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-rw-r--r--doc/user/cpp_tabs34
1 files changed, 19 insertions, 15 deletions
diff --git a/doc/user/cpp_tabs b/doc/user/cpp_tabs
index 1157a51..3a04bfa 100644
--- a/doc/user/cpp_tabs
+++ b/doc/user/cpp_tabs
@@ -1,28 +1,31 @@
@Section
- @Title { Tab characters }
+ @Title { Dealing with tab characters in programs }
@Tag { tabs }
@Begin
@PP
-Tab characters provide a convenient way to indent and align parts of C
-tab.c @Index { tab characters in C programs }
-programs. With care, this alignment can be preserved in the final
+Tab characters provide a convenient way to indent and align parts of
+tab.c @Index { tab characters in programs }
+computer programs. With care, this alignment can be preserved in the final
print even with varying-width fonts.
@PP
-The distance between two tab stops in the input file is by default taken
+The distance between two tab stops in the program text is by default taken
to be 8 characters, which is standard for Unix. This can be changed with
the @Code "tabin" option. For example,
@ID @Code "@CP tabin { 4 }"
-informs Lout that tab stops occur every 4 characters in the input file.
+informs Lout that tab stops occur every 4 characters in the program
+text. All the symbols ({@Code "@CP"}, {@Code "@Eiffel"}, etc.) and
+their setup files have this option and the next; but to save repetition
+we will stick with C for the rest of this section.
@PP
-The distance between two tab stops in the output file (on the printed
-page) is quite a different thing, and it is determined by the value of
-the @Code "tabout" option, which must be a Lout length. For example,
+The distance between two tab stops on the printed page is quite a different
+thing, and it is determined by the value of the @Code "tabout" option, which
+must be a Lout length. For example,
@ID @Code "@CP tabout { 0.5i }"
requests that tab stops be placed at half-inch intervals. In other
-words, a distance of one tab stop in the input will be equivalent to a
-distance of half an inch in the output. For example,
+words, a distance of one tab stop in the program text will be equivalent to a
+distance of half an inch on the printed page. For example,
@ID @Code "@CP style { varying } tabout { 3f }"
-might produce the following, where tab characters in the input file
+might produce the following, where tab characters in the program text
have been used for indenting and also to align the comments:
@ID @OneRow @CP style { varying } tabout { 3f } {
struct tnode { /* the basic node */
@@ -37,7 +40,7 @@ it is the default value of @Code "tabout" for the @Code { varying }
and @Code { symbol } styles (Section {@NumberOf cpsetup}). In a
12 point font this is 36 points, or half an inch.
@PP
-If @Code "tabout" is made too small, there is a danger that the
+If @Code "tabout" is too small, there is a danger that the
alignment might fail. For example,
@ID @Code "@CP style { varying } tabout { 0.2i }"
produces
@@ -56,7 +59,8 @@ wider than this. This causes @CP { /* } to be shifted further to the
right than expected, and the alignment is lost. The only solution is
to increase {@Code "tabout"}.
@PP
-In stand-alone mode there are @Code "-t" and @Code "-T" options
-equivalent to @Code "tabin" and @Code "tabout" respectively. For
+When typesetting computer program texts independently of any document,
+there are @Code "-t" and @Code "-T" options to the @Code "prg2lout"
+program equivalent to @Code "tabin" and @Code "tabout" respectively. For
example, @Code "-T0.5i" produces a half-inch tab width.
@End @Section