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<h3 class="section">D.7 Other Sources</h3>
<p>Apart from C++ and Octave language (m-files), Octave's sources include
files written in C, Fortran, M4, Perl, Unix shell, AWK, Texinfo and
TeX. There are not many rules to follow when using these other
languages; some of them are summarized below. In any case, the golden
rule is: if you modify a source file, try to follow any conventions you
can detect in the file or other similar files.
<p>For C you should obviously follow all C++ rules that can apply.
<p>If you modify a Fortran file, you should stay within Fortran 77 with
common extensions like <code>END DO</code>. Currently, we want all sources to
be compilable with the f2c and g77 compilers, without special flags if
possible. This usually means that non-legacy compilers also accept the
sources.
<p>The M4 macro language is mainly used for Autoconf configuration files.
You should follow normal M4 rules when contributing to these files.
Some M4 files come from external source, namely the Autoconf archive
<a href="http://autoconf-archive.cryp.to">http://autoconf-archive.cryp.to</a>.
<p>If you give a code example in the documentation written in Texinfo with
the <code>@example</code> environment, you should be aware that the text
within such an environment will not be wrapped. It is recommended that
you keep the lines short enough to fit on pages in the generated pdf or
ps documents. Here is a ruler (in an <code>@example</code> environment) for
finding the appropriate line width:
<pre class="example"> 1 2 3 4 5 6
123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890
</pre>
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