prettyprint

Prettyprint refers to the process of formatting data or source code to a more readable, nicely organized form. In programming, it commonly means applying consistent indentation, line breaks, and often syntax highlighting so the structure and semantics of code are easier to understand. In web contexts, the term is also associated with client-side tools that automatically apply such formatting to code blocks on webpages.

One well-known implementation is Google Code Prettify, which uses a CSS class named "prettyprint" applied to pre or code elements. The library is loaded on a page and can be activated by calling a function such as prettyPrint() to apply syntax highlighting. It supports many programming languages and is designed to be lightweight and straightforward to integrate into documentation, blogs, and developer portals.

History and usage context: Prettyprinting as a concept has long been part of code editors and documentation tools. Google Code Prettify popularized a browser-based approach in the mid- to late-2000s for in-page syntax highlighting. Since then, other libraries such as Prism.js and highlight.js have become common alternatives, offering broader language support and more themes. Beyond specific libraries, prettyprinting also refers to the general practice of producing readable representations of data structures, such as pretty-printed JSON or XML, whether done server-side or client-side.