doctools::toc::structure(n)   Documentation tools  doctools::toc::structure(n)



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NAME
       doctools::toc::structure - Doctoc serialization utilities

SYNOPSIS
       package require doctools::toc::structure  ?0.1?

       package require Tcl  8.4

       package require logger

       package require snit

       ::doctools::toc::structure verify serial ?canonvar?

       ::doctools::toc::structure verify-as-canonical serial

       ::doctools::toc::structure canonicalize serial

       ::doctools::toc::structure print serial

       ::doctools::toc::structure merge seriala serialb

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DESCRIPTION
       This package provides commands to work with the serializations of
       tables of contents as managed by the doctools system v2, and specified
       in section ToC serialization format.

       This is an internal package of doctools, for use by the higher level
       packages handling tables of contents and their conversion into and out
       of various other formats, like documents written using doctoc markup.

API
       ::doctools::toc::structure verify serial ?canonvar?
              This command verifies that the content of serial is a valid
              regular serialization of a table of contents and will throw an
              error if that is not the case. The result of the command is the
              empty string.

              If the argument canonvar is specified it is interpreted as the
              name of a variable in the calling context. This variable will be
              written to if and only if serial is a valid regular
              serialization. Its value will be a boolean, with True indicating
              that the serialization is not only valid, but also canonical.
              False will be written for a valid, but non-canonical
              serialization.

              For the specification of regular and canonical serializations
              see the section ToC serialization format.

       ::doctools::toc::structure verify-as-canonical serial
              This command verifies that the content of serial is a valid
              canonical serialization of a table of contents and will throw an
              error if that is not the case. The result of the command is the
              empty string.

              For the specification of canonical serializations see the
              section ToC serialization format.

       ::doctools::toc::structure canonicalize serial
              This command assumes that the content of serial is a valid
              regular serialization of a table of contents and will throw an
              error if that is not the case.

              It will then convert the input into the canonical serialization
              of the contained table of contents and return it as its result.
              If the input is already canonical it will be returned unchanged.

              For the specification of regular and canonical serializations
              see the section ToC serialization format.

       ::doctools::toc::structure print serial
              This command assumes that the argument serial contains a valid
              regular serialization of a table of contents and returns a
              string containing that table in a human readable form.

              The exact format of this form is not specified and cannot be
              relied on for parsing or other machine-based activities.

              For the specification of regular serializations see the section
              ToC serialization format.

       ::doctools::toc::structure merge seriala serialb
              This command accepts the regular serializations of two tables of
              contents and uses them to create their union.  The result of the
              command is the canonical serialization of this unified table of
              contents.

              Title and label of the resulting table are taken from the table
              contained in serialb.

              The whole table and its divisions are merged recursively in the
              same manner:

              [1]    All reference elements which occur in both divisions
                     (identified by their label) are unified with document
                     id's and descriptions taken from the second table.

              [2]    All division elements which occur in both divisions
                     (identified by their label) are unified with the optional
                     document id taken from the second table, if any, or from
                     the first if none is in the second. The elements in the
                     division are merged recursively using the same algorithm
                     as described in this list.

              [3]    Type conflicts between elements, i.e. finding two
                     elements with the same label but different types result
                     in a merge error.

              [4]    All elements found in the second division but not in the
                     first are added to the end of the list of elements in the
                     merge result.

       For the specification of regular and canonical serializations see the
       section ToC serialization format.

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 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
       deserialization, doctoc, doctools, serialization

CATEGORY
       Documentation tools

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




doctools2toc                          0.1          doctools::toc::structure(n)
