doctools(n) Documentation tools doctools(n) ______________________________________________________________________________
NAME
doctools - doctools - Processing documents
SYNOPSIS
package require Tcl 8.2
package require doctools ?1.4.10?
::doctools::new objectName ?option value...?
::doctools::help
::doctools::search path
objectName method ?arg arg ...?
objectName configure
objectName configure option
objectName configure -option value...
objectName cget -option
objectName destroy
objectName format text
objectName map symbolic actual
objectName parameters
objectName search path
objectName setparam name value
objectName warnings
_________________________________________________________________
DESCRIPTION
This package provides a class for the creation of objects able to
process and convert text written in the doctools markup language into
any output format X for which a formatting engine is available.
A reader interested in the markup language itself should start with the
doctools language introduction and proceed from there to the formal
specifications, i.e. the doctools language syntax and the doctools lan-
guage command reference.
If on the other hand the reader wishes to write her own formatting
engine for some format, i.e. is a plugin writer then reading and under-
standing the doctools plugin API reference is an absolute necessity, as
that document specifies the interaction between this package and its
plugins, i.e. the formatting engines, in detail.
PUBLIC API
PACKAGE COMMANDS
::doctools::new objectName ?option value...?
This command creates a new doctools object with an associated
Tcl command whose name is objectName. This object command is
explained in full detail in the sections OBJECT COMMAND and
OBJECT METHODS. The object command will be created under the
current namespace if the objectName is not fully qualified, and
in the specified namespace otherwise.
The options and their values coming after the name of the object
are used to set the initial configuration of the object.
::doctools::help
This is a convenience command for applications wishing to pro-
vide their user with a short description of the available for-
matting commands and their meanings. It returns a string con-
taining a standard help text.
::doctools::search path
Whenever an object created by this the package has to map the
name of a format to the file containing the code for its format-
ting engine it will search for the file in a number of directo-
ries stored in a list. See section FORMAT MAPPING for more
explanations.
This list not only contains three default directories which are
declared by the package itself, but is also extensible user of
the package. This command is the means to do so. When given a
path to an existing and readable directory it will prepend that
directory to the list of directories to search. This means that
the path added last is later searched through first.
An error will be thrown if the path either does not exist, is
not a directory, or is not readable.
OBJECT COMMAND
All commands created by ::doctools::new have the following general form
and may be used to invoke various operations on their doctools con-
verter object.
objectName method ?arg arg ...?
The method method and its arg'uments determine the exact behav-
ior of the command. See section OBJECT METHODS for the detailed
specifications.
OBJECT METHODS
objectName configure
The method returns a list of all known options and their current
values when called without any arguments.
objectName configure option
The method behaves like the method cget when called with a sin-
gle argument and returns the value of the option specified by
said argument.
objectName configure -option value...
The method reconfigures the specified options of the object,
setting them to the associated values, when called with an even
number of arguments, at least two.
The legal options are described in the section OBJECT CONFIGURA-
TION.
objectName cget -option
This method expects a legal configuration option as argument and
will return the current value of that option for the object the
method was invoked for.
The legal configuration options are described in section OBJECT
CONFIGURATION.
objectName destroy
This method destroys the object it is invoked for.
objectName format text
This method runs the text through the configured formatting
engine and returns the generated string as its result. An error
will be thrown if no -format was configured for the object.
The method assumes that the text is in doctools format as speci-
fied in the companion document doctools_fmt. Errors will be
thrown otherwise.
objectName map symbolic actual
This methods add one entry to the per-object mapping from sym-
bolic filenames to the actual uris. The object just stores this
mapping and makes it available to the configured formatting
engine through the command dt_fmap. This command is described
in more detail in the doctools plugin API reference which speci-
fies the interaction between the objects created by this package
and doctools formatting engines.
objectName parameters
This method returns a list containing the names of all engine
parameters provided by the configured formatting engine. It will
return an empty list if the object is not yet configured for a
specific format.
objectName search path
This method extends the per-object list of paths searched for
doctools formatting engines. See also the command ::doc-
tools::search on how to extend the per-package list of paths.
Note that the path entered last will be searched first. For
more details see section FORMAT MAPPING.
objectName setparam name value
This method sets the named engine parameter to the specified
value. It will throw an error if the object is either not yet
configured for a specific format, or if the formatting engine
for the configured format does not provide a parameter with the
given name. The list of parameters provided by the configured
formatting engine can be retrieved through the method parame-
ters.
objectName warnings
This method returns a list containing all the warnings which
were generated by the configured formatting engine during the
last invocation of the method format.
OBJECT CONFIGURATION
All doctools objects understand the following configuration options:
-file file
The argument of this option is stored in the object and made
available to the configured formatting engine through the com-
mands dt_file and dt_mainfile. These commands are described in
more detail in the companion document doctools_api which speci-
fies the API between the object and formatting engines.
The default value of this option is the empty string.
The configured formatting engine should interpret the value as
the name of the file containing the document which is currently
processed.
-module text
The argument of this option is stored in the object and made
available to the configured formatting engine through the com-
mand dt_module. This command is described in more detail in the
companion document doctools_api which specifies the API between
the object and formatting engines.
The default value of this option is the empty string.
The configured formatting engine should interpret the value as
the name of the module the file containing the document which is
currently processed belongs to.
-format text
The argument of this option specifies the format to generate and
by implication the formatting engine to use when converting text
via the method format. Its default value is the empty string.
The method format cannot be used if this option is not set to a
valid value at least once.
The package will immediately try to map the given name to a file
containing the code for a formatting engine generating that for-
mat. An error will be thrown if this mapping fails. In that case
a previously configured format is left untouched.
The section FORMAT MAPPING explains in detail how the package
and object will look for engine implementations.
-deprecated boolean
This option is a boolean flag. The object will generate warnings
if this flag is set and the text given to method format contains
the deprecated markup command strong. Its default value is
FALSE. In other words, no warnings will be generated.
-copyright text
The argument of this option is stored in the object and made
available to the configured formatting engine through the com-
mand dt_copyright. This command is described in more detail in
the companion document doctools_api which specifies the API
between the object and formatting engines.
The default value of this option is the empty string.
The configured formatting engine should interpret the value as a
copyright assignment for the document which is currently pro-
cessed, or the package described by it.
This information must be used if and only if the engine is
unable to find any copyright assignments within the document
itself. Such are specified by the formatting command copyright.
This command is described in more detail in the companion docu-
ment doctools_fmt which specifies the doctools format itself.
FORMAT MAPPING
The package and object will perform the following algorithm when trying
to map a format name foo to a file containing an implementation of a
formatting engine for foo:
[1] If foo is the name of an existing file then this file is
directly taken as the implementation.
[2] If not, the list of per-object search paths is searched. For
each directory in the list the package checks if that directory
contains a file "fmt.foo". If yes, then that file is taken as
the implementation.
Note that this list of paths is initially empty and can be
extended through the object method search.
[3] If not, the list of package paths is searched. For each direc-
tory in the list the package checks if that directory contains a
file "fmt.foo". If yes, then that file is taken as the implemen-
tation.
This list of paths can be extended through the command ::doc-
tools::search. It contains initially one path, the subdirectory
"mpformats" of the directory the package itself is located in.
In other words, if the package implementation "doctools.tcl" is
installed in the directory "/usr/local/lib/tcllib/doctools" then
it will by default search the directory
"/usr/local/lib/tcllib/doctools/mpformats" for format implemen-
tations.
[4] The mapping fails.
PREDEFINED ENGINES
The package provides predefined engines for the following formats. Some
of the engines support parameters. These will be explained below as
well.
html This engine generates HTML markup, for processing by web
browsers and the like. This engine supports four parameters:
footer The value for this parameter has to be valid selfcon-
tained HTML markup for the body section of a HTML docu-
ment. The default value is the empty string. The value is
inserted into the generated output just before the
</body> tag, closing the body of the generated HTML.
This can be used to insert boilerplate footer markup into
the generated document.
header The value for this parameter has to be valid selfcon-
tained HTML markup for the body section of a HTML docu-
ment. The default value is the empty string. The value is
inserted into the generated output just after the <body>
tag, starting the body of the generated HTML.
This can be used to insert boilerplate header markup into
the generated document.
meta The value for this parameter has to be valid selfcon-
tained HTML markup for the header section of a HTML docu-
ment. The default value is the empty string. The value is
inserted into the generated output just after the <head>
tag, starting the header section of the generated HTML.
This can be used to insert boilerplate meta data markup
into the generated document, like references to a
stylesheet, standard meta keywords, etc.
xref The value for this parameter has to be a list of triples
specifying cross-reference information. This information
is used by the engine to create more hyperlinks. Each
triple is a list containing a pattern, symbolic filename
and fragment reference, in this order. If a pattern is
specified multiple times the last occurence of the pat-
tern will be used.
The engine will consult the xref database when encounter-
ing specific commands and will create a link if the rele-
vant text matches one of the patterns. No link will be
created if no match was found. The link will go to the
uri file#fragment listed in the relevant triple, after
conversion of the symbolic file name to the actual uri
via dt_fmap (see the doctools plugin API reference).
This file-to-uri mapping was build by calls to the method
map of the doctools object (See section OBJECT METHODS).
The following formatting commands will consult the xref
database:
cmd word
The command will look for the patterns sa,word,
and word, in this order. If this fails if it will
convert word to all lowercase and try again.
syscmd word
The command will look for the patterns sa,word,
and word, in this order. If this fails if it will
convert word to all lowercase and try again.
term word
The command will look for the patterns kw,word,
sa,word, and word, in this order. If this fails if
it will convert word to all lowercase and try
again.
package word
The command will look for the patterns sa,word,
kw,word, and word, in this order. If this fails if
it will convert word to all lowercase and try
again.
see_also word...
The command will look for the patterns sa,word,
and word, in this order, for each word given to
the command. If this fails if it will convert word
to all lowercase and try again.
keywords word...
The command will look for the patterns kw,word,
and word, in this order, for each word given to
the command. If this fails if it will convert word
to all lowercase and try again.
latex This engine generates output suitable for the latex text proces-
sor coming out of the TeX world.
list This engine retrieves version, section and title of the manpage
from the document. As such it can be used to generate a direc-
tory listing for a set of manpages.
nroff This engine generates nroff output, for processing by nroff, or
groff. The result will be standard man pages as they are known
in the unix world.
null This engine generates no outout at all. This can be used if one
just wants to validate some input.
tmml This engine generates TMML markup as specified by Joe English.
The Tcl Manpage Markup Language is a derivate of XML.
wiki This engine generates Wiki markup as understood by Jean Claude
Wippler's wikit application.
BUGS, IDEAS, FEEDBACK
This document, and the package it describes, will undoubtedly contain
bugs and other problems. Please report such in the category doctools
of the Tcllib SF Trackers [http://source-
forge.net/tracker/?group_id=12883]. Please also report any ideas for
enhancements you may have for either package and/or documentation.
SEE ALSO
doctools_intro(n), doctools_lang_cmdref(n), doctools_lang_intro(n),
doctools_lang_syntax(n), doctools_plugin_apiref(n)
KEYWORDS
HTML, TMML, conversion, documentation, manpage, markup, nroff
CATEGORY
Documentation tools
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 2003-2010 Andreas Kupries <andreas_kupries@users.sourceforge.net>
doctools 1.4.10 doctools(n)
Mac OS X 10.8 - Generated Thu Sep 6 08:17:53 CDT 2012