doctools::toc::export::text(n)					Documentation tools				    doctools::toc::export::text(n)

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NAME

       doctools::toc::export::text - plain text export plugin

SYNOPSIS

       package require Tcl  8.4

       package require doctools::toc::export::text  ?0.1?

       package require doctools::text

       export serial configuration

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DESCRIPTION

       This package implements the doctools table of contents export plugin for the generation of plain text markup.

       This  is  an  internal  package	of  doctools, for use by the higher level management packages handling tables of contents, especially doc-
       tools::toc::export, the export manager.

       Using it from a regular interpreter is possible, however only with contortions, and is not recommended.	The proper way to use  this  func-
       tionality is through the package doctools::toc::export and the export manager objects it provides.

API

       The API provided by this package satisfies the specification of the doctoc export plugin API version 2.

       export serial configuration
	      This  command  takes  the canonical serialization of a table of contents, as specified in section ToC serialization format, and con-
	      tained in serial, the configuration, a dictionary, and generates plain text markup encoding the table.  The created string  is  then
	      returned as the result of the command.

CONFIGURATION

       The text export plugin recognizes the following configuration variables and changes its behaviour as they specify.

       dictionary map
	      This  standard  configuration  variable  contains  a dictionary mapping from the (symbolic) document ids in reference entries to the
	      actual filenames and/or urls to be used in the output.

	      Document ids without a mapping are used unchanged.

       Note that this plugin ignores the standard configuration variables user, file, and format, and their values.

TOC SERIALIZATION FORMAT

       Here we specify the format used by the doctools v2 packages to serialize 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 dictionary holding the title of the table of contents, a label, and its  ele-
		     ments. 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 descrip-
			    tion 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 referenced document, a label, and a longer textual descrip-
				   tion 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 divisions) 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 divisions) 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 contents, including other divisions.

       canonical serialization
	      The canonical serialization of a table of contents has the format 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://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=12883].  Please also report any ideas for enhancements you may have for
       either package and/or documentation.

KEYWORDS

       doctools, export, plain text, serialization, table of contents, toc

CATEGORY

       Text formatter plugin

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (c) 2009 Andreas Kupries <andreas_kupries@users.sourceforge.net>

doctools2toc								0.1					    doctools::toc::export::text(n)