A CLI utility to reformat text.
prose
is inspired by par, and aims to be similar, albeit with fewer
features, while also being Unicode-aware.
Download the latest release for your platform, extract, and put the
prose
binary wherever you’d like.
NOTE that on recent versions of Mac OS, you may need to un-quarantine the downloaded binary for it to run. To do so:
xattr -d com.apple.quarantine path/to/prose
If you’re a Rust programmer, prose can be installed with cargo. Note that the minimum supported version of Rust for prose is 1.38.0, although it may work with older versions.
cargo install prose
Given the following input, a quote by Angela Davis, on STDIN:
I believe profoundly in the possibilities of democracy, but democracy needs to be emancipated from capitalism. As long as we inhabit a capitalist democracy, a future of racial equality, gender equality, economic equality will elude us.
let’s look at some invocations and their output.
As a baseline, we can view what a standard fmt
would yield.
fmt -44
Using the same width option, prose
yields a less jagged output.
prose -w 44
Using the same width option, prose
yields a less jagged output.
prose
attempts to keep prefix/suffix line adornment–such as
borders, code comment marks, and indentation–intact.
Consider the the following input:
/* Lorem ipsum dolor sit ameÞ, sea ðicat instructíor deterrúisset cu, ex */ /* graéce scriptæ minimum eós. Nö qui plæcérat eloquentiam, alíenum */ /* sæluÞæÞus evertitur éam nö, mucíus tibíque ad esÞ. Atqui fêugâit eum */ /* id. Síngulis, id meí chöro essent. Íð æssentior moderatius intellégam */ /* næm, solet abhorreant ne cum. Qúod æssum intellegam ad vím, pró diam */ /* vítae nónumy ei, cúm inaní primís té. */ /* */ /* Ex dicunt åssentiør eum, ad nusquam definiebæs qui, */ /* vidit åtqui per ut. Qui ut simul dicunt */ /* sålutændi. Dūō scaevōla vulputaÞe ut. Quō volupÞua rætiōnibus uÞ, et */ /* postulǽnt intellegǽt vitupērata vim. Primis legimus haȝemus sit æð, */ /* seæ hǣrum, fâcilisi, êum ôfficiis iudicabit âd. */
And the output:
prose -w 44 -l
It similarly attempts to preserve paragraph indentation:
Given this indented input:
I believe profoundly in the possibilities of democracy, but democracy needs to be emancipated from capitalism. As long as we inhabit a capitalist democracy, a future of racial equality, gender equality, economic equality will elude us.
prose -w 60
prose
attempts to be smart about keeping email quoting levels, if
they are the recognizable format of >
introducing each new quote
level. With the following example email input:
Abby, Whoops! Sorry about that. I forgot to export it as a PDF. Re-attaching to this message. Again, let me know if you need anything else! Bill Abby writes: > Bill, > > I tried to open the attachment, but it looks like it isn't in the correct format. Could > you re-send it? > > Thanks, > > Abby > > Bill writes: > > > Abby, > > > > I like the way this project is turning out so far! Kudos. > > > > I'm attaching my first pass at working version. Let me know if you need anything else > > before our meeting on Tuesday. > > > > Cheers, > > > > Bill > > > This message and its contents are confidential or whatever. >
And a just the width set:
prose -w 48
Without -f
, the result works, but could look slightly less jagged on
the ends.
prose -w 58
A width parameter of 56 or so would get us there, and if we are okay
having the longest possible maximum line length be less than the
target (width) we specify, we can pass -f
.
prose -w 58 -f
Take, for example, this portion of the Contributor Covenant Code of Conduct:
## Our Pledge In the interest of fostering an open and welcoming environment, we as contributors and maintainers pledge to making participation in our project and our community a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of age, body size, disability, ethnicity, sex characteristics, gender identity and expression, level of experience, education, socio-economic status, nationality, personal appearance, race, religion, or sexual identity and orientation. ## Our Standards Examples of behavior that contributes to creating a positive environment include: * Using welcoming and inclusive language * Being respectful of differing viewpoints and experiences * Gracefully accepting constructive criticism * Focusing on what is best for the community * Showing empathy towards other community members
With a standard invocation:
prose -w 42
Notice how the bulleted list has been run together. To leave bulleted
lists and other formatting intact, use the -m
or --markdown
switch. Doing so will interpret the input as markdown, only formatting
plain paragraphs.
prose -w 42 --markdown
Future versions may improve on this by indenting bulleted lists more intelligently.
Licensed under either of:
- Apache License, Version 2.0, (LICENSE-APACHE or http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)
- MIT license (LICENSE-MIT or http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)
at your option.