
			riptangle
			2002-10-24

Introduction
------------

riptangle is a quick hack written in perl to extract a readable
Pascal program from a WEB source file. From the extracted Pascal
program, a person can then see the WEB program in the form of a
commented Pascal program. Please note that the objective is not
to produce compilable Pascal code, but a listing for reading.
In order to output compilable code, a little bit more work would
be required.

Files
-----

ARTISTIC	Artistic License
COPYING		GNU Public License
README		This file
ChangeLog	Update notes
web.txt		WEB file format summary
riptangle.pl	The script

Missing
-------

riptangle does not substitute definition macros and format macros
into the main code body, because it is frequently easier to read
identifier names rather than numbers.

Also not implemented is proper input stream tokenizing, comment
recognition, brace balancing, processing of old comments (* *)
and (. .), recognition of Pascal single-quoted strings. Many of
these are simply passed on without processing.

Description
-----------

I've tried to write riptangle in a way that is as easy to follow
as possible. perl short forms are frequently discarded in favour
of a longer, unambiguous form. Also, it is hacked directly on
keyboard, with only a skeleton as a guide, so I have opted for
clarity and coding ease instead of efficiency.

riptangle may be overloaded with comments, but it goes with my
flow of thought while coding. It is best read on an editor with
colour syntax highlighting.

In Window$, you can run it in a command line window using the
following convention:

	perl riptangle.pl filename[.web]

Testing
-------

This program has only been tested with tangle.tex.

Feedback and Contact
--------------------

The original can always be downloaded from the home site:
http://www.geocities.com/keinhong/riptangle/

Bug reports can be sent to mkh@pl.jaring.my. I spend only very
limited time online, so please do not expect a very quick
response from me.

I would also like to stay away from discussions and flames.
My average time online is less than 1 hour a day, so I cannot
afford to spend the time to answer everything. Doubtless
everyone has their unique set of beliefs and methods, and I
respect them all.

License
-------

This is free software. You may distribute this under the
terms of either the GNU General Public License or the Artistic
License, as specified in the ARTISTIC file and the COPYING file.

Acknowledgements
----------------

Tangle and its files comes from Donald Knuth, ably supported by
the good people of CTAN. *genuflect* *genuflect* *genuflect*

ARTISTIC comes from perl, thanks to all the developers,
especially Larry Wall. *genuflect* *genuflect* *genuflect*

COPYING comes from the FSF, thanks to Richard Stallman.
*genuflect* *genuflect* *genuflect*

DJ Delorie for DJGPP, on which I developed the script.
*genuflect* *genuflect* *genuflect*

Alan Philips for PFE, still the best Window$ text editor.
*genuflect* *genuflect* *genuflect*

Ferdinand Prantl for EditPad, which I use when I need colour
syntax highlighting. *genuflect* *genuflect* *genuflect*



mkh@pl.jaring.my
Man Kein Hong
Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia


