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 productivity of programmers by 2 times!!
On Linux/Unixes there is a command called "indent" and "cb" . Refer to 'man indent' and 'man cb'. Note that indent and cb work for only "C" programs. For "C++" programs use "bcpp". Download the beautifier program from one of the following
BCPP was written by Steven De Toni at
For 100% assurance you need a SCIENTIFIC 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 bcpp, indent or cb is not damaging or changing the input source-code after formatting, you can use the shell script verification program or use the following technique -
Generate the object code from the original input source code using the compiler -
g++ -c myprogram.cpp
Save this file -
mv myprogram.o myprogram_orig.o
Now run bcpp -
bcpp myprogram.cpp
g++ -c myprogram.cpp
Now use the unix 'diff' command to compare the two object files -
diff myprogram.o myprogram_orig.o
Also you can use the assembler output instead of object output in compiler. Like -
g++ -S myprogram.cpp
diff myprogram.s myprogram_orig.s
It is strongly recommended that you do these two steps every time you run beautifier programs like bcpp, indent or cb.
Visit the following sites to get beautifiers for other languages like HTML, SQL, Java, Perl, Fortran.
To create presentation of codes to display using HTML -
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 bcpp, cb or indent
#!/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 ${FILENAME}
done
fi
Visit following locators which are related to C, C++ -
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bash$ 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 &
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Also you can find this document at the following mirrors sites -
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 -
xdvi -geometry 80x90 howto.dvi
man xdvi
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gv howto.ps
ghostscript howto.ps
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