Format a plain ASCII file, adding page breaks and line feeds. This is handy for sending output to my dot-matrix printer; under Linux, just do pyprint filename >/dev/lp1 (or to whatever your printer device is).
#!/bin/env python
# Paginate a text file, adding a header and footer
import sys, time, string
# If no arguments were given, print a helpful message
if len(sys.argv)!=2:
print 'Usage: pyprint filename'
sys.exit(0)
class PrinterFormatter:
def __init__(self, filename, page_len=58):
# Save the time of creation for inclusion in the header
import time
self.now=time.asctime(time.localtime(time.time()))
# Save the filename and page length
self.filename=filename ; self.page_len = page_len
# Zero all the counters
self.page=0 ; self.count=0 ; self.header_written=0
def write_header(self):
# If the header for this page has just been written, don't
# write another one.
if self.header_written: return
# Increment the page count, and reset the line count
self.header_written=1 ; self.count=1 ; self.page=self.page+1
# Write the header
header=self.filename
p=str(self.page) ; header=string.ljust(header, 38-len(p))+'['+p+']'
header=string.ljust(header, 79-len(self.now))+self.now
sys.stdout.write(header+'\n\n')
def writeline(self, L):
# If the line is exactly 80 lines long, chop off any trailing
# newline, since the printhead will wrap around
length=len(L)
if (length % 80) == 0 and L and L[-1]=='\n': L=L[:-1]
# If we've printed a pageful of lines, output a linefeed and
# output the header.
if self.count>self.page_len:
sys.stdout.write('')
self.write_header()
# Print the actual line of text
sys.stdout.write(L)
self.count=self.count+1 ; self.header_written=0
# Open the input file, and create a PrinterFormatter object, passing
# it the filename to put in the page header.
f=open(sys.argv[1], 'r')
o=PrinterFormatter(sys.argv[1])
o.write_header() # Print the header on the first page
# Iterate over all the lines in the file; the writeline() method will
# output them and automatically add page breaks and headers where
# required.
while (1):
L=f.readline()
if L=="": break
o.writeline(L)
# Write a final page break and close the input file.
sys.stdout.write('')
f.close()
