Ubuntu Manpage: doctools::toc - Holding tables of contents

NAME

       doctools::toc - Holding tables of contents

SYNOPSIS

       package require doctools::toc  ?2?

       package require Tcl  8.4

       package require doctools::toc::structure

       package require struct::tree

       package require snit

       ::doctools::toc objectName

       objectName method ?arg arg ...?

       objectName destroy

       objectName + reference id label docid desc

       objectName + division id label ?docid?

       objectName remove id

       objectName up id

       objectName next id

       objectName prev id

       objectName child id label ?...?

       objectName element ?...?

       objectName children id

       objectName type id

       objectName full-label id

       objectName elabel id ?newlabel?

       objectName description id ?newdesc?

       objectName document id ?newdocid?

       objectName title

       objectName title text

       objectName label

       objectName label text

       objectName importer

       objectName importer object

       objectName exporter

       objectName exporter object

       objectName deserialize = data ?format?

       objectName deserialize += data ?format?

       objectName serialize ?format?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

DESCRIPTION

       This package provides a class to contain and programmatically manipulate tables of contents.

       This  is  one  of the three public pillars the management of tables of contents resides on. The other two
       pillars are

       [1]    Exporting tables of contents, and

       [2]    Importing tables of contents

       For information about the Concepts of tables of contents, and their parts, see  the  same-named  section.
       For  information  about  the  data structure which is used to encode tables of contents as values see the
       section ToC serialization format.  This is the only format directly known to this class. Conversions from
       and  to  any  other  format  are handled by export and import manager objects. These may be attached to a
       container, but do not have to be, it is merely a convenience.

CONCEPTS

       [1]    A table of contents consists of a (possibly empty) list of elements.

       [2]    Each element in the list is identified by its label.

       [3]    Each element is either a reference, or a division.

       [4]    Each reference has an associated document, identified by a symbolic id, and a textual description.

       [5]    Each division may have an associated document, identified by a symbolic id.

       [6]    Each division consists consists of  a  (possibly  empty)  list  of  elements,  with  each  element
              following the rules as specified in item 2 and above.

       A few notes

       [1]    The  above  rules  span up a tree of elements, with references as the leaf nodes, and divisions as
              the inner nodes, and each element representing an entry in the whole table of contents.

       [2]    The identifying labels of any element E are unique within their division (or toc),  and  the  full
              label of any element E is the list of labels for all nodes on the unique path from the root of the
              tree to E, including E.

API

PACKAGE COMMANDS
::doctools::toc objectName
This command creates a new container object with an associated Tcl command whose name is
objectName. This object command is explained in full detail in the sections Object command and
Object methods. The object command will be created under the current namespace if the objectName
is not fully qualified, and in the specified namespace otherwise.

OBJECT COMMAND
All objects created by the ::doctools::toc command have the following general form:

objectName method ?arg arg ...?
The method method and its arg'uments determine the exact behavior of the command. See section
Object methods for the detailed specifications.

OBJECT METHODS
objectName destroy
This method destroys the object it is invoked for.

objectName + reference id label docid desc
This method adds a new reference element to the table of contents, under the element specified via
its handle id. This parent element has to be a division element, or the root. An error is thrown
otherwise. The new element will be externally identified by its label, which has to be be unique
within the parent element. An error is thrown otherwise.

As a reference element it will refer to a document identified by the symbolic docid. This
reference must not be the empty string, an error is thrown otherwise. Beyond the label the
element also has a longer descriptive string, supplied via desc.

The result of the method is the handle (id) of the new element.

objectName + division id label ?docid?
This method adds a new division element to the table of contents, under the element specified via
its handle id. This parent element has to be a division element, or the root. An error is thrown
otherwise. The new element will be externally identified by its label, which has to be be unique
within the parent element. An error is thrown otherwise.

As a division element it is can refer to a document, identified by the symbolic docid, but may
choose not to.

The result of the method is the handle (id) of the new element.

objectName remove id
This method removes the element identified by the handle id from the table of contents. If the
element is a division all of its children, if any, are removed as well. The root element/division
of the table of contents cannot be removed however, only its children.

The result of the method is the empty string.

objectName up id
This method returns the handle of the parent for the element identified by its handle id, or the
empty string if id referred to the root element.

objectName next id
This method returns the handle of the right sibling for the element identified by its handle id,
or the handle of the parent if the element has no right sibling, or the empty string if id
referred to the root element.

objectName prev id
This method returns the handle of the left sibling for the element identified by its handle id, or
the handle of the parent if the element has no left sibling, or the empty string if id referred to
the root element.

objectName child id label ?...?
This method returns the handle of a child of the element identified by its handle id. The child
itself is identified by a series of labels.

objectName element ?...?
This method returns the handle of the element identified by a series of labels, starting from the
root of the table of contents. The series of labels is allowed to be empty, in which case the
handle of the root element is returned.

objectName children id
This method returns a list containing the handles of all children of the element identified by the
handle id, from first to last, in that order.

objectName type id
This method returns the type of the element, either reference, or division.

objectName full-label id
This method is the complement of the method element, converting the handle id of an element into a
list of labels full identifying the element within the whole table of contents.

objectName elabel id ?newlabel?
This method queries and/or changes the label of the element identified by the handle id. If the
argument newlabel is present then the label is changed to that value. Regardless of this, the
result of the method is the current value of the label.

If the label is changed the new label has to be unique within the containing division, or an error
is thrown.

Further, of the id refers to the root element of the table of contents, then using this method is
equivalent to using the method label, i.e. it is accessing the global label for the whole table.

objectName description id ?newdesc?
This method queries and/or changes the description of the element identified by the handle id. If
the argument newdesc is present then the description is changed to that value. Regardless of this,
the result of the method is the current value of the description.

The element this method operates on has to be a reference element, or an error will be thrown.

objectName document id ?newdocid?
This method queries and/or changes the document reference of the element identified by the handle
id. If the argument newdocid is present then the description is changed to that value. Regardless
of this, the result of the method is the current value of the document reference.

Setting the reference to the empty string means unsetting it, and is allowed only for division
elements. Conversely, if the result is the empty string then the element has no document
reference, and this can happen only for division elements.

objectName title
Returns the currently defined title of the table of contents.

objectName title text
Sets the title of the table of contents to text, and returns it as the result of the command.

objectName label
Returns the currently defined label of the table of contents.

objectName label text
Sets the label of the table of contents to text, and returns it as the result of the command.

objectName importer
Returns the import manager object currently attached to the container, if any.

objectName importer object
Attaches the object as import manager to the container, and returns it as the result of the
command. Note that the object is not put into ownership of the container. I.e., destruction of
the container will not destroy the object.

It is expected that object provides a method named import text which takes a text and a format
name, and returns the canonical serialization of the table of contents contained in the text,
assuming the given format.

objectName exporter
Returns the export manager object currently attached to the container, if any.

objectName exporter object
Attaches the object as export manager to the container, and returns it as the result of the
command. Note that the object is not put into ownership of the container. I.e., destruction of
the container will not destroy the object.

It is expected that object provides a method named export object which takes the container and a
format name, and returns a text encoding table of contents stored in the container, in the given
format. It is further expected that the object will use the container's method serialize to obtain
the serialization of the table of contents from which to generate the text.

objectName deserialize = data ?format?
This method replaces the contents of the table object with the table contained in the data. If no
format was specified it is assumed to be the regular serialization of a table of contents.

Otherwise the object will use the attached import manager to convert the data from the specified
format to a serialization it can handle. In that case an error will be thrown if the container
has no import manager attached to it.

The result of the method is the empty string.

objectName deserialize += data ?format?
This method behaves like deserialize = in its essentials, except that it merges the table of
contents in the data to its contents instead of replacing it. The method will throw an error if
merging is not possible, i.e. would produce an invalid table. The existing content is left
unchanged in that case.

The result of the method is the empty string.

objectName serialize ?format?
This method returns the table of contents contained in the object. If no format is not specified
the returned result is the canonical serialization of its contents.

Otherwise the object will use the attached export manager to convert the data to the specified
format. In that case an error will be thrown if the container has no export manager attached to
it.

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 elements. 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 description 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 description 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 Trackers [http://core.tcl.tk/tcllib/reportlist].
       Please also report any ideas for enhancements you may have for either package and/or documentation.

       When proposing code changes, please provide unified diffs, i.e the output of diff -u.

       Note further that attachments are strongly preferred over inlined patches. Attachments  can  be  made  by
       going  to the Edit form of the ticket immediately after its creation, and then using the left-most button
       in the secondary navigation bar.

KEYWORDS

       HTML, TMML, conversion, doctoc markup, documentation, formatting, generation, json, latex, markup, nroff,
       parsing, plugin, reference, table, table of contents, tcler's wiki, text, wiki

COPYRIGHT

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

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

CONCEPTS

API

TOC SERIALIZATION FORMAT

BUGS, IDEAS, FEEDBACK

KEYWORDS

CATEGORY

COPYRIGHT