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

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NAME

       doctools::toc::export::nroff - nroff export plugin

SYNOPSIS

       package require Tcl  8.4

       package require doctools::toc::export::nroff  ?0.2?

       package require doctools::text

       package require doctools::nroff::man_macros

       export serial configuration

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DESCRIPTION

       This package implements the doctools table of contents export plugin for the generation of nroff 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 nroff markup encoding  the  table.   The  created  string  is  then
	      returned as the result of the command.

CONFIGURATION

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

       string user
	      This  standard configuration variable contains the name of the user running the process which invoked the export plugin.	The plugin
	      puts this information into the provenance comment at the beginning of the generated document.

       string file
	      This standard configuration variable contains the name of the file the table of contents came from. This variable may not be set	or
	      contain the empty string.  The plugin puts this information, if defined, i.e. set and not the empty string, into the provenance com-
	      ment at the beginning of the generated document.

       boolean inline
	      If this flag is set (default) the plugin will place the definitions of the man macro set directly into the output.

	      If this flag is not set, the plugin will place a reference to the definitions of the man macro set into  the  output,  but  not  the
	      macro definitions themselves.

       Note that this plugin ignores the standard configuration variables format, and map, 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, nroff, serialization, table of contents, toc

CATEGORY

       Text formatter plugin

COPYRIGHT

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

doctools2toc								0.2					   doctools::toc::export::nroff(n)