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 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.
KEYWORDS¶
deserialization, doctoc, doctools, serialization
CATEGORY¶
Documentation tools
COPYRIGHT¶
Copyright (c) 2009 Andreas Kupries <andreas_kupries@users.sourceforge.net>