Trailer Alignment Filter Program (last updated for version 1.9)
Contents Description Legal Stuff Installation Examples Change Log, What's New		Current Version: - tal-1.9.tar.gz - tal19-win32-src.zip   (Win32 port by Bernard Martis) - tal19-win32.zip   (Win32 binary by Bernard Martis) - tal19dos.zip   (DOS binary by Bernard Martis) Previous Versions: - tal-1.8.tar.gz - tal-1.7.tar.gz - DOS binary of 1.7 (port by Y.C. Lee) - tal-1.5.tar.gz

tal is a filter that reads in a number of lines from standard input, then tries to determine an ending that all those lines have in common. Those common trailing characters (from now on called a 'trailer') are subsequently aligned, so that they all begin and end on the same column of text.
This can be used to repair 'broken boxes' or align the backslashes on long macro definitions in C programs. But for that matter, tal will work on any kind of common ending. tal is especially useful as a filter for the vim text editor.

Here's a very simple example with C comment tags:

  /* abracadabra*/                     /* abracadabra    */
  /* wow the sun is*/                  /* wow the sun is */
  /* shining */          ===tal===>    /* shining        */
  /* oooh yeah! */                     /* oooh yeah!     */
  /* so nice ...  */                   /* so nice ...    */

tal offers many options that make it adjustable to almost any situation, like one to make the trailers end at a particular column, specify their length, add padding, and so on. Please review the man page that comes with the archive for an in-depth explanation of all options and the general usage of tal. If you want to view the manpage before installing it in your MANPATH, you may use the postscript version or the command

   nroff -man ./tal.1 | less

1. Download the tar'red and zip'ed archive using a link from the top of this page.

2. Extract the files using

      gtar xfvz tal-1.9.tar.gz

   If you don't have gtar, use gunzip first and then tar, leaving out the z option.

3. If you have the OS environment variable set correctly, just type make. Else type 'make youros' where youros is one of the following:

   aix41 hpux9 hpux10 irix5 (for SGI) irix6 (for SGI)

   linux osf1 (for DEC) sunos4 sunos5

   If your platform is not on the list, try all of the ones that are on the list. You stand a good chance that one of them is working for you. Anyway, the program is so simple that compiling it really shouldn't be an insurmountable task.

4. After you have successfully compiled it, copy the resulting binary into a directory that's in your PATH, and copy the man page into section 1 of a manpage location that's in the MANPATH.
   MS-DOS Users: The DOS binary you can download from the top of the page is ready "as is". Just download and use.

5. For use with vim, it might be nice to add a line like

         vmap ,t !tal<CR>
    or   vmap ,t !tal -p 0<CR>

   to your ~/.vimrc. This way, you can select the lines using visual mode, then press ',t' to have the trailers aligned.

Wishlist

• Formatting of tables (submitted by Sven Guckes <guckes@vim.org>):

  input:   foo one   dum
           bar  two di
           tralala   three dei
  
  output:  foo      one   dum
           bar      two   di
           tralala  three dei

• Complex trailer selection (submitted by Johannes Zellner <johannes@zellner.org>): input: int* bla; WINDOW_ID* W; complex<double> c; output: int* bla; WINDOW_ID* W; complex<double> c;

SEE ALSO: boxes, the box drawing filter