Thomas Heller wrote this on Thu, Nov 30, 2006 at 09:50:25PM +0100. My reply is below.
> The two things that bother me at the moment are how the comments are > formatted (dunno if that can be customized or changed easily), and > it would be good if the script took command line args instead of > working as a filter only. Thank you for trying PythonTidy. o Command-line args: Please give an example of a standard command that I might emulate w.r.t. standard argument use. o Comments: Input is parsed twice: I use *tokenize.generate_tokens* to extract the comments and *compiler.parse* to generate the Abstract Syntax Tree (AST). Other applications usually use the AST to generate bytecode, so it contains no information about comments. The tokens list identifies keywords (and comments and some whitespace) but doesn't group them into statements. I need both: comments *and* functional grouping. Fortunately both the AST and the tokens list carry line numbers to reference the source. Unfortunately the AST line numbers are relative to functional groups and do not necessarily apply to the particular keywords that introduce each group. This makes fixing the position of comments relative to reconstructed code a bit of a challenge. For example, when a comment has a line number in the beginning/ending range of what would normally be considered one command, I have to assume it is an inline comment regardless of how it may have appeared in the original code. Out-of-line comments should appear pretty much as they did in the original code, however. Can you provide an example where they do not? Would you prefer that they be left justified or wrapped? >-~ Doc strings (for modules, class declarations, and functions) are another matter. PythonTidy should not mess with them (unless LEFTJUST_DOC_STRINGS is True). They should appear exactly as originally written. I was taught that code ought to be self documenting and that comments more often than not diminish readability by padding the code beyond what can be comprehended on one page (screen). I use them only minimally and am not greatly inconvenienced when they are moved around a little. -- .. Chuck Rhode, Sheboygan, WI, USA .. Weather: http://LacusVeris.com/WX .. 21° — Wind N 8 mph -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
