NAME¶
doctools::toc::structure - Doctoc serialization utilities
SYNOPSIS¶
package require
doctools::toc::structure ?0.1?
package require
Tcl 8.4
package require
logger
package require
snit
::doctools::toc::structure verify serial ?
canonvar?
::doctools::toc::structure verify-as-canonical serial
::doctools::toc::structure canonicalize serial
::doctools::toc::structure print serial
::doctools::toc::structure merge seriala serialb
DESCRIPTION¶
This package provides commands to work with the serializations of tables of
contents as managed by the doctools system v2, and specified in section
ToC
serialization format.
This is an internal package of doctools, for use by the higher level packages
handling tables of contents and their conversion into and out of various other
formats, like documents written using
doctoc markup.
API¶
- ::doctools::toc::structure verify serial
?canonvar?
- This command verifies that the content of serial is a valid
regular serialization of a table of contents and will throw an
error if that is not the case. The result of the command is the empty
string.
If the argument canonvar is specified it is interpreted as the name
of a variable in the calling context. This variable will be written to if
and only if serial is a valid regular serialization. Its value will
be a boolean, with True indicating that the serialization is not
only valid, but also canonical. False will be written for a
valid, but non-canonical serialization.
For the specification of regular and canonical serializations see the
section ToC serialization format.
- ::doctools::toc::structure verify-as-canonical
serial
- This command verifies that the content of serial is a valid
canonical serialization of a table of contents and will throw an
error if that is not the case. The result of the command is the empty
string.
For the specification of canonical serializations see the section ToC
serialization format.
- ::doctools::toc::structure canonicalize serial
- This command assumes that the content of serial is a valid
regular serialization of a table of contents and will throw an
error if that is not the case.
It will then convert the input into the canonical serialization of
the contained table of contents and return it as its result. If the input
is already canonical it will be returned unchanged.
For the specification of regular and canonical serializations see the
section ToC serialization format.
- ::doctools::toc::structure print serial
- This command assumes that the argument serial contains a valid
regular serialization of a table of contents and returns a string
containing that table in a human readable form.
The exact format of this form is not specified and cannot be relied on for
parsing or other machine-based activities.
For the specification of regular serializations see the section ToC
serialization format.
- ::doctools::toc::structure merge seriala
serialb
- This command accepts the regular serializations of two tables of contents
and uses them to create their union. The result of the command is the
canonical serialization of this unified table of contents.
Title and label of the resulting table are taken from the table contained in
serialb.
The whole table and its divisions are merged recursively in the same
manner:
- [1]
- All reference elements which occur in both divisions (identified by their
label) are unified with document id's and descriptions taken from the
second table.
- [2]
- All division elements which occur in both divisions (identified by their
label) are unified with the optional document id taken from the second
table, if any, or from the first if none is in the second. The elements in
the division are merged recursively using the same algorithm as described
in this list.
- [3]
- Type conflicts between elements, i.e. finding two elements with the same
label but different types result in a merge error.
- [4]
- All elements found in the second division but not in the first are added
to the end of the list of elements in the merge result.
For the specification of regular and canonical serializations see the section
ToC serialization format.
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.
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 Trackers [
http://core.tcl.tk/tcllib/reportlist]. Please also
report any ideas for enhancements you may have for either package and/or
documentation.
KEYWORDS¶
deserialization, doctoc, doctools, serialization
CATEGORY¶
Documentation tools
COPYRIGHT¶
Copyright (c) 2009 Andreas Kupries <andreas_kupries@users.sourceforge.net>