doctools::toc::structure(3tcl)Documentation tooldoctools::toc::structure(3tcl)
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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
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DESCRIPTION
This package provides commands to work with the serializations of ta-
bles 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 reg-
ular serialization of a table of contents and will throw an er-
ror 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 serializa-
tion. 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 sec-
tion ToC serialization format.
::doctools::toc::structure canonicalize serial
This command assumes that the content of serial is a valid regu-
lar 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 re-
lied 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 ele-
ments 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.
TOC SERIALIZATION FORMAT
Here we specify the format used by the doctools v2 packages to serial-
ize 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 ex-
actly 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 dictio-
nary 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 al-
ternative 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 refer-
enced document, a label, and a longer tex-
tual 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 divi-
sions) 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 op-
tional.
label The value is a string containing a
label for the group. This string
also identifies the entry, and no
two entries (references and divi-
sions) 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 con-
tents, including other divisions.
canonical serialization
The canonical serialization of a table of contents has the for-
mat 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.
When proposing code changes, please provide unified diffs, i.e the out-
put of diff -u.
Note further that attachments are strongly preferred over inlined
patches. Attachments can be made by going to the Edit form of the
ticket immediately after its creation, and then using the left-most
button in the secondary navigation bar.
KEYWORDS
deserialization, doctoc, doctools, serialization
CATEGORY
Documentation tools
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 2009 Andreas Kupries <andreas_kupries@users.sourceforge.net>
tcllib 0.1 doctools::toc::structure(3tcl)