This step gives 100% guarantee that your valuable source code is intact and bcpp is JUST doing ONLY formatting and is NOT changing or damaging your code in any way. This method gives you 100% quality assurance and life term or long term <bf>WARRANTY</bf> on beautifier programs like 'bcpp', 'cb' or 'indent'. It is strongly recommended that you do these two steps every time you run beautifier programs like <bf>bcpp</bf>, <bf>indent</bf> or <bf>cb</bf>.  <sect> Beautifiers for other Languages Visit the following sites to get beautifiers for other languages like HTML, SQL, Java, Perl, Fortran. <itemize> <item> HTML : <url url="http://www.digital-mines.com/htb/"> <item> HTML : <url url="http://www.datacomm.ch/mwoog/software/perl/beautifier.html"> <item> HTML : <url url="http://www.watson-net.com/free/perl/s_fhtml.asp"> <item> SQL : <url url="http://www.netbula.com/products/sqlb"> <item> Java : <url url="http://home.wtal.de/software-solutions/jindent/frameset.html"> <item> Perl : <url url="http://www.consultix-inc.com/www.consultix-inc.com/talk.htm"> <item> Perl : <url url="http://www.consultix-inc.com/www.consultix-inc.com/perl_beautifier.html"> <item> Fortran beautifier : <url url="http://www.aeem.iastate.edu/Fortran/tools.html"> <item>C++ : BCPP site is at <url url="http://www.clark.net/pub/dickey/bcpp/bcpp.html"> <item>C++ : <url url="http://www.consultix-inc.com/www.consultix-inc.com/c++b.html"> <item>C : <url url="http://www.chips.navy.mil/oasys/c/"> </itemize> <itemize> <item>White paper on beautifier : <url url="http://www.consultix-inc.com/www.consultix-inc.com/talk.htm"> </itemize> To create presentation of codes to display using HTML - <itemize> <item>Presentation (C,C++,Java) to html : <url url="http://www.perlstudio.de/cbindex.html"> </itemize> Also search the search engines like <url url="http://www.yahoo.com"> or <url url="http://www.lycos.com"> and search for keyword "beautfier".  <sect> Verification Script <label id="verification"> This is a Korn shell script to verify beautifier program. Requires "pdksh*.rpm" from Linux 'contrib' cdrom. Save this file as 'text' file and chmod a+rx on it. You can re-write this shell script in PERL so that you can use it on Window 95/NT or MSDOS. Uncomment the PRGM variable to point to <bf>bcpp</bf>, <bf>cb</bf> or <bf>indent</bf> <code> #!/bin/ksh # Verification program to check C++ Beautifiers 'bcpp', 'indent' or cb ############################################################ # Copyright # The copyright policy is GNU/GPL. # Author: Al Dev (Alavoor Vasudevan) alavoor@yahoo.com ############################################################ check_beautify_now() { # Remove all the temp files.... \rm -f ${TMP_FILE} \rm -f ${TMP_CPPFILE}*.* FNAME=$1 if [ ! -f ${FNAME} ]; then print "\nError: The file ${FNAME} does not exist!!. Aborting now ...." exit fi \cp -f ${FNAME} ${TMP_CPPFILE}.cpp ${COMPILER} -c ${TMP_CPPFILE}.cpp if [ ! -f ${TMP_CPPFILE}.o ]; then print "Fatal Error: Failed to compile ${FNAME}. Aborting now... " exit fi \mv -f ${TMP_CPPFILE}.o ${TMP_CPPFILE}_orig.o aa=`basename $PRGM` print "\nRunning, verifying $aa on ${FNAME}" ${PRGM} ${TMP_CPPFILE}.cpp ${COMPILER} -c ${TMP_CPPFILE}.cpp \rm -f $TMP_FILE diff ${TMP_CPPFILE}.o ${TMP_CPPFILE}_orig.o 1> $TMP_FILE 2>> $TMP_FILE result="" result=`wc -c $TMP_FILE | awk '{print $1}' ` if [ "$result" = "0" ]; then print "Success!! Beautifier $aa is working properly!!\n" else print "Fatal Error: Something wrong!! Beautifier is not working!!" exit fi # ${COMPILER} -S ${TMP_CPPFILE}.cpp # diff ${TMP_CPPFILE}.s ${TMP_CPPFILE}_orig.s # Remove all the temp files.... \rm -f ${TMP_FILE} \rm -f ${TMP_CPPFILE}*.* } ########## Main of program begins here ##################3 #PRGM=/usr/bin/bcpp #PRGM=/usr/bin/cb PRGM=/usr/bin/indent COMPILER=/usr/bin/g++ TMP_FILE=beautify.tmp TMP_CPPFILE=beautify-tmp_cppfile print -n "Enter the C++ file name <default is *.cpp> : " read ans if [ "$ans" = "" -o "$ans" = " " ]; then ans="ALL" else FILENAME=$ans fi # Remove all the temp files.... \rm -f ${TMP_FILE} \rm -f ${TMP_CPPFILE}*.* if [ "$ans" != "ALL" ]; then check_beautify_now ${FILENAME} else ls *.cpp | while read FILENAME do check_beautify_now ${FILENAME} done fi </code>  <sect> Related URLs Visit following locators which are related to C, C++ - <itemize> <item> <url url="http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/Vim-HOWTO.html" name="Vim color text editor for C++, C"> <item> <url url="http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/C++Programming-HOWTO.html" name="C++ Programming HOWTO"> <item> <url url="http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/CVS-HOWTO.html" name="CVS HOWTO for C++ programs"> <item> Linux goodies main site <url url="http://www.aldev.8m.com"> <item> Linux goodies mirror site <url url="http://aldev.webjump.com"> </itemize>  <sect> Other Formats of this Document This document is published in 11 different formats namely - DVI, Postscript, Latex, Adobe Acrobat PDF, LyX, GNU-info, HTML, RTF(Rich Text Format), Plain-text, Unix man pages and SGML. <itemize> <item> You can get this HOWTO document as a single file tar ball in HTML, DVI, Postscript or SGML formats from - <url url="ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/other-formats/"> <item>Plain text format is in: <url url="ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO"> <item>Translations to other languages like French, German, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese are in <url url="ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO"> Any help from you to translate to other languages is welcome. </itemize> The document is written using a tool called "SGML tool" which can be got from - <url url="http://www.xs4all.nl/~cg/sgmltools/"> Compiling the source you will get the following commands like <itemize> <item>sgml2html C-C++Beautifier-HOWTO.sgml (to generate html file) <item>sgml2rtf C-C++Beautifier-HOWTO.sgml (to generate RTF file) <item>sgml2latex C-C++Beautifier-HOWTO.sgml (to generate latex file) </itemize> LaTeX documents may be converted into PDF files simply by producing a Postscript output using <bf>sgml2latex</bf> ( and dvips) and running the output through the Acrobat <bf>distill</bf> (<url url="http://www.adobe.com">) command as follows: <code> bash$ man sgml2latex bash$ sgml2latex filename.sgml bash$ man dvips bash$ dvips -o filename.ps filename.dvi bash$ distill filename.ps bash$ man ghostscript bash$ man ps2pdf bash$ ps2pdf input.ps output.pdf bash$ acroread output.pdf & </code> Or you can use Ghostscript command <bf>ps2pdf</bf>. ps2pdf is a work-alike for nearly all the functionality of Adobe's Acrobat Distiller product: it converts PostScript files to Portable Document Format (PDF) files. <bf>ps2pdf</bf> is implemented as a very small command script (batch file) that invokes Ghostscript, selecting a special "output device" called <bf>pdfwrite</bf>. In order to use ps2pdf, the pdfwrite device must be included in the makefile when Ghostscript was compiled; see the documentation on building Ghostscript for details. This howto document is located at - <itemize> <item> <url url="http://sunsite.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/C-C++Beautifier-HOWTO.html"> </itemize> Also you can find this document at the following mirrors sites - <itemize> <item> <url url="http://www.caldera.com/LDP/HOWTO/C-C++Beautifier-HOWTO.html"> <item> <url url="http://www.WGS.com/LDP/HOWTO/C-C++Beautifier-HOWTO.html"> <item> <url url="http://www.cc.gatech.edu/linux/LDP/HOWTO/C-C++Beautifier-HOWTO.html"> <item> <url url="http://www.redhat.com/linux-info/ldp/HOWTO/C-C++Beautifier-HOWTO.html"> <item> Other mirror sites near you (network-address-wise) can be found at <url url="http://sunsite.unc.edu/LDP/hmirrors.html"> select a site and go to directory /LDP/HOWTO/C-C++Beautifier-HOWTO.html </itemize> In order to view the document in dvi format, use the xdvi program. The xdvi program is located in tetex-xdvi*.rpm package in Redhat Linux which can be located through ControlPanel | Applications | Publishing | TeX menu buttons. To read dvi document give the command - <tscreen><verb> xdvi -geometry 80x90 howto.dvi man xdvi </verb></tscreen> And resize the window with mouse. To navigate use Arrow keys, Page Up, Page Down keys, also you can use 'f', 'd', 'u', 'c', 'l', 'r', 'p', 'n' letter keys to move up, down, center, next page, previous page etc. To turn off expert menu press 'x'. You can read postscript file using the program 'gv' (ghostview) or 'ghostscript'. The ghostscript program is in ghostscript*.rpm package and gv program is in gv*.rpm package in Redhat Linux which can be located through ControlPanel | Applications | Graphics menu buttons. The gv program is much more user friendly than ghostscript. Also ghostscript and gv are available on other platforms like OS/2, Windows 95 and NT, you view this document even on those platforms. <itemize> <item>Get ghostscript for Windows 95, OS/2, and for all OSes from <url url="http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost"> </itemize> To read postscript document give the command - <tscreen><verb> gv howto.ps ghostscript howto.ps </verb></tscreen> You can read HTML format document using Netscape Navigator, Microsoft Internet explorer, Redhat Baron Web browser or any of the 10 other web browsers. You can read the latex, LyX output using LyX a X-Windows front end to latex.  <sect> Copyright Copyright policy is GNU/GPL as per LDP (Linux Documentation project). LDP is a GNU/GPL project. Additional restrictions are - you must retain the author's name, email address and this copyright notice on all the copies. If you make any changes or additions to this document then you should intimate all the authors of this document.  </article>