X-Git-Url: https://git.distorted.org.uk/~mdw/sgt/halibut/blobdiff_plain/b80802bae4dfeae315236b136d6181198e84d4d7..1d1da251ac6656094a13788ff273d9922d58f927:/doc/input.but diff --git a/doc/input.but b/doc/input.but index daf8092..8cf4b8a 100644 --- a/doc/input.but +++ b/doc/input.but @@ -1,3 +1,5 @@ +\versionid $Id$ + \C{input} Halibut input format This chapter describes the format in which you should write @@ -52,6 +54,10 @@ and Halibut would generate the text This \\ is a backslash, and these are \{braces\}. } +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 @@ -136,12 +142,12 @@ I recommend using weak code for any application where it is 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: @@ -155,12 +161,18 @@ 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 \q{\cw{\\.}}. If that appeared at the end of a sentence +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. So I -used the \c{\\q} command to provide my own set of quotes, and then -used \c{\\cw} rather than \c{\\c} to ensure that none of Halibut's -output formats would add another set of quotes: +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{\\.}}. @@ -188,19 +200,23 @@ 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. - -You can still use ordinary ASCII \i{double quotes} 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) and 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 \i{ASCII quote characters}, because it is likely to matter -precisely which quote character you use.) +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 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. + +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{\\_}: \ii{Non-breaking hyphens} and \I{non-breaking spaces}spaces @@ -248,9 +264,9 @@ 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 \q{\cw{\\.}} do-nothing command. See +this you can use the special \cq{\\.} do-nothing command. See \k{input-macro} for more about general Halibut command syntax and -\q{\cw{\\.}}. +\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 @@ -308,12 +324,12 @@ The \c{\\W} command supports a piece of extra syntax to make this 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}. } If you want the link text to be an index term as well, you can also @@ -324,23 +340,18 @@ indexing.) \S{input-unicode} \c{\\u}: Specifying arbitrary \i{Unicode} characters -When Halibut is finished, it should have full Unicode support. You -should be able to specify any (reasonably well known) \i{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. - -Currently, none of this is actually supported. Input text files are -assumed to be in \i{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 -\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. +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 @@ -360,8 +371,8 @@ 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} \i\c{\\k} and \i\c{\\K}: \ii{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 \I{section numbers}numbers the sections of your document automatically, and can generate @@ -478,7 +489,7 @@ Note that the above paragraph makes use of a backslash and a pair of 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 your 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. @@ -663,6 +674,16 @@ This produces the following output: } +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 @@ -842,8 +863,8 @@ So now you know. } -\S{input-sections} \i\c{\\C}, \i\c{\\H}, \i\c{\\S}, \i\c{\\A}, -\i\c{\\U}: Chapter and \i{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 \I{section numbering}numbers the sections of your document automatically, and @@ -955,7 +976,7 @@ The three special paragraph types are: \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{} 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 \i\cw{\\copyright} @@ -1018,10 +1039,10 @@ 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 \i\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. @@ -1124,8 +1145,8 @@ appear emphasised, you must say so explicitly using \c{\\IM}; see 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 \i\c{\\I} command, -to create an \i{\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: @@ -1173,7 +1194,7 @@ 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 \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 @@ -1194,8 +1215,8 @@ So to rewrite the \c{grep} example above, you might do this: \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, @@ -1230,6 +1251,39 @@ default one (typically \c{\\IM\{foo\}\_foo}, although it might be Halibut discards its default implicit one, and you must then specify that one explicitly as well if you wanted to keep it. +\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: + +\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 @@ -1241,8 +1295,15 @@ contains a keyword indicating what aspect of Halibut you want to 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 \I\cw{\\cfg\{chapter\}}\cw{\\cfg\{chapter\}\{}\e{new chapter name}\cw{\}} @@ -1273,6 +1334,84 @@ subsections of a chapter. \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 @@ -1283,6 +1422,14 @@ 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}