


doctools::toc::structurDocumentation tdoctools::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 reg-
              ular 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  serializa-
              tion. 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



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              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 sec-
              tion ToC serialization format.

       ::doctools::toc::structure canonicalize serial
              This command assumes that the content of serial is a valid regu-
              lar 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



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                     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 serial-
       ize 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  dictio-
                     nary 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



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                                    table  of  contents,  referencing a single
                                    document.  To this end its value is a  Tcl
                                    dictionary containing an id for the refer-
                                    enced document, a label, and a longer tex-
                                    tual  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  divi-
                                           sions)  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 hierar-
                                    chy 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 divi-
                                           sions) 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  con-
                                           tents,  see  above. This closes the
                                           recusrive definition of the  struc-
                                           ture,  with  divisions  holding the
                                           same type of elements as the  whole



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                                           table  of contents, including other
                                           divisions.

       canonical serialization
              The canonical serialization of a table of contents has the  for-
              mat  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://source-
       forge.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>




























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