Directory support/de-macro

Copyright 2005 Peter Gacs
Licensed under the Academic Free Licence version 2.1

                          DE-MACRO

Version 1.4	 - Luca Citi made it python2.7 and python3 compatible.
			   Peter Gacs improved the parsing of \input{<filename>},
			   and made @ a letter in the style files.
Version 1.3 - this version is much more conservative about deleting
              comments and inserting or deleting blank space: tries to
              leave in all comments, adds space only when necessary, and
              tries not to delete space in the main text.
              The motivating comments came from Daniel Webb.
Version 1.2 - a syntactical bug corrected, thanks Brian de Alwis!


PURPOSE

This program can eliminate most private macros from a LaTeX file.
Applications:
  - your publisher has difficulty dealing with many private macros
  - you cooperate with colleagues who do not understand your macros
  - preprocessing before a system like latex2html, which is somewhat
    unpredictable with private macros.

PLATFORM

This is a Python program, which I only have tried to run under Unix.  But
the Unix dependence is minimal (for example all the directory path
references are platform-independent).  It should be easy to adapt the
program to Windows, and also to avoid command-line arguments.

In case your Python is not in /usr/bin, you should change the
top line (the "shebang" line) of the program accordingly.
This top line uses the -O option for python (stands for "optimize").
Without it, the program may run too slowly.  If you do not care for speed,
a number of other complications (the database, the checking for newer
versions) could be eliminated.

USAGE

Warning: this documentation contains "less" and "greater" signs.
Important information is lost when it is displayed as html.
Click directly on the README file instead!

Command line:

de-macro [--defs <defs-db>] <tex-file-1>[.tex] [<tex-file-2>[.tex] ...]

Simplest example:    de-macro testament

(As you see, the <> is used only in the notation of this documentation,
you do should not type it.)

If <tex-file-i> contains a command \usepackage{<defs-file>-private}
then the file <defs-file>-private.sty will be read, and its macros will be
replaced  in <tex-file-i> with their definitions.
The result is in <tex-file-i>-clean.tex.

Only newcommand, renewcommand, newenvironment, and renewenvironment are
understood (it does not matter, whether you write new or renew).
These can be nested but do not be too clever, since I do not
guarantee the same expansion order as in TeX.

FILES

<tex-file-1>.db
<tex-file>-clean.tex
<defs-file>-private.sty

For speed, a macro database file called <defs-file>.db is created.
If such a file exists already then it is used.
If <defs-file>-private.sty is older than <tex-file-1>.db then it will not
be used.

It is possible to specify another database filename via --defs <defs-db>.
Then <defs-db>.db will be used.

(Warning: with some Python versions and/or Unix platforms, the database
file name conventions may be different from what is said here.)

For each <tex-file-i>, a file <tex-file-i>-clean.tex will be produced.
If <tex-file-i>-clean.tex is newer than <tex-file-i>.tex then it stays.

INPUT COMMAND

If a tex file contains a command \input{<tex-file-j>} or \input <tex-file-j>
then <tex-file-j>.tex is processed recursively, and <tex-file-j>-clean.tex
will be inserted into the final output.
For speed, if <tex-file-j>-clean.tex is newer than <tex-file-j>.tex
then <tex-file-j>.tex will not be reprocessed.

The dependency checking is not sophisticated, so if you rewrite some macros
then remove all *-clean.tex files!