\author{Copyright 2005-2007 P\'eter G\'acs\\
Licensed under the Academic Free Licence version 2.1}
\maketitle
Version 1.4 - Luca Citi made it python2.7 and python3 compatible.
Peter Gacs improved the parsing of \verb`\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!
\section*{Purpose}
This program can eliminate most private macros from a LaTeX file.
Applications:
\begin{enumerate}[--]
\item your publisher has difficulty dealing with many private macros
\item you cooperate with colleagues who do not understand your macros
\item preprocessing before a system like latex2html, which is somewhat
unpredictable with private macros.
\end{enumerate}
\section*{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 \verb`/usr/bin`, you should change the
top line (the "shebang" line) of the program accordingly.
This top line uses the \verb`-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.
\section*{Usage}
Command line:
\begin{verbatim}
de-macro [--defs <defs-db>] <tex-file-1>[.tex] [<tex-file-2>[.tex] ...]
\end{verbatim}
{\bfseries Simplest example:} \verb`de-macro testament`\\[0pt]
(As you see, the \verb`<>` is used only in the notation of this
documentation, you should not type it.)
If \verb`<tex-file-i>` contains a command
\verb`\usepackage{<defs-file>-private}`
then the file \verb`<defs-file>-private.sty`
will be read, and its macros will be
replaced in \verb`<tex-file-i>` with their definitions.
The result is in \verb`<tex-file-i>-clean.tex`.
Only \verb`newcommand`, \verb`renewcommand`,
\verb`newenvironment` and \verb`renewenvironment` are
understood (it does not matter, whether you write \verb`new` or
\verb`renew`).
These can be nested but do not be too clever, since I do not
guarantee the same expansion order as in TeX.
\section*{Files}
\begin{verbatim}
<tex-file-1>.db
<tex-file>-clean.tex
<defs-file>-private.sty
\end{verbatim}
For speed, a macro database file called \verb`<defs-file>.db` is created.
If such a file exists already then it is used.
If \verb`<defs-file>-private.sty` is older than \verb`<tex-file-1>.db`
then it will not be used.
It is possible to specify another database filename via \verb`--defs <defs-db>`.
Then \verb`<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 \verb`<tex-file-i>`, a file \verb`<tex-file-i>-clean.tex`
will be produced.
If \verb`<tex-file-i>-clean.tex` is newer than \verb`<tex-file-i>.tex`
then it stays.
\section*{Input command}
If a tex file contains a command \verb`\input{<tex-file-j>}` or
\verb`\input <tex-file-j>`
then \verb`<tex-file-j>.tex` is processed recursively, and
\verb`<tex-file-j>-clean.tex` will be inserted into the final output.
For speed, if \verb`<tex-file-j>-clean.tex` is newer than
\verb`<tex-file-j>.tex` then \verb`<tex-file-j>.tex` will not be
reprocessed.
The dependency checking is not sophisticated, so if you rewrite some macros
then remove all \verb`*-clean.tex` files!
