Pretty-Printing Modules

You can create and view a pretty-printed PDF (Portable Document Format) version of a module.  Just view the module in a module editor and select  File/Produce PDF Version.  However, to do this, you must have the  pdflatex  program installed.  This program is distributed with most versions of  LaTeX  and  TeX.  A popular source of TeX for PCs is  MiKTeX.

The Toolbox runs  pdflatex  to produce a PDF file with the same name as the module, but with the extension  .pdf.  It displays this file in a separate page of the module editor, using your computer's default browser to display the PDF file.  (If the browser doesn't have a plug-in that displays PDF files, you can find one on the web.)  You can switch between the editable ASCII version of the module and the PDF version by clicking on the appropriate tab in the lower-left corner.  Changes made to the module are not automatically made to the PDF version.  To see them, you must create the PDF version again.

On Windows 7 and perhaps other operating systems, the PDF version is displayed outside the Toolbox in a separate window.  That window must be closed before you can create a new pretty-printed version.  We have not yet figured out how to solve this problem.

There are things you can do to help the pretty printer produce better output. They are described in the Helping the Pretty-Printer help page.

Preferences

The  PDF Viewer Preferences  page on the  File/Preferences  menu provides the following options:

Use built-in PDF viewer

By default, the PDF file is displayed using your system's default PDF viewer.  This option causes the Toolbox instead to use its own built-in viewer.  On some systems, the default viewer displays the PDF file in a separate window that you must close before you can generate a new version of the file.  If that is not what you want to happen, choose this option.  The built-in viewer does not yet provide a toolbar.  You can navigate with the Page Up and Page Down keys.  Use the + and - keys to zoom in and out.

Shade comments

Comments are shaded in gray.  This is the default.  The darkness of the shading is specified by the Specify gray level option.  This must be a number between 0.0 (completely black) and 1.0 (no shading).  The default is 0.85.

Note that comments within comments are not shown in the PDF view.  The one exception is that comments to PlusCal code are shown (even though they and the PlusCal code appear in a comment).

Do not shade PlusCal code

A PlusCal algorithm appears in a comment, so shading comments normally causes PlusCal code to be shaded.  This option causes PlusCal code not to be shaded. (The code's comments are still shaded.)

Number lines

Number lines in the PDF output.  (This is independent of the line-numbering option for the module editor.)  The default is unnumbered lines.

Specify pdflatex command

This is the command with which the Toolbox calls  pdflatex  to produce the pretty-printed version.  The default value  pdflatex  should work if the  pdflatex  program is installed on your computer.  However, if it is not properly installed, you may have to prefix it with the path name of the program's directory.

Specify gray level

See the Shade comments option above.


Subtopics
Helping the Pretty-Printer
↑ Managing Your Specifications