
This article header:

> Subject: It's hard to edit Ada comments and then reformat (FILL) them

in comp.lang.ada, prompted me to finally send what I consider to be one of
the most useful tools in my toolbox  ...  the article contains the full
sources for wp(1) - a simple programmer's text formatter.  As well as
handling normal text it also knows about comments in programs.  For the
first time you can edit your comments (in almost any language), and get
them reformatted easily and neatly afterwards.  How about changing:
   /* this is a lump of comment     */
   /* text that has been horribly hacked about and
   /* changed */
into this:
   /* this is a lump of comment text that has been horribly      */
   /* hacked about and changed                                   */
easily?  Or this:
   -- this is a comment
   -- which looks pretty untidy, but can be made 
   -- to look nicer
into this:
   -- this is a comment which looks pretty untidy,
   -- but can be made to look nicer

Like it?  Then wp(1) is the thing for you!  It runs on both Ultrix
and System V machines.  I suppose this will qualify it for most
Unices, since it does nothing especially non portable.  The source
bears marks of its stepwise development (ie no serious design!) but
the result is pretty handy anyway.


