To prettyprint (or pretty-print) is to present an object to a human reader, so that it is easier to perceive the object's structure, or, less commonly, to simply make it more attractive. A prettyprinter is a program that prettyprints. Prettyprinters for programming language source code are sometimes called code beautifiers.

Pretty-printing mathematics

Pretty-printing usually refers to displaying mathematical expressions in a way that is similar to the way they are typeset professionally. For example, in computer algebra systems the system may write output like x ^ 2 + 3 * x as x² + 3x. Mathematical pretty-printing is done by interactive numerical calculation programs such as Octave or MATLAB; by computer algebra systems such as Maxima or Mathematica; and by some graphing calculators, such as the TI-89, or the TI-83 Plus with the PrettyPt add-on. A computer algebra system (CAS) is a software program that facilitates symbolic mathematics. ... In music, an octave (sometimes abbreviated 8ve or 8va) is the interval between one musical note and another with half or double the frequency. ... MATLAB is a numerical computing environment and programming language. ... A computer algebra system (CAS) is a software program that facilitates symbolic mathematics. ... For other uses of Maxima, see Maxima (disambiguation). ... This article is about computer software. ... A graphing calculator is a special kind of scientific/engineering calculator that is able to display and/or analyze mathematical function graphs. ... The TI-89 and the TI-89 Titanium are graphing calculators developed by Texas Instruments. ... The TI-83 series graphing calculators are manufactured by Texas Instruments. ...

There is a web service free and usable by all web sites: PrettyPrint

Many text formatting programs can also typeset mathematics: TeX was developed specifically for high-quality mathematical typesetting. The TeX mascot, by Duane Bibby , written as TeX in plain text, is a typesetting system created by Donald Knuth. ...

Code formatting and beautification

Programmers often use tools to format their source code in a particular manner. Proper code formatting makes it easier to read and understand. Moreover, often different programmers have different preferred styles of formatting, such as the use of code indentation and whitespace or positioning of braces. A code formatter converts source code from one format style to another. This is relatively straightforward because of the unambiguous syntax of programming languages. Code beautification involves parsing the source code into component structures, such as assignment statements, if blocks, loops, etc. (see also control flow), and formatting them in a manner specified by the user in a configuration file. Source code (commonly just source or code) is any series of statements written in some human-readable computer programming language. ... English An indentation can mean two things: To make notches in something or form deep recesses in a coastline for instance. ... A programming language is an artificial language that can be used to control the behavior of a machine (often a computer). ... In computer science and in computer programming, statements in pseudocode or in a program are normally obeyed one after the other in the order in which they are written (sequential flow of control). ... In computer science control flow (or alternatively, flow of control) refers to the order in which the individual statements or instructions of an imperative program are performed or executed. ...

There exist both standalone code beautifiers and built in ones in integrated development environments (IDEs). For example, Microsoft Visual Studio's source code editor does some limited code formatting like indenting blocks of code inside of braces properly. An integrated development environment (IDE), also known as integrated design environment and integrated debugging environment, is a type of computer software that assists computer programmers to develop software. ... An integrated development environment (IDE), also known as integrated design environment and integrated debugging environment, is a type of computer software that assists computer programmers to develop software. ... Microsoft Visual Studio is an advanced integrated development environment by Microsoft. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... English An indentation can mean two things: To make notches in something or form deep recesses in a coastline for instance. ...

An early example of pretty-printing was Bill Gosper's "GRIND" program, which used combinatorial search with pruning to format LISP programs. The term "grind" was used in some Lisp circles as a synonym for pretty-printing. R. William Gosper, Jr. ... Combinatorial optimization is a branch of optimization in applied mathematics and computer science, related to operations research, algorithm theory and computational complexity theory. ... Lisp is a family of computer programming languages with a long history and a distinctive fully-parenthesized syntax. ...

Example of formatting and beautifying code

 int foo(int k) { if(k==11) printf("hellon"); else printf("good byen"); } 

 int foo(int k) { if( k==11 ) printf("hellon"); else printf("good byen"); } 

 int foo(int k){if(k==11)printf("hellon");else printf("good byen");} 

These three C programs mean the same thing and parse in exactly the same manner since they consist of the same sequence of tokens, differing only in whitespace. Example 1 reflects one preference, example 2 another one, and example 3 is another style which some might find less easy to read. A code beautifier will convert any of these into a format preferred by the programmer. Wikibooks has a book on the topic of C Programming The C programming language (often, just C) is a general-purpose, procedural, imperative computer programming language developed in the early 1970s by Dennis Ritchie for use on the Unix operating system. ... In computer science, parsing is the process of analyzing an input sequence (read from a file or a keyboard, for example) in order to determine its grammatical structure with respect to a given formal grammar. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Tokenizing. ... For information on the programming language Whitespace, see Whitespace programming language. ...

Text formatting

Text formatting can be considered a generalized form of pretty-printing. A word processor (also more formally known as a document preparation system) is a computer application used for the production (including composition, editing, formatting, and possibly printing) of any sort of viewable or printed material. ...

Pretty printers

• indent
• enscript, a general text printing tool with prettyprinting functions
• PHP Code Beautifier, an online tool
• PHP formatter, another online PHP formatter
• Beautify PHP, GPLed software, designed to reformat and beautify PHP source code files
• Artistic Style, reformatter and reindenter of C++, C and Java source code
• SourceStyler C++, C and C++ source code beautifier
• GC GreatCode, C and C++ source code beautifier
• PrettyPrinter, an Open Source beautifier for every programming language
• HTML Tidy
• HTMLTrim
• HTMLParser
• XML Pretty Printer
• XML Pretty Printer Online, an online version of the XML Pretty Printer
• Hindent
• Perltidy, a reformatter and reindenter for Perl