redhat man page for dtformatter

formatter(n)							Documentation tools						      formatter(n)

NAME
       formatter - Interface specification for formatter code

DESCRIPTION
       This manpage specifies the interface between the manpage processor mpexpand and the tcl code implementing the  conversion into a particular
       output format.

       The tcl code has to provide

       [1]    Implementations of all commands specified in format(n), using the defined names

       [2]    and additionally implementations for

	      NumPasses
		     This command is called after the formatter is setup and has to return the number of passes  required  by  this  formatter	to
		     process a manpage. This information has to be an integer number greater or equal to one.

	      PassSetup
		     This  command  is	called	at the beginning of each pass over the input. It can assume that the current number of the pass is
		     already set to the correct value and is responsible for setting up the internal state of the formatter for this pass.

	      PostProcess text
		     This command is called after last pass, with the expansion result of that pass, and can do any  last-ditch  modifications	of
		     the generated result.  Its result is the final text written to the output.

		     Most formats will use identity here.

	      HandleText text
		     This  command  is	called	for  any  plain  text  encountered by the processor in the input and can do any special processing
		     required for plain text. Its result is the string written into the expansion.

		     Most formats will use identity here.

       The tcl code implementing all of the above can make the following assumptions:

       [1]    It has full access to its own non-safe interpreter.  In other words, the formatter cannot damage the other parts of  the	processor,
	      but it can do damage to the filesystem. It is trusted in that way.

       [2]    The surrounding system provides the formatter code with the following commands:

	      mp_pass
		     This command returns the number of the current pass.

	      mp_file
		     This command returns the full name of the file currently processed, or stdin, if the input is read from there.

	      mp_module
		     This command returns the name of the module we are in.

	      cappend

	      cget

	      cis

	      cname

	      cpop

	      cpush

	      cset

	      lb

	      rb     All of the above commands are methods of the expander object handling the input. Their arguments and results are described in
		     expander(n).

SEE ALSO
       expander(n), format(n), mpexpand(n)

KEYWORDS
       manpage, interface, TMML, HTML, nroff, conversion, markup

doctools								1.0							      formatter(n)