BibTool Manual Reference Manual Parsing and Pretty Printing

Parsing and Pretty Printing

print.line.length

This numeric resource specifies the desired width of the lines. lines which turn out to be longer are tried to split at spaces and continued in the next line. The value defaults to 77.

print.indent

This numeric resource specifies indentation of normal items, i.e. items in entries which are not strings or comments. The value defaults to 2.

print.align

This numeric resource specifies the column at which the '=' in non-comment and non-string entries are aligned. This value defaults to 18.

print.align.key

This numeric resource specifies the column at which the '=' in non-comment and non-string entries are aligned. This value defaults to 18.

print.align.string

This numeric resource specifies the column at which the '=' in string entries are aligned. This value defaults to 18.

print.align.preamble

This numeric resource specifies the column at which preamble entries are aligned. This value defaults to 11.

print.align.comment

This numeric resource specifies the column at which comment entries are aligned.1 This value defaults to 10.

print.comma.at.end

This boolean resource determines whether the comma between fields should be printed at the end of the line. If it is off then the comma is printed just before the field name. In this case the alignment given by print.align determines the column of the comma.

print.equal.right

This boolean resource specifies whether the = sign in normal entries is aligned right. If turned off then the = sign is flushed left to the field name. This value defaults to on.

print.newline

This numeric resource specifies the number of newlines between entries. This value defaults to 1.

print.use.tab

This boolean resource specifies if the TAB character should be used for indenting. This use is said to cause portability problems. Thus it can be disabled. If disabled then the appropriate number of spaces are inserted instead. This value defaults to on.

print.wide.equal

This boolean resource determines whether the euqality sign should be forced to be surrounded by spaces. Usually this resource is off which means that no spaces are required around the equality sign and they can be omitted if the alignment forces it.

The resource values described above are illustrated by the following examples. First we look at a string entry.

@STRING{macro   = "This is a rather long replacement text which exceeds one
                  line"}
                  |                                                        |
                  | print.align.string                   print.line.length |

Next we look at an unpublished entry. It has a rather long list of authors and a long title. It shows how the lines are broken.

                  | print.align.key
                  | 
@Unpublished{     unpublished-key,
  author        = "First A. U. Thor and Seco N. D. Author and Third A. Uthor
                  and others",
  title         = "This is a rather long title of an unpublished entry which
                  exceeds one line",
  note          = "Some useless comment"
}
  |               |                                                        |
  | print.indent  | print.align                          print.line.length |

When macros are expanded the delimiters of entries are normalized, i.e. only one style is used. The default is to usee braces The alternative would be to use double quotes. This behavior is controlled by the resource print.braces. If this resource is on then braces are used otherwise double quotes are taken. It can be changed like in

print.braces = OFF

The delimiters of the whole entry are recommended to be braces. For compatibility with Scribe it is also allowed that parentheses are used for those delimiters. This behavior can be achieved with the boolean resource print.parentheses. Initially this resource is off. It can be set like in the following instruction:

print.parentheses = ON

The field names of an entry are usually printed in lower case. This can be changed with the resource new.field.type. The argument of this resource is an equation where left of the '=' sign is the name of a field and on the right side is it's print name. They should only contain allowed characters.

new.field.type { author = AUTHOR }

This feature can be used to rewrite the field types. Thus it is completely legal to have a different replacement text than the original field:

new.field.type { OPTauthor = Author }

String names are used case insensitive by BibTeX. BibTool normalizes string names before printing. By default string names are translated to lower case. Currently two other types are supported: translation to upper case and translation to capitalized case, i.e. the first letter upper case and the others in lower case.

The translation is controlled by the resource symbol.type. The value is one of the strings lower, upper, and cased. The resource can be set as in

symbol.type = upper

The reference key is usually translated to lower case letters unless a new key is generated (see section Key Generation). In this case the chosen format determines the case of the key. Sometimes it can be desirable to preserve the case of the key as given (even so BibTeX does not mind). This can be achieved with the boolean resource preserve.key.case. Usually it is turned off (because of backward compatibility and the memory used for this feature). You can turn it on as in

preserve.key.case = on

If it is turned on then the keys as they are read are recorded and used when printing the entries. The internal comparisons are performed case insensitive. This is not influenced by the resource preserve.key.case. Especially this holds for sorting which does not recognize differences in case.

Summary

BibTool Manual Reference Manual Parsing and Pretty Printing