doctools::toc(3tcl) Documentation tools doctools::toc(3tcl)______________________________________________________________________________NAME
doctools::toc - Holding tables of contents
SYNOPSIS
package require doctools::toc ?2?
package require Tcl 8.4
package require doctools::toc::structure
package require struct::tree
package require snit
::doctools::toc objectName
objectName method ?arg arg ...?
objectName destroy
objectName + reference id label docid desc
objectName + division id label ?docid?
objectName remove id
objectName up id
objectName next id
objectName prev id
objectName child id label ?...?
objectName element ?...?
objectName children id
objectName type id
objectName full-label id
objectName elabel id ?newlabel?
objectName description id ?newdesc?
objectName document id ?newdocid?
objectName title
objectName title text
objectName label
objectName label text
objectName importer
objectName importer object
objectName exporter
objectName exporter object
objectName deserialize = data ?format?
objectName deserialize += data ?format?
objectName serialize ?format?
_________________________________________________________________DESCRIPTION
This package provides a class to contain and programmatically manipu‐
late tables of contents.
This is one of the three public pillars the management of tables of
contents resides on. The other two pillars are
[1] Exporting tables of contents, and
[2] Importing tables of contents
For information about the Concepts of tables of contents, and their
parts, see the same-named section. For information about the data
structure which is used to encode tables of contents as values see the
section ToC serialization format. This is the only format directly
known to this class. Conversions from and to any other format are han‐
dled by export and import manager objects. These may be attached to a
container, but do not have to be, it is merely a convenience.
CONCEPTS
[1] A table of contents consists of a (possibly empty) list of ele‐
ments.
[2] Each element in the list is identified by its label.
[3] Each element is either a reference, or a division.
[4] Each reference has an associated document, identified by a sym‐
bolic id, and a textual description.
[5] Each division may have an associated document, identified by a
symbolic id.
[6] Each division consists consists of a (possibly empty) list of
elements, with each element following the rules as specified in
item 2 and above.
A few notes
[1] The above rules span up a tree of elements, with references as
the leaf nodes, and divisions as the inner nodes, and each ele‐
ment representing an entry in the whole table of contents.
[2] The identifying labels of any element E are unique within their
division (or toc), and the full label of any element E is the
list of labels for all nodes on the unique path from the root of
the tree to E, including E.
API
PACKAGE COMMANDS
::doctools::toc objectName
This command creates a new container object with an associated
Tcl command whose name is objectName. This object command is
explained in full detail in the sections Object command and
Object methods. The object command will be created under the
current namespace if the objectName is not fully qualified, and
in the specified namespace otherwise.
OBJECT COMMAND
All objects created by the ::doctools::toc command have the following
general form:
objectName method ?arg arg ...?
The method method and its arg'uments determine the exact behav‐
ior of the command. See section Object methods for the detailed
specifications.
OBJECT METHODS
objectName destroy
This method destroys the object it is invoked for.
objectName + reference id label docid desc
This method adds a new reference element to the table of con‐
tents, under the element specified via its handle id. This par‐
ent element has to be a division element, or the root. An error
is thrown otherwise. The new element will be externally identi‐
fied by its label, which has to be be unique within the parent
element. An error is thrown otherwise.
As a reference element it will refer to a document identified by
the symbolic docid. This reference must not be the empty string,
an error is thrown otherwise. Beyond the label the element also
has a longer descriptive string, supplied via desc.
The result of the method is the handle (id) of the new element.
objectName + division id label ?docid?
This method adds a new division element to the table of con‐
tents, under the element specified via its handle id. This par‐
ent element has to be a division element, or the root. An error
is thrown otherwise. The new element will be externally identi‐
fied by its label, which has to be be unique within the parent
element. An error is thrown otherwise.
As a division element it is can refer to a document, identified
by the symbolic docid, but may choose not to.
The result of the method is the handle (id) of the new element.
objectName remove id
This method removes the element identified by the handle id from
the table of contents. If the element is a division all of its
children, if any, are removed as well. The root element/division
of the table of contents cannot be removed however, only its
children.
The result of the method is the empty string.
objectName up id
This method returns the handle of the parent for the element
identified by its handle id, or the empty string if id refered
to the root element.
objectName next id
This method returns the handle of the right sibling for the ele‐
ment identified by its handle id, or the handle of the parent if
the element has no right sibling, or the empty string if id ref‐
ered to the root element.
objectName prev id
This method returns the handle of the left sibling for the ele‐
ment identified by its handle id, or the handle of the parent if
the element has no left sibling, or the empty string if id ref‐
ered to the root element.
objectName child id label ?...?
This method returns the handle of a child of the element identi‐
fied by its handle id. The child itself is identified by a
series of labels.
objectName element ?...?
This method returns the handle of the element identified by a
series of labels, starting from the root of the table of con‐
tents. The series of labels is allowed to be empty, in which
case the handle of the root element is returned.
objectName children id
This method returns a list containing the handles of all chil‐
dren of the element identified by the handle id, from first to
last, in that order.
objectName type id
This method returns the type of the element, either reference,
or division.
objectName full-label id
This method is the complement of the method element, converting
the handle id of an element into a list of labels full identify‐
ing the element within the whole table of contents.
objectName elabel id ?newlabel?
This method queries and/or changes the label of the element
identified by the handle id. If the argument newlabel is present
then the label is changed to that value. Regardless of this, the
result of the method is the current value of the label.
If the label is changed the new label has to be unique within
the containing division, or an error is thrown.
Further, of the id refers to the root element of the table of
contents, then using this method is equivalent to using the
method label, i.e. it is accessing the global label for the
whole table.
objectName description id ?newdesc?
This method queries and/or changes the description of the ele‐
ment identified by the handle id. If the argument newdesc is
present then the description is changed to that value. Regard‐
less of this, the result of the method is the current value of
the description.
The element this method operates on has to be a reference ele‐
ment, or an error will be thrown.
objectName document id ?newdocid?
This method queries and/or changes the document reference of the
element identified by the handle id. If the argument newdocid
is present then the description is changed to that value.
Regardless of this, the result of the method is the current
value of the document reference.
Setting the reference to the empty string means unsetting it,
and is allowed only for division elements. Conversely, if the
result is the empty string then the element has no document ref‐
erence, and this can happen only for division elements.
objectName title
Returns the currently defined title of the table of contents.
objectName title text
Sets the title of the table of contents to text, and returns it
as the result of the command.
objectName label
Returns the currently defined label of the table of contents.
objectName label text
Sets the label of the table of contents to text, and returns it
as the result of the command.
objectName importer
Returns the import manager object currently attached to the con‐
tainer, if any.
objectName importer object
Attaches the object as import manager to the container, and
returns it as the result of the command. Note that the object
is not put into ownership of the container. I.e., destruction of
the container will not destroy the object.
It is expected that object provides a method named import text
which takes a text and a format name, and returns the canonical
serialization of the table of contents contained in the text,
assuming the given format.
objectName exporter
Returns the export manager object currently attached to the con‐
tainer, if any.
objectName exporter object
Attaches the object as export manager to the container, and
returns it as the result of the command. Note that the object
is not put into ownership of the container. I.e., destruction of
the container will not destroy the object.
It is expected that object provides a method named export object
which takes the container and a format name, and returns a text
encoding table of contents stored in the container, in the given
format. It is further expected that the object will use the con‐
tainer's method serialize to obtain the serialization of the ta‐
ble of contents from which to generate the text.
objectName deserialize = data ?format?
This method replaces the contents of the table object with the
table contained in the data. If no format was specified it is
assumed to be the regular serialization of a table of contents.
Otherwise the object will use the attached import manager to
convert the data from the specified format to a serialization it
can handle. In that case an error will be thrown if the con‐
tainer has no import manager attached to it.
The result of the method is the empty string.
objectName deserialize += data ?format?
This method behaves like deserialize = in its essentials, except
that it merges the table of contents in the data to its contents
instead of replacing it. The method will throw an error if
merging is not possible, i.e. would produce an invalid table.
The existing content is left unchanged in that case.
The result of the method is the empty string.
objectName serialize ?format?
This method returns the table of contents contained in the
object. If no format is not specified the returned result is the
canonical serialization of its contents.
Otherwise the object will use the attached export manager to
convert the data to the specified format. In that case an error
will be thrown if the container has no export manager attached
to it.
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
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 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
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 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
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 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 SF Trackers [http://source‐
forge.net/tracker/?group_id=12883]. Please also report any ideas for
enhancements you may have for either package and/or documentation.
KEYWORDS
HTML, TMML, conversion, doctoc markup, documentation, formatting, gen‐
eration, json, latex, markup, nroff, parsing, plugin, reference, table,
table of contents, tcler's wiki, text, wiki
CATEGORY
Documentation tools
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 2009 Andreas Kupries <andreas_kupries@users.sourceforge.net>
doctools2toc 2 doctools::toc(3tcl)
