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<!DOCTYPE erlref SYSTEM "erlref.dtd">

<erlref>
  <header>
    <copyright>
      <year>1996</year>
      <year>2012</year>
      <holder>Ericsson AB, All Rights Reserved</holder>
    </copyright>
    <legalnotice>
  The contents of this file are subject to the Erlang Public License,
  Version 1.1, (the "License"); you may not use this file except in
  compliance with the License. You should have received a copy of the
  Erlang Public License along with this software. If not, it can be
  retrieved online at http://www.erlang.org/.

  Software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS"
  basis, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See
  the License for the specific language governing rights and limitations
  under the License.

  The Initial Developer of the Original Code is Ericsson AB.
    </legalnotice>

    <title>erl_pp</title>
    <prepared>Robert Virding</prepared>
    <responsible>Bjarne D&auml;cker</responsible>
    <docno>1</docno>
    <approved>Bjarne D&auml;cker</approved>
    <checked></checked>
    <date>97-01-24</date>
    <rev>B</rev>
    <file>erl_pp.sgml</file>
  </header>
  <module>erl_pp</module>
  <modulesummary>The Erlang Pretty Printer</modulesummary>
  <description>
    <p>The functions in this module are used to generate
      aesthetically attractive representations of abstract
      forms, which are suitable for printing. All functions return (possibly deep)
      lists of characters and generate an error if the form is wrong.</p>
    <p>All functions can have an optional argument which specifies a hook
      that is called if an attempt is made to print an unknown form.</p>
  </description>
  <datatypes>
    <datatype>
      <name name="hook_function"/>
      <desc>
        <p>The optional argument <marker id="hook_function">
          <c>HookFunction</c></marker>, shown in the functions described below,
          defines a function which is called when an unknown form occurs where there
          should be a valid expression.</p>

        <p>If <c>HookFunction</c> is equal to <c>none</c> there is no hook
           function.</p>

        <p>The called hook function should return a (possibly deep) list
          of characters. <seealso marker="#expr/4"><c>expr/4</c></seealso>
          is useful in a hook.
          </p>
        <p>If <c><anno>CurrentIndentation</anno></c> is negative, there will be no line
          breaks and only a space is used as a separator.</p>
      </desc>
    </datatype>
    <datatype>
      <name name="option"/>
    </datatype>
    <datatype>
      <name name="options"/>
    </datatype>
  </datatypes>
  <funcs>
    <func>
      <name name="form" arity="1"/>
      <name name="form" arity="2"/>
      <fsummary>Pretty print a form</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>Pretty prints a 
          <c><anno>Form</anno></c> which is an abstract form of a type which is
          returned by <seealso marker="erl_parse#parse_form/1">
          <c>erl_parse:parse_form/1</c></seealso>.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="attribute" arity="1"/>
      <name name="attribute" arity="2"/>
      <fsummary>Pretty print an attribute</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>The same as <c>form</c>, but only for the attribute
          <c><anno>Attribute</anno></c>.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="function" arity="1"/>
      <name name="function" arity="2"/>
      <fsummary>Pretty print a function</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>The same as <c>form</c>, but only for the function
          <c><anno>Function</anno></c>.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="guard" arity="1"/>
      <name name="guard" arity="2"/>
      <fsummary>Pretty print a guard</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>The same as <c>form</c>, but only for the guard test
          <c><anno>Guard</anno></c>.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="exprs" arity="1"/>
      <name name="exprs" arity="2"/>
      <name name="exprs" arity="3"/>
      <fsummary>Pretty print <c>Expressions</c></fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>The same as <c>form</c>, but only for the sequence of
          expressions in <c><anno>Expressions</anno></c>.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="expr" arity="1"/>
      <name name="expr" arity="2"/>
      <name name="expr" arity="3"/>
      <name name="expr" arity="4"/>
      <fsummary>Pretty print one <c>Expression</c></fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>This function prints one expression. It is useful for implementing hooks (see below).</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
  </funcs>

  <section>
    <title>Bugs</title>
    <p>It should be possible to have hook functions for unknown forms
      at places other than expressions.</p>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>See Also</title>
    <p><seealso marker="io">io(3)</seealso>,
      <seealso marker="erl_parse">erl_parse(3)</seealso>,
      <seealso marker="erl_eval">erl_eval(3)</seealso></p>
  </section>
</erlref>

