Yap (formerly GPSText)

What it is

A PostScript/PDF previewer and front end to the a2ps text formatting tool. Harness the full power of a2ps to beautifully format source code (C, Objective C, Scheme, Perl, etc.) and many other kinds of text files. PostScript/PDF rendering is done using GPL GhostScript.

Features

extensive use of OOP programming techniques
preview PostScript files
format text files with a2ps
opens files that are listed on the command line for easy previewing
set
- paper size
- pretty print style
- prologue
- encoding
double click on any of these to read a description of the respective feature
set a2ps options via an easy-to-use GUI

Settings

If you get a series of error messages on start-up, then you need to set the paths to a2ps, lpr and ghostscript in the preferences panel before you can get started. There is a "defaults" button that fills in the defaults if you don't know where those binaries are. Restart to activate the changes. Click on the Preview button to re-image after changing options. Default rendering device is now PNGALPHA. This needs a recent version of ghostscript. The TIFF devices (option "PostScript device") work with older versions.

Previewing images with a2ps

New! As of February 2007, this application has been renamed to Yap.app (Yet another previewer). Yap.app saves all its user settings to the defaults database. It can preview JPEG/JPG/PNG/GIF images if you have the right delegations for a2ps installed. The distribution includes image delegations (needs ImageMagick and psutils for e.g. psnup). List delegations with "a2ps --list=delegations".

Previewing images natively

As of February 8, 2007, Yap.app previews images (tiff, jpeg, png, gif) natively (without going through a2ps). E.g. "openapp Yap.app *png" will open all png images in the current directory. You may select any portion of any image with the mouse. This will copy your selection to the pasteboard (crop images). You may also save the pastboard to a TIFF file, should it contain an image.

Previewing LaTeX

A2ps sould have the right delegations for LaTeX previews installed already. Open the file with "Open Text/Image" and you should be ready to go. If you are missing the delegations, consult the file LATEX in the distribution.

Getting colored output

Set "PostScript Device" to "24 bit color" for color previews; use the style sheet "color" to get colored a2ps output. This only works if the color style sheet is installed on your system ("/usr/bin/a2ps --list=style-sheets").

Note that mutally contradictory options to a2ps may cancel each other out.

Downloads

Downloading GNU a2ps

Most likely you won't need to download and build a2ps yourself, as a2ps RPM and Debian packages are readily available.
The official a2ps website is here: GNU a2ps.

Should you still require the a2ps sources, get them at the above web site or here:

a2ps-4.12.tar.gz
a2ps-4.13b.tar.gz.

Version 4.13 is the one that was used during the development of Yap.app.

Downloading Yap

An old version from 2003 is here (TGZ) or here (ZIP; Microsoft Internet Explorer 6).

New version as of February 2007 (Yap.app): here (TGZ) or here (ZIP; Microsoft Internet Explorer 6).

Maintenance release as of August 2008 (Yap2.app): here (TGZ) or here (ZIP; Microsoft Internet Explorer 6).

Home page, email, software

My homepage is here. Additional software for GNUstep that I have written is here.

markoriedelde@yahoo.de