toc_structure(3)



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)

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