+\versionid $Id$
+
\C{input} Halibut input format
This chapter describes the format in which you should write
Halibut's input files mostly look like ordinary ASCII text files;
you can edit them with any text editor you like.
-Writing paragraphs of ordinary text is very simple: you just write
-ordinary text in the ordinary way. You can wrap a paragraph across
-more than one line using line breaks in the text file, and Halibut
-will ignore this when it rewraps the paragraph for each output
-format. To separate paragraphs, use a blank line (i.e. two
-consecutive line breaks). For example, a fragment of Halibut input
-looking like this:
+Writing \i{paragraphs of ordinary text} is very simple: you just
+write ordinary text in the ordinary way. You can wrap a paragraph
+across more than one line using \i{line breaks} in the text file,
+and Halibut will ignore this when it \I{wrapping paragraphs}rewraps
+the paragraph for each output format. To separate paragraphs, use a
+\i{blank line} (i.e. two consecutive line breaks). For example, a
+fragment of Halibut input looking like this:
\c This is a line of text.
\c This is another line of text.
single paragraph, and the line break in the input file was treated
identically to the spaces between the individual words.
-Halibut is designed to have very few special characters. The only
-printable characters in Halibut input which will not be treated
-exactly literally in the output are the backslash (\c{\\}) and the
-braces (\c{\{} and \c{\}}). If you do not use these characters,
-\e{everything} else you might type in normal ASCII text is perfectly
-safe. If you do need to use any of those three characters in your
-document, you will have to precede each one with a backslash. Hence,
-for example, you could write
+Halibut is designed to have very few \I{escaping, special
+characters}\i{special characters}. The only printable characters in
+Halibut input which will not be treated exactly literally in the
+output are the \i{backslash} (\c{\\}) and the \i{braces} (\c{\{} and
+\c{\}}). If you do not use these characters, \e{everything} else you
+might type in normal ASCII text is perfectly safe. If you do need to
+use any of those three characters in your document, you will have to
+precede each one with a backslash. Hence, for example, you could
+write
\c This \\ is a backslash, and these are \{braces\}.
This \\ is a backslash, and these are \{braces\}.
}
-\H{input-inline} Simple inline formatting commands
+If you want to write your input file in a character set other than
+ASCII, you can do so by using the \c{\\cfg\{input-charset\}}
+command. See \k{input-config} for details of this.
+
+\H{input-inline} Simple \i{inline formatting commands}
Halibut formatting commands all begin with a backslash, followed by
a word or character identifying the command. Some of them then use
whole paragraph at a time.
Many of these commands are followed by a pair of braces surrounding
-some text. In all cases, it is perfectly safe to have a line break
+some text. In all cases, it is perfectly safe to have a \i{line break}
(in the input file) within those braces; Halibut will treat that
exactly the same as a space. For example, these two paragraphs will
be treated identically:
\S{input-emph} \c{\\e}: Emphasising text
-Possibly the most obvious piece of formatting you might want to use
-in a document is \e{emphasis}. To emphasise text, you use the
-\c{\\e} command, and follow it up with the text to be emphasised in
-braces. For example, the first sentence in this paragraph was
-generated using the Halibut input
+Possibly the most obvious piece of formatting you might want
+to use in a document is \i\e{emphasis}.
+To emphasise text, you use the \i\c{\\e} command, and follow it up
+with the text to be emphasised in braces. For example, the first
+sentence in this paragraph was generated using the Halibut input
-\c Possibly the most obvious piece of formatting you might want to use
-\c in a document is \e{emphasis}.
+\c Possibly the most obvious piece of formatting you might want
+\c to use in a document is \e{emphasis}.
-\S{input-code} \c{\\c} and \c{\\cw}: Displaying computer code inline
+\S{input-code} \c{\\c} and \c{\\cw}: Displaying \i{computer code} inline
Halibut was primarily designed to produce software manuals. It can
be used for other types of document as well, but software manuals
are its speciality.
In software manuals, you often want to format text in a way that
-indicates that it is something you might see displayed verbatim on
-a computer screen. In printed manuals, this is typically done by
-setting that text in a font which is obviously fixed-width. This
-provides a visual cue that the text being displayed is code, and it
-also ensures that punctuation marks are clearly separated and shown
-individually (so that a user can copy the text accurately and
-conveniently).
+indicates that it is something you might see displayed \i{verbatim}
+on a computer screen. In printed manuals, this is typically done by
+setting that text in a font which is obviously \I{fixed-width
+font}fixed-width. This provides a visual cue that the text being
+displayed is code, and it also ensures that punctuation marks are
+clearly separated and shown individually (so that a user can copy
+the text accurately and conveniently).
Halibut provides \e{two} commands for this, which are subtly
-different. The names of those commands are \c{\\c} (\q{code}) and
-\c{\\cw} (\q{weak code}). You use them just like \c{\\e}, by
+different. The names of those commands are \i\c{\\c} (\q{code}) and
+\i\c{\\cw} (\q{\i{weak code}}). You use them just like \c{\\e}, by
following them with some text in braces. For example, this...
\c This sentence contains some \c{code} and some \cw{weak code}.
text, this cannot be done by changing font, so there needs to be an
alternative way.
-So in the plain text back end, things marked as code (\c{\\c}) will
-be surrounded by quote marks, so that it's obvious where they start
-and finish. Things marked as weak code (\c{\\cw}) will not look any
-different from normal text.
+So in the plain text output format, things marked as code (\c{\\c})
+will be surrounded by quote marks, so that it's obvious where they
+start and finish. Things marked as weak code (\c{\\cw}) will not
+look any different from normal text.
I recommend using weak code for any application where it is
\e{obvious} that the text is literal computer input or output. For
example, if the text is capitalised, that's usually good enough. If
I talk about the Pentium's \cw{EAX} and \cw{EDX} registers, for
example, you don't need quotes to notice that those are special; so
-I would write that in Halibut as \q{\c{the Pentium's \\cw\{EAX\} and
-\\cw\{EDX\} registers}}. But if I'm talking about the Unix command
+I would write that in Halibut as \cq{the Pentium's \\cw\{EAX\} and
+\\cw\{EDX\} registers}. But if I'm talking about the Unix command
\c{man}, which is an ordinary English word in its own right, a reader
might be slightly confused if it appeared in the middle of a
-sentence undecorated; so I would write that as \q{\c{the Unix command
-\\c\{man\}}}.
+sentence undecorated; so I would write that as \cq{the Unix command
+\\c\{man\}}.
In summary:
\b \c{\\cw} means \q{it would be nice to display this text in a
fixed-width font if possible, but it's not essential}.
+In really extreme cases, you might want Halibut to use \i{quotation
+marks} even in output formats which can change font. In
+\k{input-date}, for example, I mention the special formatting
+command \cq{\\.}. If that appeared at the end of a sentence
+\e{without} the quotes, then the two adjacent full stops would look
+pretty strange even if they were obviously in different fonts.
+
+For this, Halibut supports the \i\c{\\cq} command, which is exactly
+equivalent to using \c{\\q} to provide quotes and then using
+\c{\\cw} inside the quotes. So in the paragraph above, for example,
+I wrote
+
+\c the special formatting command \cq{\\.}.
+
+and I could equivalently have written
+
+\c the special formatting command \q{\cw{\\.}}.
+
There is a separate mechanism for displaying computer code in an
entire paragraph; see \k{input-codepara} for that one.
-\S{input-quotes} \c{\\q}: Quotation marks
+\S{input-quotes} \c{\\q}: \ii{Quotation marks}
Halibut's various output formats don't all use the same conventions
for displaying text in ordinary quotation marks (\q{like these}).
not ideal to use the ordinary ASCII double quote character in your
document (although you can if you like).
-Halibut provides the formatting command \c{\\q} to indicate quoted
+Halibut provides the formatting command \i\c{\\q} to indicate quoted
text. If you write
\c Here is some \q{text in quotes}.
}
and in every output format Halibut generates, it will choose the
-best quote characters available to it in that format.
+best quote characters available to it in that format. (The quote
+characters to use can be configured with the \c{\\cfg} command.)
-You can still use ordinary ASCII double quotes if you prefer; or you
-could even use the \c{\\u} command (see \k{input-unicode}) to
-generate Unicode matched double quotes and fall back to the normal
+You can still use the ordinary quote characters of your choice if
+you prefer; or you could even use the \c{\\u} command (see
+\k{input-unicode}) to generate \i{Unicode matched quotes} (single or
+double) in a way which will automatically fall back to the normal
ASCII one if they aren't available. But I recommend using the
built-in \c{\\q} command in most cases, because it's simple and does
the best it can everywhere.
-(Note that if you're using the \c{\\c} or \c{\\cw} commands to
-display literal computer code, you probably \e{will} want to use
-literal ASCII quote characters, because it is likely to matter
-precisely which quote character you use.)
+If you're using the \c{\\c} or \c{\\cw} commands to display literal
+computer code, you will probably want to use literal \i{ASCII quote
+characters}, because it is likely to matter precisely which quote
+character you use. In fact, Halibut actually \e{disallows} the use
+of \c{\\q} within either of \c{\\c} and \c{\\cw}, since this
+simplifies some of the output formats.
-\S{input-nonbreaking} \c{\\-} and \c{\\_}: Non-breaking hyphens and
-spaces
+\S{input-nonbreaking} \c{\\-} and \c{\\_}: \ii{Non-breaking hyphens}
+and \I{non-breaking spaces}spaces
If you use an ordinary hyphen in the middle of a word (such as
\q{built-in}), Halibut's output formats will feel free to break a
-line after that hyphen when wrapping paragraphs. This is fine for a
-word like \q{built-in}, but if you were displaying some literal
-computer code such as the Emacs command
+line after that hyphen when \i{wrapping paragraphs}. This is fine
+for a word like \q{built-in}, but if you were displaying some
+literal computer code such as the Emacs command
\c{M\-x\_psychoanalyze\-pinhead}, you might prefer to see the whole
hyphenated word treated as an unbreakable block. In some cases, you
might even want to prevent the \e{space} in that command from
becoming a line break.
-For these purposes, Halibut provides the commands \c{\\-} and
-\c{\\_}, which generate a non-breaking hyphen and a non-breaking
+For these purposes, Halibut provides the commands \i\c{\\-} and
+\i\c{\\_}, which generate a non-breaking hyphen and a non-breaking
space respectively. So the above Emacs command might be written as
\c the Emacs command \c{M\-x\_psychoanalyze\-pinhead}
So Halibut cannot promise to honour these commands in all situations.
All it can do is make a best effort.
-\S{input-date} \c{\\date}: Automatic date generation
+\S{input-date} \c{\\date}: Automatic \i{date} generation
Sometimes you might want your document to give an up-to-date
indication of the date on which it was run through Halibut.
-Halibut supplies the \c{\\date} command to do this. In its simplest
-form, you simply say
+Halibut supplies the \i\c{\\date} command to do this. In its
+simplest form, you simply say
\c This document was generated on \date.
This document was generated on \date.
}
+You can follow the \c{\\date} command directly with punctuation (as
+in this example, where it is immediately followed by a full stop),
+but if you try to follow it with an alphabetic or numeric character
+(such as writing \c{\\dateZ}) then Halibut will assume you are
+trying to invoke the name of a macro command you have defined
+yourself, and will complain if no such command exists. To get round
+this you can use the special \cq{\\.} do-nothing command. See
+\k{input-macro} for more about general Halibut command syntax and
+\cq{\\.}.
+
If you would prefer the date to be generated in a specific format,
you can follow the \c{\\date} command with a format specification in
braces. The format specification will be run through the standard C
-function \c{strftime}, so any format acceptable to that function is
-acceptable here as well. I won't document the format here, because
-the details vary from computer to computer (although there is a
-standard core which should be supported everywhere). You should look
-at your local system's manual for \c{strftime} for details.
+function \i\c{strftime}, so any format acceptable to that function
+is acceptable here as well. I won't document the format here,
+because the details vary from computer to computer (although there
+is a standard core which should be supported everywhere). You should
+look at your local system's manual for \c{strftime} for details.
Here's an example which generates the date in the international
-standard ISO 8601 format:
+standard \i{ISO 8601} format:
\c This document was generated on \date{%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S}.
This document was generated on \date{%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S}.
}
-\S{input-weblink} \c{\\W}: WWW hyperlinks
+\S{input-weblink} \c{\\W}: \i{WWW hyperlinks}
-Since one of Halibut's output formats is HTML, it's obviously useful
-to be able to provide links to arbitrary web sites in a Halibut
-document.
+Since one of Halibut's output formats is \i{HTML}, it's obviously
+useful to be able to provide \I{linking to web sites}links to
+arbitrary \i{web sites} in a Halibut document.
-This is done using the \c{\\W} command. \c{\\W} expects to be
+This is done using the \i\c{\\W} command. \c{\\W} expects to be
followed by \e{two} sets of braces. In the first set of braces you
-put a URL; in the second set you put the text which should be a
-hyperlink. For example, you might write
+put a \i{URL}; in the second set you put the text which should be a
+\i{hyperlink}. For example, you might write
\c Try searching on \W{http://www.google.com/}{Google}.
convenient for you. You can specify \c{\\c} or \c{\\cw} \e{between}
the first and second pairs of braces. For example, you might write
-\c Google is located at \W{http://www.google.com/}\cw{www.google.com}.
+\c Google is at \W{http://www.google.com/}\cw{www.google.com}.
and Halibut would produce
\quote{
-Google is located at \W{http://www.google.com/}\cw{www.google.com}.
+Google is at \W{http://www.google.com/}\cw{www.google.com}.
}
-\S{input-unicode} \c{\\u}: Specifying arbitrary Unicode characters
+If you want the link text to be an index term as well, you can also
+specify \c{\\i} or \c{\\ii}; this has to come before \c{\\c} or
+\c{\\cw} if both are present. (See \k{input-index} for more about
+indexing.)
-When Halibut is finished, it should have full Unicode support. You
-should be able to specify any (reasonably well known) character set
-for your input document, and Halibut should convert it all to
-Unicode as it reads it in. Similarly, you should be able to specify
-the character set you want for each output format and have all the
-conversion done automatically.
+\S{input-unicode} \c{\\u}: Specifying arbitrary \i{Unicode}
+characters
-Currently, none of this is actually supported. Input text files are
-assumed to be in ISO 8859-1, and each output format has its own
-non-configurable character set (although the HTML output can use the
-\c{Ӓ} mechanism to output any Unicode character it likes).
+Halibut has extensive support for Unicode and character set
+conversion. You can specify any (reasonably well known) \i{character
+set} for your input document, and Halibut will convert it all to
+Unicode as it reads it in. See \k{input-config} for more details of
+this.
If you need to specify a Unicode character in your input document
-which is not supported by the input character set, you can use the
-\c{\\u} command to do this. \c{\\u} expects to be followed by a
-sequence of hex digits; so that \c{\\u0041}, for example, denotes
-the Unicode character \cw{0x0041}, which is the capital letter A.
+which is not supported by the input character set you have chosen,
+you can use the \i\c{\\u} command to do this. \c{\\u} expects to be
+followed by a sequence of hex digits; so that \c{\\u0041}, for
+example, denotes the Unicode character \cw{0x0041}, which is the
+capital letter A.
If a Unicode character specified in this way is not supported in a
particular \e{output} format, you probably don't just want it to be
omitted. So you can put a pair of braces after the \c{\\u} command
-containing fallback text. For example, to specify an amount of money
-in euros, you might write this:
+containing \i{fallback text}. For example, to specify an amount of
+money in euros, you might write this:
\c This is likely to cost \u20AC{EUR\_}2500 at least.
If you read it in other formats, you may see different results.
-\S{input-xref} \c{\\k} and \c{\\K}: Cross-references to other sections
+\S{input-xref} \i\c{\\k} and \I{\\K-upper}\c{\\K}:
+\ii{Cross-references} to other sections
-\K{intro-features} mentions that Halibut numbers the sections of
-your document automatically, and can generate cross-references to
-them on request. \c{\\k} and \c{\\K} are the commands used to
-generate those cross-references.
+\K{intro-features} mentions that Halibut \I{section numbers}numbers
+the sections of your document automatically, and can generate
+cross-references to them on request. \c{\\k} and \c{\\K} are the
+commands used to generate those cross-references.
To use one of these commands, you simply follow it with a pair of
braces containing the keyword for the section in question. For
\K{input-xref} expands on \k{intro-features}.
}
-The keywords \c{input-xref} and \c{intro-features} are section
-keywords used in this manual itself. In your own document, you would
-have supplied a keyword for each one of your own sections, and you
-would provide your own keywords for the \c{\\k} command to work on.
+The \i{keywords} \c{input-xref} and \c{intro-features} are
+\i{section keywords} used in this manual itself. In your own
+document, you would have supplied a keyword for each one of your own
+sections, and you would provide your own keywords for the \c{\\k}
+command to work on.
The difference between \c{\\k} and \c{\\K} is simply that \c{\\K}
starts the cross-reference text with a capital letter; so you would
else.
In output formats which permit it, cross-references act as
-hyperlinks, so that clicking the mouse on a cross-reference takes
-you straight to the referenced section.
+\i{hyperlinks}, so that clicking the mouse on a cross-reference
+takes you straight to the referenced section.
The \c{\\k} commands are also used for referring to entries in a
-bibliography (see \k{input-biblio} for more about bibliographies),
-and can also be used for referring to an element of a numbered list
-by its number (see \k{input-list-number} for more about numbered
-lists).
+\i{bibliography} (see \k{input-biblio} for more about
+bibliographies), and can also be used for referring to an element of
+a \i{numbered list} by its number (see \k{input-list-number} for
+more about numbered lists).
See \k{input-sections} for more about chapters and sections.
-\S{input-inline-comment} \c{\\#}: Inline comments
+\S{input-inline-comment} \i\c{\\#}: Inline comments
-If you want to include comments in your Halibut input, to be seen
+If you want to include \i{comments} in your Halibut input, to be seen
when reading it directly but not copied into the output text, then
you can use \c{\\#} to do this. If you follow \c{\\#} with text in
braces, that text will be ignored by Halibut.
For example, you might write
-\c The typical behaviour of an antelope \#{do I mean gazelle?} is...
+\c The typical behaviour of an antelope \#{do I mean
+\c gazelle?} is...
and Halibut will simply leave out the aside about gazelles, and will
generate nothing but
\quote{
-The typical behaviour of an antelope \#{do I mean gazelle?} is...
+The typical behaviour of an antelope \#{do I mean
+gazelle?} is...
}
+This command will respect nested braces, so you can use it to
+comment out sections of Halibut markup:
+
+\c This function is \#{very, \e{very}} important.
+
+In this example, the comment lasts until the final closing brace (so
+that the whole \q{very, \e{very}} section is commented out).
+
The \c{\\#} command can also be used to produce a whole-paragraph
comment; see \k{input-commentpara} for details of that.
-\H{input-para} Paragraph-level commands
+\H{input-para} \ii{Paragraph-level commands}
This section describes Halibut commands which affect an entire
paragraph, or sometimes even \e{more} than one paragraph, at a time.
-\S{input-codepara} \c{\\c}: Displaying whole paragraphs of computer
-code
+\S{input-codepara} \i\c{\\c}: Displaying whole \I{code
+paragraphs}paragraphs of \i{computer code}
\K{input-code} describes a mechanism for displaying computer code in
the middle of a paragraph, a few words at a time.
However, this is often not enough. Often, in a computer manual, you
-really want to show several lines of code in a display paragraph.
+really want to show several lines of code in a \i{display
+paragraph}.
This is also done using the \c{\\c} command, in a slightly different
way. Instead of using it in the middle of a paragraph followed by
braces, and does \e{not} need to escape them in the way described in
\k{input-basics}. This is because code paragraphs formatted in this
way are a special case; the intention is that you can just copy and
-paste a lump of code out of another program, put \q{\cw{\\c }} at the
+paste a lump of code out of your program, put \cq{\\c } at the
start of every line, and simply \e{not have to worry} about the
details - you don't have to go through the whole block looking for
characters to escape.
emphasise a particular word in the paragraph, you can't do that
using \c{\\e} (\k{input-emph}) in the normal way.
-Therefore, Halibut provides an alternative means of emphasis in code
-paragraphs. Each line beginning with \c{\\c} can optionally be
+Therefore, Halibut provides an alternative means of \i{emphasis in
+code paragraphs}. Each line beginning with \c{\\c} can optionally be
followed by a single line beginning with \c{\\e}, indicating the
emphasis in that line. The emphasis line contains the letters \c{b}
and \c{i} (for \q{bold} and \q{italic}, although some output formats
-might render \c{i} as underlining instead of italics), positioned
-to line up under the parts of the text that you want emphasised.
+might render \c{i} as underlining instead of italics), positioned to
+line up under the parts of the text that you want emphasised.
-For example, if you wanted to do syntax highlighting on the above C
-code by highlighting the preprocessor command in italic and the
-keywords in bold, you might do it like this:
+For example, if you wanted to do \i{syntax highlighting} on the
+above C code by highlighting the preprocessor command in italic and
+the keywords in bold, you might do it like this:
\c \c #include <stdio.h>
\c \e iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
should use highlighting in code paragraphs \e{only} as a visual aid,
and not rely on it to convey any vital semantic content.
-\S{input-lists} \c{\\b}, \c{\\n}, \c{\\dt}, \c{\\dd}, \c{\\lcont}: Lists
+\S{input-lists} \c{\\b}, \c{\\n}, \c{\\dt}, \c{\\dd}, \c{\\lcont}:
+\ii{Lists}
Halibut supports bulletted lists, numbered lists and description
lists.
-\S2{input-list-bullet} \c{\\b}: Bulletted lists
+\S2{input-list-bullet} \i\c{\\b}: \ii{Bulletted lists}
To create a bulletted list, you simply prefix each paragraph
describing a bullet point with the command \c{\\b}. For example, this
\b Three.
}
-\S2{input-list-number} \c{\\n}: Numbered lists
+\S2{input-list-number} \i\c{\\n}: \ii{Numbered lists}
Numbered lists are just as simple: instead of \c{\\b}, you use
\c{\\n}, and Halibut takes care of getting the numbering right for
The disadvantage of having Halibut sort out the list numbering for
you is that if you need to refer to a list item by its number, you
-can't reliably do so. To get round this, Halibut allows an optional
-keyword in braces after the \c{\\n} command. This keyword can then
-be referenced using the \c{\\k} or \c{\\K} command (see
-\k{input-xref}) to provide the number of the list item. For example:
+can't reliably know the number in advance (because if you later add
+another item at the start of the list, the numbers will all change).
+To get round this, Halibut allows an optional keyword in braces
+after the \c{\\n} command. This keyword can then be referenced using
+the \c{\\k} or \c{\\K} command (see \k{input-xref}) to provide the
+number of the list item. For example:
\c Here's a list:
\c
\n Now go back to step \k{this-one}.
}
-\S2{input-list-description} \c{\\dt} and \c{\\dd}: Description lists
+The keyword you supply after \c{\\n} is allowed to contain escaped
+special characters (\c{\\\\}, \c{\\\{} and \c{\\\}}), but should not
+contain any other Halibut markup. It is intended to be a word or two
+of ordinary text. (This also applies to keywords used in other
+commands, such as \c{\\B} and \c{\\C}).
+
+\S2{input-list-description} \i\c{\\dt} and \i\c{\\dd}:
+\ii{Description lists}
-To wrie a description list, you prefix alternate paragraphs with the
-\c{\\dt} (\q{described thing}) and \c{\\dd} (description) commands.
-For example:
+To write a description list, you prefix alternate paragraphs with
+the \c{\\dt} (\q{described thing}) and \c{\\dd} (description)
+commands. For example:
\c \dt Pelican
\c
}
-\S2{input-list-continuation} Continuing list items into further
+If you really want to, you are allowed to use \c{\\dt} and \c{\\dd}
+without strictly interleaving them (multiple consecutive \c{\\dt}s
+or consecutive \c{\\dd}s, or a description list starting with
+\c{\\dd} or ending with \c{\\dt}). This is probably most useful if
+you are listing a sequence of things with \c{\\dt}, but only some of
+them actually need \c{\\dd} descriptions. You should \e{not} use
+multiple consecutive \c{\\dd}s to provide a multi-paragraph
+definition of something; that's what \c{\\lcont} is for, as
+explained in \k{input-list-continuation}.
+
+\S2{input-list-continuation} \ii{Continuing list items} into further
paragraphs
All three of the above list types assume that each list item is a
single paragraph. For a short, snappy list in which each item is
likely to be only one or two words, this is perfectly sufficient;
but occasionally you will find you want to include several
-paragraphs in a single list item, or even to nest other types of
-paragraph (such as code paragraphs, or other lists) inside a list
-item.
+paragraphs in a single list item, or even to \I{nested lists}nest
+other types of paragraph (such as code paragraphs, or other lists)
+inside a list item.
-To do this, you use the \c{\\lcont} command. This is a command which
-can span \e{multiple} paragraphs.
+To do this, you use the \i\c{\\lcont} command. This is a command
+which can span \e{multiple} paragraphs.
After the first paragraph of a list item, include the text
\c{\\lcont\{}. This indicates that the subsequent paragraph(s) are a
}
-This syntax seems a little bit inconvenient, and perhaps
+This syntax might seem a little bit inconvenient, and perhaps
counter-intuitive: you might expect the enclosing braces to have to
go around the \e{whole} list item, rather than everything except the
first paragraph.
Note that \c{\\lcont} can only be used on \c{\\b}, \c{\\n} and
\c{\\dd} paragraphs; it cannot be used on \c{\\dt}.
-\S{input-rule} \c{\\rule}: Horizontal rules
+\S{input-rule} \i\c{\\rule}: \ii{Horizontal rules}
The command \c{\\rule}, appearing on its own as a paragraph, will
cause a horizontal rule to be drawn, like this:
}
-\S{input-quote} \c{\\quote}: Indenting multiple paragraphs as a long
-quotation
+\S{input-quote} \i\c{\\quote}: \ii{Indenting multiple paragraphs} as a
+long \i{quotation}
Quoting verbatim text using a code paragraph (\k{input-codepara}) is
not always sufficient for your quoting needs. Sometimes you need to
quote some normally formatted text, possibly in multiple paragraphs.
+This is similar to HTML's \i\cw{<BLOCKQUOTE>} command.
To do this, you can use the \c{\\quote} command. Like \c{\\lcont},
this is a command which expects to enclose at least one paragraph
between will be formatted to indicate that they are a quotation.
(This very manual, in fact, uses this feature a lot: all of the
-examples of Halibut source followed by Halibut output have the
-output quoted using \c{\\quote}.)
+examples of Halibut input followed by Halibut output have the output
+quoted using \c{\\quote}.)
Here's some example Halibut input:
\c \q{The question is,} said Alice, \q{whether you \e{can} make
\c words mean so many different things.}
\c
-\c \q{The question is,} said Humpty Dumpty, \q{who is to be master -
-\c that's all.}
+\c \q{The question is,} said Humpty Dumpty, \q{who is to be
+\c master - that's all.}
\c
\c }
\c
\q{The question is,} said Alice, \q{whether you \e{can} make
words mean so many different things.}
-\q{The question is,} said Humpty Dumpty, \q{who is to be master -
-that's all.}
+\q{The question is,} said Humpty Dumpty, \q{who is to be
+master - that's all.}
}
}
-\S{input-sections} \c{\\C}, \c{\\H}, \c{\\S}, \c{\\A}, \c{\\U}:
-Chapter and section headings
+\S{input-sections} \I{\\C-upper}\c{\\C}, \i\c{\\H}, \i\c{\\S},
+\i\c{\\A}, \I{\\U-upper}\c{\\U}: Chapter and \i{section headings}
-\K{intro-features} mentions that Halibut numbers the sections of
-your document automatically, and can generate cross-references to
-them on request; \k{input-xref} describes the \c{\\k} and \c{\\K}
-commands used to generate the cross-references. This section
-describes the commands used to set up the sections in the first
-place.
+\K{intro-features} mentions that Halibut \I{section
+numbering}numbers the sections of your document automatically, and
+can generate cross-references to them on request; \k{input-xref}
+describes the \c{\\k} and \c{\\K} commands used to generate the
+cross-references. This section describes the commands used to set up
+the sections in the first place.
A paragraph beginning with the \c{\\C} command defines a chapter
heading. The \c{\\C} command expects to be followed by a pair of
and this allows me to use the command \c{\\k\{input\}} to generate a
cross-reference to that chapter somewhere else.
+The \I{keyword syntax}keyword you supply after one of these commands
+is allowed to contain escaped special characters (\c{\\\\}, \c{\\\{}
+and \c{\\\}}), but should not contain any other Halibut markup. It
+is intended to be a word or two of ordinary text. (This also applies
+to keywords used in other commands, such as \c{\\B} and \c{\\n}).
+
The next level down from \c{\\C} is \c{\\H}, for \q{heading}. This
is used in exactly the same way as \c{\\C}, but section headings
defined with \c{\\H} are considered to be part of a containing
\c{foo-running} and \c{foo-trouble} would be referred to as Section
1.1, Section 1.2 and Section 1.3 respectively; the subsections
\c{foo-inter} and \c{foo-batch} would be Section 1.2.1 and Section
-1.2.2. If there had been a \c{\\S2} command within one of those, it
-would have been something like Section 1.2.1.1.
+1.2.2. If there had been a \i\c{\\S2} command within one of those,
+it would have been something like Section 1.2.1.1.
If you don't like the switch from \c{\\H} to \c{\\S}, you can use
\c{\\S1} as a synonym for \c{\\S} and \c{\\S0} as a synonym for
appendices. (Personally, I like the \c{\\C},\c{\\H},\c{\\S} notation
because it encourages me to think of my document as a hard disk :-)
-You can define an appendix by using \c{\\A} in place of \c{\\C}.
+You can define an \i{appendix} by using \c{\\A} in place of \c{\\C}.
This is no different from a chapter except that it's given a letter
instead of a number, and cross-references to it will say \q{Appendix
A} instead of \q{Chapter 9}. Subsections of an appendix will be
numbered \q{A.1}, \q{A.2}, \q{A.2.1} and so on.
-If you want a particular section to be referred to as something
-other than a \q{chapter}, \q{section} or \q{appendix}, you can
-include a second pair of braces after the keyword. For example, if
-you're writing a FAQ chapter and you want cross-references between
-questions to refer to \q{question 1.2.3} instead of \q{section
-1.2.3}, you can write each section heading as
+\I{renaming sections}If you want a particular section to be referred
+to as something other than a \q{chapter}, \q{section} or
+\q{appendix}, you can include a second pair of braces after the
+keyword. For example, if you're \i{writing a FAQ} chapter and you
+want cross-references between questions to refer to \q{question
+1.2.3} instead of \q{section 1.2.3}, you can write each section
+heading as
\c \S{question-about-fish}{Question} What about fish?
\e{particular} sections. To make an overall change in what \e{every}
section is called, see \k{input-config}.
-Finally, the \c{\\U} command defines an \e{unnumbered} chapter.
-These sometimes occur in books, for specialist purposes such as
-\q{Bibliography} or \q{Acknowledgements}. \c{\\U} does not expect a
-keyword argument, because there is no sensible way to generate an
-automatic cross-reference to such a chapter anyway.
+Finally, the \c{\\U} command defines an \I{unnumbered
+chapter}\e{unnumbered} chapter. These sometimes occur in books, for
+specialist purposes such as \q{Bibliography} or
+\q{Acknowledgements}. \c{\\U} does not expect a keyword argument,
+because there is no sensible way to generate an automatic
+cross-reference to such a chapter anyway.
\S{input-blurb} \c{\\copyright}, \c{\\title}, \c{\\versionid}:
-Miscellaneous blurb commands
+Miscellaneous \i{blurb commands}
-These three commands define a variety of special paragraph types.
-They are all used in the same way: you put the command at the start
-of a paragraph, and then just follow it with normal text, like this:
+These three commands define a variety of \i{special paragraph
+types}. They are all used in the same way: you put the command at
+the start of a paragraph, and then just follow it with normal text,
+like this:
\c \title My First Manual
The three special paragraph types are:
-\dt \cw{\\title}
+\dt \i\cw{\\title}
\dd This defines the overall title of the entire document. This
title is treated specially in some output formats (for example, it's
-used in a \cw{<title>} tag in the HTML output), so it needs a
+used in a \cw{<TITLE>} tag in the HTML output), so it needs a
special paragraph type to point it out.
-\dt \cw{\\copyright}
+\dt \i\cw{\\copyright}
\dd This command indicates that the paragraph attached to it
-contains a copyright statement for the document. This text is
-usually displayed inline, just before the first chapter title but
-after any preamble text before that; but in some output formats it
-is given additional special treatment. For example, Windows Help
-files have a standard slot in which to store a copyright notice, so
-that other software can display it prominently.
+contains a \i{copyright statement} for the document. This text is
+displayed inline where it appears, exactly like a normal paragraph;
+but in some output formats it is given additional special treatment.
+For example, Windows Help files have a standard slot in which to
+store a copyright notice, so that other software can display it
+prominently.
-\dt \cw{\\versionid}
+\dt \i\cw{\\versionid}
\dd This command indicates that the paragraph contains a version
identifier, such as those produced by CVS (of the form \c{$\#{hope this
defuses CVS}Id: thingy.but,v 1.6 2004/01/01 16:47:48 simon Exp $}).
This text will be tucked away somewhere unobtrusive, so that anyone
wanting to (for example) report errors to the document's author can
-pick out the version IDs and send them as part of the report, so
+pick out the \i{version IDs} and send them as part of the report, so
that the author can tell at a glance which revision of the document
is being discussed.
-\S{input-commentpara} \c{\\#}: Whole-paragraph comments
+\S{input-commentpara} \i\c{\\#}: Whole-paragraph \i{comments}
\K{input-inline-comment} describes the use of the \c{\\#} command to
put a short comment in the middle of a paragraph.
\c Here's a (fairly short) paragraph which will be displayed.
\c
\c \# Here's a comment paragraph which will not be displayed, no
-\c matter how long it goes on. All I needed to indicate this was the
-\c single \# at the start of the paragraph; I don't need one on
-\c every line or anything like that.
+\c matter how long it goes on. All I needed to indicate this was
+\c the single \# at the start of the paragraph; I don't need one
+\c on every line or anything like that.
\c
\c Here's another displayed paragraph.
Here's a (fairly short) paragraph which will be displayed.
\# Here's a comment paragraph which will not be displayed, no
-matter how long it goes on. All I needed to indicate this was the
-single \# at the start of the paragraph; I don't need one on
-every line or anything like that.
+matter how long it goes on. All I needed to indicate this was
+the single \# at the start of the paragraph; I don't need one
+on every line or anything like that.
Here's another displayed paragraph.
}
-\H{input-biblio} Creating a bibliography
+\H{input-biblio} Creating a \i{bibliography}
If you need your document to refer to other documents (research
papers, books, websites, whatever), you might find a bibliography
feature useful.
-You can define a bibliography entry using the \c{\\B} command. This
-looks very like the \c{\\C} command and friends: it expects a
-keyword in braces, followed by some text describing the document
-being referred to. For example:
+You can define a bibliography entry using the \I{\\B-upper}\c{\\B}
+command. This looks very like the \c{\\C} command and friends: it
+expects a keyword in braces, followed by some text describing the
+document being referred to. For example:
\c \B{freds-book} \q{The Taming Of The Mongoose}, by Fred Bloggs.
\c Published by Paperjam & Notoner, 1993.
I say \q{if} above because not all bibliography entries defined
using the \c{\\B} command will necessarily appear in the finished
-document. They only appear if they are referred to by a \c{\\k}
-command (see \k{input-xref}). This allows you to (for example)
-maintain a single Halibut source file with a centralised database of
-\e{all} the references you have ever needed in any of your writings,
-include that file in every document you feed to Halibut, and have it
-only produce the bibliography entries you actually need for each
-particular document. (In fact, you might even want this centralised
-source file to be created automatically by, say, a Perl script from
-BibTeX input, so that you can share the same bibliography with users
-of other formatting software.)
+document. They only appear if they are \I{citation}referred to by a
+\i\c{\\k} command (see \k{input-xref}). This allows you to (for
+example) maintain a single Halibut source file with a centralised
+database of \e{all} the references you have ever needed in any of
+your writings, include that file in every document you feed to
+Halibut, and have it only produce the bibliography entries you
+actually need for each particular document. (In fact, you might even
+want this centralised source file to be created automatically by,
+say, a Perl script from BibTeX input, so that you can share the same
+bibliography with users of other formatting software.)
If you really want a bibliography entry to appear in the document
even though no text explicitly refers to it, you can do that using
-the \c{\\nocite} command:
+the \i\c{\\nocite} command:
\c \nocite{freds-book}
Normally, each bibliography entry will be referred to (in citations
and in the bibliography itself) by a simple reference number, such
as \k{freds-book}. If you would rather use an alternative reference
-notation, such as [Fred1993], you can use the \c{\\BR}
+notation, such as [Fred1993], you can use the \i\c{\\BR}
(\q{Bibliography Rewrite}) command to specify your own reference
format for a particular book:
\c \BR{freds-book} [Fred1993]
-\H{input-index} Creating an index
+The keyword you supply after \c{\\B} is allowed to contain escaped
+special characters (\c{\\\\}, \c{\\\{} and \c{\\\}}), but should not
+contain any other Halibut markup. It is intended to be a word or two
+of ordinary text. (This also applies to keywords used in other
+commands, such as \c{\\n} and \c{\\C}).
+
+\H{input-index} Creating an \i{index}
Halibut contains a comprehensive indexing mechanism, which attempts
to be reasonably easy to use in the common case in spite of its
\S{input-index-simple} Simple indexing
In normal usage, you should be able to add index terms to your
-document simply by using the \c{\\i} command to wrap one or two
+document simply by using the \i\c{\\i} command to wrap one or two
words at a time. For example, if you write
\c The \i{hippopotamus} is a particularly large animal.
\S{input-index-special} Special cases of indexing
If you need to index a computer-related term, you can use the
-special case \c{\\i\\c} (or \c{\\i\\cw} if you prefer):
+special case \i\c{\\i\\c} (or \i\c{\\i\\cw} if you prefer):
\c The \i\c{grep} command is what you want here.
the word will also appear in code style in the actual index.
If you want to simultaneously index and emphasise a word, there's
-another special case \c{\\i\\e}:
+another special case \i\c{\\i\\e}:
\c This is what we call a \i\e{paper jam}.
indexing an emphasised word will \e{not} want it emphasised in the
index.
+(In fact, \e{no} emphasis in the text inside \c{\\i} will be
+preserved in the index. If you really want a term in the index to
+appear emphasised, you must say so explicitly using \c{\\IM}; see
+\k{input-index-rewrite}.)
+
Sometimes you might want to index a term which is not explicitly
mentioned, but which is highly relevant to the text and you think
that somebody looking up that term in the index might find it useful
-to be directed here. To do this you can use the \c{\\I} command, to
-create an \e{invisible} index tag:
+to be directed here. To do this you can use the \I{\\I-upper}\c{\\I}
+command, to create an \i{\e{invisible} index tag}:
\c If your printer runs out of toner, \I{replacing toner
\c cartridge}here is what to do:
Finally, if you want to index a word at the start of a sentence, you
might very well not want it to show up with a capital letter in the
-index. For this, Halibut provides the \c{\\ii} command, for \q{index
-(case-)insensitively}. You use it like this:
+index. For this, Halibut provides the \i\c{\\ii} command, for
+\q{index (case-)insensitively}. You use it like this:
\c \ii{Lions} are at the top of the food chain in this area.
\q{lions}. The text inside \c{\\ii} is converted entirely into lower
case before being added to the index data.
-\S{input-index-rewrite} Fine-tuning the index
+\S{input-index-rewrite} \ii{Fine-tuning the index}
Halibut's index mechanism as described so far still has a few
problems left:
\b In a reasonably large index, it's often difficult to predict
-which of several words a user will think of first when trying to
-look something up. For example, if they want to know how to replace
-a toner cartridge, they might look up \q{replacing} or they might
-look up \q{toner cartridge}. You probably don't really want to have
-to try to figure out which of those is more likely; instead, what
-you'd like is to be able to effortlessly index the same set of
-document locations under \e{both} terms.
+\I{replicating index terms}which of several words a user will think
+of first when trying to look something up. For example, if they want
+to know how to replace a toner cartridge, they might look up
+\q{replacing} or they might look up \q{toner cartridge}. You
+probably don't really want to have to try to figure out which of
+those is more likely; instead, what you'd like is to be able to
+effortlessly index the same set of document locations under \e{both}
+terms.
\b Also, you may find you've indexed the same concept under multiple
-different index terms; for example, there might be several instances
-of \c{\\i\{frog\}} and several of \c{\\i\{frogs\}}, so that you'd
-end up with two separate index entries for what really ought to be
-the same concept.
+different \I{merging index terms}index terms; for example, there
+might be several instances of \c{\\i\{frog\}} and several of
+\c{\\i\{frogs\}}, so that you'd end up with two separate index
+entries for what really ought to be the same concept.
-\b You might well not want the word \q{\cw{grep}} to appear in the
+\b You might well not want the word \cq{grep} to appear in the
index without explanation; you might prefer it to say something more
-verbose such as \q{\cw{grep} command}, so that a user encountering
-it in the index has some idea of what it is \e{without} having to
-follow up the reference. However, you certainly don't want to have
-to write \c{\\I\{\\cw\{grep\} command\}\\c\{grep\}} every time you
-want to add an index term for this! You wanted to write
-\c{\\i\\c\{grep\}} as shown in the previous section, and tidy it all
-up afterwards.
-
-All of these problems can be cleaned up by the \c{\\IM} (for
+\I{rewriting index terms}verbose such as \q{\cw{grep} command}, so
+that a user encountering it in the index has some idea of what it is
+\e{without} having to follow up the reference. However, you
+certainly don't want to have to write \c{\\I\{\\cw\{grep\}
+command\}\\c\{grep\}} every time you want to add an index term for
+this! You wanted to write \c{\\i\\c\{grep\}} as shown in the
+previous section, and tidy it all up afterwards.
+
+All of these problems can be cleaned up by the \i\c{\\IM} (for
\q{Index Modification}) command. \c{\\IM} expects to be followed by
one or more pairs of braces containing index terms as seen in the
document, and then a piece of text (not in braces) describing how it
\c \IM{grep} \cw{grep} command
This will arrange that the set of places in the document where you
-asked Halibut to index \q{\cw{grep}} will be listed under
-\q{\cw{grep} command} rather than just under \q{\cw{grep}}.
+asked Halibut to index \cq{grep} will be listed under
+\q{\cw{grep} command} rather than just under \cq{grep}.
You can specify more than one index term in a \c{\\IM} command; so
to merge the index terms \q{frog} and \q{frogs} into a single term,
Halibut discards its default implicit one, and you must then specify
that one explicitly as well if you wanted to keep it.
-\H{input-config} Configuring Halibut
+\S{input-index-case} Indexing terms that differ only in case
+
+The \e{tags} you use to define an index term (that is, the text in
+the braces after \c{\\i}, \c{\\I} and \c{\\IM}) are treated
+case-insensitively by Halibut. So if, as in this manual itself, you
+need two index terms that differ only in case, doing this will not
+work:
-Halibut uses the \c{\\cfg} command to allow you to configure various
+\c The \i\c{\\c} command defines computer code.
+\c
+\c The \i\c{\\C} command defines a chapter.
+
+Halibut will treat these terms as the same, and will fold the two
+sets of references into one combined list (although it will warn you
+that it is doing this). The idea is to ensure that people who forget
+to use \c{\\ii} find out about it rather than Halibut silently
+generating a bad index; checking an index for errors is very hard
+work, so Halibut tries to avoid errors in the first place as much as
+it can.
+
+If you do come across this situation, you will need to define two
+distinguishable index terms. What I did in this manual was something
+like this:
+
+\c The \i\c{\\c} command defines computer code.
+\c
+\c The \I{\\C-upper}\c{\\C} command defines a chapter.
+\c
+\c \IM{\\C-upper} \c{\\C}
+
+The effect of this will be two separate index entries, one reading
+\c{\\c} and the other reading \c{\\C}, pointing to the right places.
+
+\H{input-config} \ii{Configuring} Halibut
+
+Halibut uses the \i\c{\\cfg} command to allow you to configure various
aspects of its functionality.
The \c{\\cfg} command expects to be followed by at least one pair of
configure, and the meaning of the one(s) after that depends on the
first keyword.
-The current list of configuration keywords in the main Halibut code
-is quite small. Here it is in full:
+Each output format supports a range of configuration options of its
+own (and some configuration is shared between similar output formats
+- the PDF and PostScript formats share most of their configuration,
+as described in \k{output-paper}). The configuration keywords for
+each output format are listed in the manual section for that format;
+see \k{output}.
+
+There are also a small number of configuration options which apply
+across all output formats:
-\dt \cw{\\cfg\{chapter\}\{}\e{new chapter name}\cw{\}}
+\dt \I\cw{\\cfg\{chapter\}}\cw{\\cfg\{chapter\}\{}\e{new chapter name}\cw{\}}
\dd This tells Halibut that you don't want to call a chapter a
-chapter any more. For example, if you give the command
+\I{renaming sections}\I{configuring heading display}chapter any
+more. For example, if you give the command
\cw{\\cfg\{chapter\}\{Book\}}, then any chapter defined with the
\c{\\C} command will be labelled \q{Book} rather than \q{Chapter},
both in the section headings and in cross-references. This is
probably most useful if your document is not written in English.
-\dt \cw{\\cfg\{section\}\{}\e{new section name}\cw{\}}
+\lcont{
+
+Your replacement name should be given with a capital letter. Halibut
+will leave it alone if it appears at the start of a sentence (in a
+chapter title, or when \c{\\K} is used), and will lower-case it
+otherwise (when \c{\\k} is used).
+
+}
+
+\dt \I\cw{\\cfg\{section\}}\cw{\\cfg\{section\}\{}\e{new section name}\cw{\}}
\dd Exactly like \c{chapter}, but changes the name given to
subsections of a chapter.
-\dt \cw{\\cfg\{appendix\}\{}\e{new appendix name}\cw{\}}
+\dt \I\cw{\\cfg\{appendix\}}\cw{\\cfg\{appendix\}\{}\e{new appendix name}\cw{\}}
-\dd Exactly like \c{appendix}, but changes the name given to
+\dd Exactly like \c{chapter}, but changes the name given to
appendices.
+\dt \I\cw{\\cfg\{contents\}}\cw{\\cfg\{contents\}\{}\e{new contents name}\cw{\}}
+
+\dd This changes the name given to the contents section (by default
+\q{Contents}) in back ends which generate one.
+
+\dt \I\cw{\\cfg\{index\}}\cw{\\cfg\{index\}\{}\e{new index name}\cw{\}}
+
+\dd This changes the name given to the index section (by default
+\q{Index}) in back ends which generate one.
+
+\dt \I\cw{\\cfg\{input-charset\}}\cw{\\cfg\{input-charset\}\{}\e{character set name}\cw{\}}
+
+\dd This tells Halibut what \i{character set} you are writing your
+input file in. By default, it is assumed to be US-ASCII (meaning
+\e{only} plain \i{ASCII}, with no accented characters at all).
+
+\lcont{
+
+You can specify any well-known name for any supported character set.
+For example, \c{iso-8859-1}, \c{iso8859-1} and \c{iso_8859-1} are
+all recognised, \c{GB2312} and \c{EUC-CN} both work, and so on.
+(You can list character sets known to Halibut with by invoking it
+with the \cw{--list-charsets} option; see \k{running-options}.)
+
+This directive takes effect immediately after the \c{\\cfg} command.
+All text after that until the end of the input file is expected to be
+in the new character set. You can even change character set several
+times within a file if you really want to.
+
+When Halibut reads the input file, everything you type will be
+converted into \i{Unicode} from the character set you specify here,
+will be processed as Unicode by Halibut internally, and will be
+written to the various output formats in whatever character sets
+they deem appropriate.
+
+}
+
+\dt \I\cw{\\cfg\{quotes\}}\cw{\\cfg\{quotes\}\{}\e{open-quote}\cw{\}\{}\e{close-quote}\cw{\}}[\cw{\{}\e{open-quote}\cw{\}\{}\e{close-quote}...\cw{\}}]
+
+\dd This specifies the quote characters which should be used. You
+should separately specify the open and close quote marks; each
+quote mark can be one character (\cw{\\cfg\{quotes\}\{`\}\{'\}}), or
+more than one (\cw{\\cfg\{quotes\}\{<<\}\{>>\}}).
+
+\lcont{
+
+\cw{\\cfg\{quotes\}} can be overridden by configuration directives for
+each individual backend (see \k{output}); it is a convenient way of
+setting quote characters for all backends at once.
+
+All backends use these characters in response to the \c{\\q} command
+(see \k{input-quotes}). Some (such as the text backend) use them for
+other purposes too.
+
+You can specify multiple fallback options in this command (a pair of
+open and close quotes, each in their own braces, then another pair,
+then another if you like), and Halibut will choose the first pair
+which the output character set supports (Halibut will always use a
+matching pair). (This is to allow you to configure quote characters
+once, generate output in several different character sets, and have
+Halibut constantly adapt to make the best use of the current
+encoding.) For example, you might write
+
+\c \cfg{quotes}{\u201c}{\u201d}{"}{"}
+
+and Halibut would use the Unicode matched double quote characters if
+possible, and fall back to ASCII double quotes otherwise. If the
+output character set were to contain U+201C but not U+201D, then
+Halibut would fall back to using the ASCII double quote character as
+\e{both} open and close quotes. (No known character set is that
+silly; I mention it only as an example.)
+
+\cw{\\cfg\{quotes\}} (and the backend-specific versions) apply to the
+\e{entire} output; it's not possible to change quote characters
+partway through the output.
+
+}
+
In addition to these configuration commands, there are also
configuration commands provided by each individual output format.
These configuration commands are discussed along with each output
format, in \k{output}.
-\H{input-macro} Defining macros
+The \i{default settings} for the above options are:
+
+\c \cfg{chapter}{Chapter}
+\c \cfg{section}{Section}
+\c \cfg{appendix}{Appendix}
+\c \cfg{contents}{Contents}
+\c \cfg{index}{Index}
+\c \cfg{input-charset}{ASCII}
+
+The default for \cw{\\cfg\{input-charset\}} can be changed with the
+\cw{--input-charset} option; see \k{running-options}. The default
+settings for \cw{\\cfg\{quotes\}} are backend-specific; see
+\k{output}.
+
+\H{input-macro} Defining \i{macros}
If there's a complicated piece of Halibut source which you think
you're going to use a lot, you can define your own Halibut command
If your document quotes a \e{lot} of prices in Euros, you might not
want to spend all your time typing that out. So you could define a
-macro, using the \c{\\define} command:
+macro, using the \i\c{\\define} command:
\c \define{eur} \u20AC{EUR\_}
+Your macro names may include Roman alphabetic characters
+(\c{a}-\c{z}, \c{A}-\c{Z}) and ordinary Arabic numerals
+(\c{0}-\c{9}), but nothing else. (This is general \I{command
+syntax}syntax for all of Halibut's commands, except for a few
+special ones such as \c{\\_} and \c{\\-} which consist of a single
+punctuation character only.)
+
Then you can just write ...
\c This is likely to cost \eur 2500 at least.
... except that that's not terribly good, because you end up with a
-space between the Euro sign and the number. In this case, it's
-helpful to use the special \c{\\.} command, which is defined to do
-nothing at all! But it acts as a separator between your macro and
-the next character:
+space between the Euro sign and the number. (If you had written
+\c{\\eur2500}, Halibut would have tried to interpret it as a macro
+command called \c{eur2500}, which you didn't define.) In this case,
+it's helpful to use the special \i\c{\\.} command, which is defined
+to \I{NOP}\I{doing nothing}do nothing at all! But it acts as a
+separator between your macro and the next character:
\c This is likely to cost \eur\.2500 at least.
~mdw / sgt / halibut / blobdiff