pppic

A PIC processor written in pure Python that is compatible with dpic 2025.08.01 and produces PSTricks output, like dpic -p. No compiler, no dpic.exe, no dependencies.

The name follows gpic and dpic; the ppp stands for Python, PSTricks and Peter.

pppic implements the dpic language: macros (define), for loops, if/else, blocks, labels, positions, copy, sprintf and the object geometry and PSTricks backend of dpic. The sh command is never executed.

It is one part of a pure-Python toolchain for Circuit Macros:

Install

pip install pppic

Use

Command line (-p is accepted for dpic compatibility; PSTricks is the only output):

pppic -p examples/shapes.pic > shapes.tex
pym4 -I path/to/circuit_macros circuit.m4 | pppic -p > circuit.tex

Python:

from pppic import PicCompiler, compile_pic

print(compile_pic('.PS\nbox "hello"; arrow; circle\n.PE\n'))

compiler = PicCompiler(include_dirs=["path/to/circuit_macros"])
tex = compiler.compile(open("circuit.pic").read())
print(compiler.errors, compiler.warnings)

Include the result in LaTeX with \usepackage{pstricks} and compile with latex + dvips (or use m4cmpy).

Examples and tests

examples holds plain PIC files and a Circuit Macros diagram pre-expanded by pym4. The unit tests also compile every example:

python -m unittest discover -s tests -v

Licence

BSD-2-Clause; see LICENSE. pppic is a Python port of dpic by J. D. Aplevich, and keeps dpic's licence and copyright notice.