doctools::toc::export::doctoc - doctoc export plugin
package require Tcl 8.4
package require doctools::toc::export::doctoc ?0.1?
export serial configuration
This package implements the doctools table of contents export
plugin for the generation of doctoc markup.
This is an internal package of doctools, for use by the higher
level management packages handling tables of contents, especially
doctools::toc::export, the export manager.
Using it from a regular interpreter is possible, however only with
contortions, and is not recommended. The proper way to use this
functionality is through the package doctools::toc::export and the
export manager objects it provides.
The API provided by this package satisfies the specification of
the doctoc export plugin API version 2.
- export
serial configuration
- This command takes the canonical serialization of a table of contents, as
specified in section ToC serialization format, and contained in
serial, the configuration, a dictionary, and generates
doctoc markup encoding the table. The created string is then returned as
the result of the command.
The doctoc format for tables of contents, also called the
doctoc markup language, is too large to be covered in single section.
The interested reader should start with the document
- [1]
- doctoc language introduction
and then proceed from there to the formal specifications, i.e. the
documents
- [1]
- doctoc language syntax and
- [2]
- doctoc language command reference.
to get a thorough understanding of the language.
The doctoc export plugin recognizes the following configuration
variables and changes its behaviour as they specify.
- string
user
- This standard configuration variable contains the name of the user running
the process which invoked the export plugin. The plugin puts this
information into the provenance comment at the beginning of the generated
document.
- string
file
- This standard configuration variable contains the name of the file the
table of contents came from. This variable may not be set or contain the
empty string. The plugin puts this information, if defined, i.e. set and
not the empty string, into the provenance comment at the beginning of the
generated document.
- boolean
newlines
- If this flag is set the plugin will break the generated doctoc code across
lines, with each markup command on a separate line.
If this flag is not set (the default), the whole document will
be written on a single line, with minimum spacing between all
elements.
- boolean
indented
- If this flag is set the plugin will indent the markup commands according
to the structure of tables of contents. To make this work this also
implies that newlines is set. This effect is independent of the
value for aligned however.
If this flag is not set (the default), the output is formatted
as per the value of newlines, and no indenting is done.
- boolean
aligned
- If this flag is set the generator ensures that the arguments for the
item commands in a division are aligned vertically for a nice table
effect. To make this work this also implies that newlines is set.
This effect is independent of the value for indented however.
If this flag is not set (the default), the output is formatted
as per the values of newlines and indented, and no
alignment is done.
Note that this plugin ignores the standard configuration
variables format, and map, and their values.
Here we specify the format used by the doctools v2 packages to
serialize tables of contents as immutable values for transport, comparison,
etc.
We distinguish between regular and canonical
serializations. While a table of contents may have more than one regular
serialization only exactly one of them will be canonical.
- regular
serialization
- [1]
- The serialization of any table of contents is a nested Tcl
dictionary.
- [2]
- This dictionary holds a single key, doctools::toc, and its value.
This value holds the contents of the table of contents.
- [3]
- The contents of the table of contents are a Tcl dictionary holding the
title of the table of contents, a label, and its elements. The relevant
keys and their values are
- title
- The value is a string containing the title of the table of contents.
- label
- The value is a string containing a label for the table of contents.
- items
- The value is a Tcl list holding the elements of the table, in the order
they are to be shown.
Each element is a Tcl list holding the type of the item, and
its description, in this order. An alternative description would be that
it is a Tcl dictionary holding a single key, the item type, mapped to
the item description.
The two legal item types and their descriptions are
- reference
- This item describes a single entry in the table of contents, referencing a
single document. To this end its value is a Tcl dictionary containing an
id for the referenced document, a label, and a longer textual description
which can be associated with the entry. The relevant keys and their values
are
- id
- The value is a string containing the id of the document associated with
the entry.
- label
- The value is a string containing a label for this entry. This string also
identifies the entry, and no two entries (references and divisions) in the
containing list are allowed to have the same label.
- desc
- The value is a string containing a longer description for this entry.
- division
- This item describes a group of entries in the table of contents, inducing
a hierarchy of entries. To this end its value is a Tcl dictionary
containing a label for the group, an optional id to a document for the
whole group, and the list of entries in the group. The relevant keys and
their values are
- id
- The value is a string containing the id of the document associated with
the whole group. This key is optional.
- label
- The value is a string containing a label for the group. This string also
identifies the entry, and no two entries (references and divisions) in the
containing list are allowed to have the same label.
- items
- The value is a Tcl list holding the elements of the group, in the order
they are to be shown. This list has the same structure as the value for
the keyword items used to describe the whole table of contents, see
above. This closes the recusrive definition of the structure, with
divisions holding the same type of elements as the whole table of
contents, including other divisions.
- canonical
serialization
- The canonical serialization of a table of contents has the format as
specified in the previous item, and then additionally satisfies the
constraints below, which make it unique among all the possible
serializations of this table of contents.
- [1]
- The keys found in all the nested Tcl dictionaries are sorted in ascending
dictionary order, as generated by Tcl's builtin command lsort
-increasing -dict.
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://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=12883]. Please also report any
ideas for enhancements you may have for either package and/or
documentation.
doctoc, doctools, export, serialization, table of contents,
toc
Copyright (c) 2009 Andreas Kupries <andreas_kupries@users.sourceforge.net>