Provided by: tcllib_1.15-dfsg-2_all bug

NAME

       textutil - Procedures to manipulate texts and strings.

SYNOPSIS

       package require Tcl  8.2

       package require textutil  ?0.7.1?

       ::textutil::adjust string args

       ::textutil::adjust::readPatterns filename

       ::textutil::adjust::listPredefined

       ::textutil::adjust::getPredefined filename

       ::textutil::indent string prefix ?skip?

       ::textutil::undent string

       ::textutil::splitn string ?len?

       ::textutil::splitx string ?regexp?

       ::textutil::tabify string ?num?

       ::textutil::tabify2 string ?num?

       ::textutil::trim string ?regexp?

       ::textutil::trimleft string ?regexp?

       ::textutil::trimright string ?regexp?

       ::textutil::trimPrefix string prefix

       ::textutil::trimEmptyHeading string

       ::textutil::untabify string ?num?

       ::textutil::untabify2 string ?num?

       ::textutil::strRepeat text num

       ::textutil::blank num

       ::textutil::chop string

       ::textutil::tail string

       ::textutil::cap string

       ::textutil::uncap string

       ::textutil::longestCommonPrefixList list

       ::textutil::longestCommonPrefix ?string...?

_________________________________________________________________

DESCRIPTION

       The  package  textutil  provides  commands  that  manipulate strings or texts (a.k.a. long
       strings or string with  embedded  newlines  or  paragraphs).   It  is  actually  a  bundle
       providing the commands of the six packages

       textutil::adjust

       textutil::repeat

       textutil::split

       textutil::string

       textutil::tabify

       textutil::trim

       in the namespace textutil.

       The  bundle is deprecated, and it will be removed in a future release of Tcllib, after the
       next release. It is recommended to use the relevant  sub  packages  instead  for  whatever
       functionality is needed by the using package or application.

       The complete set of procedures is described below.

       ::textutil::adjust string args
              Do a justification on the string according to args.  The string is taken as one big
              paragraph, ignoring any newlines.  Then the line  is  formatted  according  to  the
              options  used, and the command return a new string with enough lines to contain all
              the printable chars in the input string. A line is  a  set  of  chars  between  the
              beginning  of the string and a newline, or between 2 newlines, or between a newline
              and the end of the string. If the input string is small enough, the returned string
              won't contain any newlines.

              Together  with  ::textutil::indent  it  is  possible  to  create  properly  wrapped
              paragraphs with arbitrary indentations.

              By default, any occurrence of spaces characters or tabulation  are  replaced  by  a
              single  space  so each word in a line is separated from the next one by exactly one
              space char, and this forms a real line. Each real line is placed in a logical line,
              which  have  exactly  a  given length (see -length option below). The real line may
              have a lesser length. Again by default, any  trailing  spaces  are  ignored  before
              returning  the  string  (see -full option below). The following options may be used
              after the string parameter, and change the way the command place a real line  in  a
              logical line.

              -full boolean
                     If  set  to false, any trailing space chars are deleted before returning the
                     string. If set to true, any trailing space chars are  left  in  the  string.
                     Default to false.

              -hyphenate boolean
                     if  set to false, no hyphenation will be done. If set to true, the last word
                     of a line is tried to be hyphenated.  Defaults to false.  Note:  hyphenation
                     patterns     must     be     loaded     prior,     using     the     command
                     ::textutil::adjust::readPatterns.

              -justify center|left|plain|right
                     Set the justification of the returned  string  to  center,  left,  plain  or
                     right. By default, it is set to left.  The justification means that any line
                     in the returned string but the last one is build according to the value.  If
                     the  justification  is set to plain and the number of printable chars in the
                     last line is less than 90% of the length of a line (see -length), then  this
                     line  is  justified with the left value, avoiding the expansion of this line
                     when it is too small. The meaning of each value is:

                     center The real line is centered in the logical line. If needed,  a  set  of
                            space  characters are added at the beginning (half of the needed set)
                            and at the end (half of the needed set) of the line if required  (see
                            the option -full).

                     left   The  real  line is set on the left of the logical line. It means that
                            there are no space chars at the beginning of this line. If  required,
                            all  needed  space  chars  are  added at the end of the line (see the
                            option -full).

                     plain  The real line is exactly set in the logical line. It means that there
                            are  no  leading  or trailing space chars. All the needed space chars
                            are added in the real line, between 2 (or more) words.

                     right  The real line is set on the right of the logical line. It means  that
                            there  are  no  space chars at the end of this line, and there may be
                            some space chars at the beginning, despite of the -full option.

              -length integer
                     Set the length of the logical line in the string to integer.   integer  must
                     be a positive integer value. Defaults to 72.

              -strictlength boolean
                     If set to false, a line can exceed the specified -length if a single word is
                     longer than -length. If set to true, words that are longer than -length  are
                     split so that no line exceeds the specified -length. Defaults to false.

       ::textutil::adjust::readPatterns filename
              Loads  the  internal storage for hyphenation patterns with the contents of the file
              filename. This has to be done prior  to  calling  command  ::textutil::adjust  with
              "-hyphenate true", or the hyphenation process will not work correctly.

              The  package  comes  with  a  number  of  predefined pattern files, and the command
              ::textutil::adjust::listPredefined can be used to find out their names.

       ::textutil::adjust::listPredefined
              This command returns a list containing the names of the  hyphenation  files  coming
              with this package.

       ::textutil::adjust::getPredefined filename
              Use  this  command  to  query the package for the full path name of the hyphenation
              file filename coming with the  package.  Only  the  filenames  found  in  the  list
              returned   by  ::textutil::adjust::listPredefined  are  legal  arguments  for  this
              command.

       ::textutil::indent string prefix ?skip?
              Each line in the string indented by adding the string prefix at its beginning.  The
              modified string is returned as the result of the command.

              If  skip is specified the first skip lines are left untouched. The default for skip
              is 0, causing the modification of all lines. Negative values for skip  are  treated
              like 0. In other words, skip > 0 creates a hanging indentation.

              Together  with  ::textutil::adjust  it  is  possible  to  create  properly  wrapped
              paragraphs with arbitrary indentations.

       ::textutil::undent string
              The command computes the common prefix for all lines in  string  consisting  solely
              out of whitespace, removes this from each line and returns the modified string.

              Lines containing only whitespace are always reduced to completely empty lines. They
              and empty lines are also ignored when computing the prefix to remove.

              Together  with  ::textutil::adjust  it  is  possible  to  create  properly  wrapped
              paragraphs with arbitrary indentations.

       ::textutil::splitn string ?len?
              This  command  splits  the given string into chunks of len characters and returns a
              list containing these chunks. The argument len defaults to 1 if none is  specified.
              A  negative  length  is  not  allowed and will cause the command to throw an error.
              Providing an empty string as input is allowed, the  command  will  then  return  an
              empty  list.  If  the  length  of the string is not an entire multiple of the chunk
              length, then the last chunk in the generated list will be shorter than len.

       ::textutil::splitx string ?regexp?
              Split the string and return a list. The string is split according  to  the  regular
              expression  regexp  instead  of  a  simple  list  of  chars.  Note  that if you add
              parenthesis into the regexp, the parentheses part of separator would be added  into
              list  as  additional  element. If the string is empty the result is the empty list,
              like for split. If regexp is empty the string is split  at  every  character,  like
              split does.  The regular expression regexp defaults to "[\\t \\r\\n]+".

       ::textutil::tabify string ?num?
              Tabify the string by replacing any substring of num space chars by a tabulation and
              return the result as a new string. num defaults to 8.

       ::textutil::tabify2 string ?num?
              Similar to ::textutil::tabify this command tabifies  the  string  and  returns  the
              result as a new string. A different algorithm is used however. Instead of replacing
              any substring of num spaces this command works more like an editor. num defaults to
              8.

              Each  line  of  the  text  in  string is treated as if there are tabstops every num
              columns. Only  sequences  of  space  characters  containing  more  than  one  space
              character and found immediately before a tabstop are replaced with tabs.

       ::textutil::trim string ?regexp?
              Remove  in  string  any  leading  and  trailing  substring according to the regular
              expression regexp and return the result as a new string.  This apply on any line in
              the string, that is any substring between 2 newline chars, or between the beginning
              of the string and a newline, or between a newline and the end of the string, or, if
              the  string  contain  no  newline, between the beginning and the end of the string.
              The regular expression regexp defaults to "[ \\t]+".

       ::textutil::trimleft string ?regexp?
              Remove in string any leading substring according to the regular  expression  regexp
              and  return  the result as a new string. This apply on any line in the string, that
              is any substring between 2 newline chars, or between the beginning  of  the  string
              and  a  newline,  or between a newline and the end of the string, or, if the string
              contain no newline, between the beginning and the end of the string.   The  regular
              expression regexp defaults to "[ \\t]+".

       ::textutil::trimright string ?regexp?
              Remove  in string any trailing substring according to the regular expression regexp
              and return the result as a new string. This apply on any line in the  string,  that
              is  any  substring  between 2 newline chars, or between the beginning of the string
              and a newline, or between a newline and the end of the string, or,  if  the  string
              contain  no  newline, between the beginning and the end of the string.  The regular
              expression regexp defaults to "[ \\t]+".

       ::textutil::trimPrefix string prefix
              Removes the prefix from the beginning of string and returns the result. The  string
              is left unchanged if it doesn't have prefix at its beginning.

       ::textutil::trimEmptyHeading string
              Looks  for  empty  lines  (including  lines  consisting  of only whitespace) at the
              beginning of the string and removes it. The modified  string  is  returned  as  the
              result of the command.

       ::textutil::untabify string ?num?
              Untabify  the  string  by replacing any tabulation char by a substring of num space
              chars and return the result as a new string. num defaults to 8.

       ::textutil::untabify2 string ?num?
              Untabify the string by replacing any tabulation char by a substring of at most  num
              space  chars  and return the result as a new string. Unlike textutil::untabify each
              tab is not replaced by a fixed number of space characters.   The  command  overlays
              each  line  in the string with tabstops every num columns instead and replaces tabs
              with just enough space characters to reach the next tabstop. This is the complement
              of the actions taken by ::textutil::tabify2. num defaults to 8.

              There  is  one asymmetry though: A tab can be replaced with a single space, but not
              the other way around.

       ::textutil::strRepeat text num
              The implementation depends on the core executing the package. Used string repeat if
              it  is  present,  or  a  fast  tcl  implementation  if  it is not. Returns a string
              containing the  text  repeated  num  times.  The  repetitions  are  joined  without
              characters  between them. A value of num <= 0 causes the command to return an empty
              string.

       ::textutil::blank num
              A convenience command. Returns a string of num spaces.

       ::textutil::chop string
              A convenience command. Removes  the  last  character  of  string  and  returns  the
              shortened string.

       ::textutil::tail string
              A  convenience  command.  Removes  the  first  character  of string and returns the
              shortened string.

       ::textutil::cap string
              Capitalizes the first character of string and returns the modified string.

       ::textutil::uncap string
              The complementary operation to  ::textutil::cap.  Forces  the  first  character  of
              string to lower case and returns the modified string.

       ::textutil::longestCommonPrefixList list

       ::textutil::longestCommonPrefix ?string...?
              Computes  the longest common prefix for either the strings given to the command, or
              the strings specified in the single list, and returns  it  as  the  result  of  the
              command.

              If  no  strings  were specified the result is the empty string.  If only one string
              was specified, the string itself is returned, as  it  is  its  own  longest  common
              prefix.

BUGS, IDEAS, FEEDBACK

       This  document,  and  the  package  it  describes, will undoubtedly contain bugs and other
       problems.  Please report  such  in  the  category  textutil  of  the  Tcllib  SF  Trackers
       [http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=12883].    Please  also  report  any  ideas  for
       enhancements you may have for either package and/or documentation.

SEE ALSO

       regexp(3tcl), split(3tcl), string(3tcl)

KEYWORDS

       TeX, formatting, hyphenation, indenting, paragraph, regular expression, string, trimming

CATEGORY

       Text processing