Ubuntu Manpage: doctools::idx - Holding keyword indices

NAME

       doctools::idx - Holding keyword indices

SYNOPSIS

       package require doctools::idx  ?2?

       package require Tcl  8.4

       package require doctools::idx::structure

       package require snit

       ::doctools::idx objectName

       objectName method ?arg arg ...?

       objectName destroy

       objectName key add name

       objectName key remove name

       objectName key references name

       objectName keys

       objectName reference add type key name label

       objectName reference remove name

       objectName reference label name

       objectName reference keys name

       objectName reference type name

       objectName references

       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 keyword indices

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

       [1]    Exporting keyword indices, and

       [2]    Importing keyword indices

       For information about the Concepts of keyword indices, and their parts, see the same-named section.   For
       information  about  the  data structure which is used to encode keyword indices as values see the section
       Keyword index 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 keyword index consists of a (possibly empty) set of keywords.

       [2]    Each keyword in the set is identified by its name.

       [3]    Each keyword has a (possibly empty) set of references.

       [4]    A reference can be associated with more than one keyword.

       [5]    A reference not associated with at least one keyword is not possible however.

       [6]    Each reference is identified by its target, specified as  either  an  url  or  symbolic  filename,
              depending on the type of reference (url, or manpage).

       [7]    The  type  of  a  reference  (url,  or  manpage) depends only on the reference itself, and not the
              keywords it is associated with.

       [8]    In addition to a type each reference has a descriptive label as well. This label depends  only  on
              the reference itself, and not the keywords it is associated with.

       A few notes

       [1]    Manpage  references are intended to be used for references to the documents the index is made for.
              Their target is a symbolic file name identifying the document,  and  export  plugins  may  replace
              symbolic with actual file names, if specified.

       [2]    Url  references  are intended on the othre hand are inteded to be used for links to anything else,
              like websites. Their target is an url.

       [3]    While url and manpage references share a namespace  for  their  identifiers,  this  should  be  no
              problem,  given that manpage identifiers are symbolic filenames and as such they should never look
              like urls, the identifiers for url references.

API

PACKAGE COMMANDS
::doctools::idx 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::idx 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 key add name
This method adds the keyword name to the index. If the keyword is already known nothing is done.
The result of the method is the empty string.

objectName key remove name
This method removes the keyword name from the index. If the keyword is already gone nothing is
done. Any references for whom this keyword was the last association are removed as well. The
result of the method is the empty string.

objectName key references name
This method returns a list containing the names of all references associated with the keyword
name. An error is thrown in the keyword is not known to the index. The order of the references in
the list is undefined.

objectName keys
This method returns a list containing the names of all keywords known to the index. The order of
the keywords in the list is undefined.

objectName reference add type key name label
This method adds the reference name to the index and associates it with the keyword key. The
other two arguments hold the type and label of the reference, respectively. The type has to match
the stored information, should the reference exist already, i.e. this information is immutable
after the reference is known. The only way to change it is delete and recreate the reference. The
label on the other hand is automatically updated to the value of the argument, overwriting any
previously stored information. Should the reference exists already it is simply associated with
the key. If that is true already as well nothing is done, but the label updated to the new value.
The result of the method is the empty string.

The type argument has be to one of manpage or url.

objectName reference remove name
The reference name is removed from the index. All associations with keywords are released and the
relevant reference labels removed. The result of the method is the empty string.

objectName reference label name
This method returns the label associated with the reference name. An error is thrown if the
reference is not known.

objectName reference keys name
This method returns a list containing the names of all keywords associated with the reference
name. An error is thrown in the reference is not known to the index. The order of the keywords in
the list is undefined.

objectName reference type name
This method returns the type of the reference name. An error is thrown in the reference is not
known to the index.

objectName references
This method returns a list containing the names of all references known to the index. The order of
the references in the list is undefined.

objectName title
Returns the currently defined title of the keyword index.

objectName title text
Sets the title of the keyword index to text, and returns it as the result of the command.

objectName label
Returns the currently defined label of the keyword index.

objectName label text
Sets the label of the keyword index 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 keyword index 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 keyword index 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 keyword index from which to generate the text.

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

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 keyword index
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 index. 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 keyword index 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.

KEYWORD INDEX SERIALIZATION FORMAT

Here we specify the format used by the doctools v2 packages to serialize keyword indices as immutable
values for transport, comparison, etc.

We distinguish between regular and canonical serializations. While a keyword index may have more than one
regular serialization only exactly one of them will be canonical.

regular serialization

[1] An index serialization is a nested Tcl dictionary.

[2] This dictionary holds a single key, doctools::idx, and its value. This value holds the
contents of the index.

[3] The contents of the index are a Tcl dictionary holding the title of the index, a label, and
the keywords and references. The relevant keys and their values are

title The value is a string containing the title of the index.

label The value is a string containing a label for the index.

keywords
The value is a Tcl dictionary, using the keywords known to the index as keys. The
associated values are lists containing the identifiers of the references associated
with that particular keyword.

Any reference identifier used in these lists has to exist as a key in the references
dictionary, see the next item for its definition.

references
The value is a Tcl dictionary, using the identifiers for the references known to the
index as keys. The associated values are 2-element lists containing the type and
label of the reference, in this order.

Any key here has to be associated with at least one keyword, i.e. occur in at least
one of the reference lists which are the values in the keywords dictionary, see
previous item for its definition.

[4] The type of a reference can be one of two values,

manpage
The identifier of the reference is interpreted as symbolic file name, refering to
one of the documents the index was made for.

url The identifier of the reference is interpreted as an url, refering to some external
location, like a website, etc.

canonical serialization
The canonical serialization of a keyword index 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 the keyword index.

[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.

[2] The references listed for each keyword of the index, if any, are listed in ascending
dictionary order of their labels, 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.

KEYWORDS

       HTML, TMML, conversion, docidx markup, documentation, formatting, generation, index, json, keyword index,
       latex, manpage, markup, nroff, parsing, plugin, reference, tcler's wiki, text, url, wiki

COPYRIGHT

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