10.2 Pretty-printing

Pretty-printing refers to FWEAVE’s attempt to typeset and highlight the code in a readable way. This is usually done automatically for all of the compiler-like languages such as C. However, it can be inhibited by turning on the N mode with ‘@N’ or by using the VERBATIM language (selected with ‘@Lv’).

Pretty-printing is one of those topics that can arouse strong passions: your idea of what’s esthetic may not be mine. Unfortunately, FWEB’s formatting rules are mostly hard-coded, so if, for example, you don’t like the way braces are arranged in typeset C code, you’re mostly stuck. Most directly, this possibly undesirable choice comes from design decisions made by previous authors. It also makes FWEAVE very fast, and enables certain complicated tricks that seem difficult or impossible to accomplish with a completely customizable approach. The latter seems quite formidable, and has not been attempted—a good thesis project for the 21st century.