This is Info file pm.info, produced by Makeinfo version 1.68 from the input file bigpm.texi.  File: pm.info, Node: Test/Unit/Assert, Next: Test/Unit/Exception, Prev: Test/Unit, Up: Module List unit testing framework assertion class ************************************** NAME ==== Test::Unit::Assert - unit testing framework assertion class SYNOPSIS ======== # this class is not intended to be used directly, # normally you get the functionality by subclassing from # Test::Unit::TestCase use Test::Unit::TestCase; # more code here ... $self->assert($your_condition_here, $your_optional_message_here); # NOTE: if you want to use regexes in comparisons, do it like this: $self->assert(scalar("foo" =~ /bar/), $your_optional_message_here); DESCRIPTION =========== This class is used by the framework to assert boolean conditions that determine the result of a given test. The optional message will be displayed if the condition fails. Normally, it is not used directly, but you get the functionality by subclassing from Test::Unit::TestCase. There is one problem with assert(): the arguments to assert() are evaluated in list context, e.g. making a failing regex "pull" the message into the place of the first argument. Since this is ususally just plain wrong, please use scalar() to force the regex comparison to yield a useful boolean value. I currently do not see a way around this, since function prototypes don't work for object methods, and any other tricks (counting argument number, and complaining if there is only one argument and it looks like a string, etc.) don't appeal to me. Thanks to Matthew Astley for noting this effect. The procedural interface to this framework, Test::Unit, does not have this problem, as it exports a "normal" assert() function, and that can and does use a function prototype to correct the problem. AUTHOR ====== Copyright (c) 2000 Christian Lemburg, . All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. Thanks go to the other PerlUnit framework people: Brian Ewins, Cayte Lindner, J.E. Fritz, Zhon Johansen. Thanks for patches go to: Matthew Astley, David Esposito. SEE ALSO ======== - Test::Unit::TestCase - Test::Unit::Exception - The framework self-testing suite (Test::Unit::tests::AllTests)  File: pm.info, Node: Test/Unit/Exception, Next: Test/Unit/ExceptionError, Prev: Test/Unit/Assert, Up: Module List unit testing framework exception class ************************************** NAME ==== Test::Unit::Exception - unit testing framework exception class SYNOPSIS ======== # this class is not intended to be used directly DESCRIPTION =========== This class is used by the framework to communicate the result of assertions, which will throw an instance of a subclass of this class in case of errors or failures. AUTHOR ====== Copyright (c) 2000 Christian Lemburg, . All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. Thanks go to the other PerlUnit framework people: Brian Ewins, Cayte Lindner, J.E. Fritz, Zhon Johansen. Thanks for patches go to: Matthew Astley. SEE ALSO ======== - Test::Unit::Assert - Test::Unit::ExceptionError - Test::Unit::ExceptionFailure  File: pm.info, Node: Test/Unit/ExceptionError, Next: Test/Unit/ExceptionFailure, Prev: Test/Unit/Exception, Up: Module List unit testing framework exception class ************************************** NAME ==== Test::Unit::ExceptionError - unit testing framework exception class SYNOPSIS ======== # this class is not intended to be used directly DESCRIPTION =========== This class is used by the framework to communicate the result of assertions, which will throw an instance of this class in case of errors (that is, syntax errors and the like, not failed tests, as these are classified as failures). AUTHOR ====== Copyright (c) 2000 Christian Lemburg, . All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. Thanks go to the other PerlUnit framework people: Brian Ewins, Cayte Lindner, J.E. Fritz, Zhon Johansen. SEE ALSO ======== - Test::Unit::Exception - Test::Unit::Assert  File: pm.info, Node: Test/Unit/ExceptionFailure, Next: Test/Unit/HarnessUnit, Prev: Test/Unit/ExceptionError, Up: Module List unit testing framework exception class ************************************** NAME ==== Test::Unit::ExceptionFailure - unit testing framework exception class SYNOPSIS ======== # this class is not intended to be used directly DESCRIPTION =========== This class is used by the framework to communicate the result of assertions, which will throw an instance of this class in case of failures (that is, failed tests, not syntax errors and the like, these are classified as errors). AUTHOR ====== Copyright (c) 2000 Christian Lemburg, . All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. Thanks go to the other PerlUnit framework people: Brian Ewins, Cayte Lindner, J.E. Fritz, Zhon Johansen. SEE ALSO ======== - Test::Unit::Exception - Test::Unit::Assert  File: pm.info, Node: Test/Unit/HarnessUnit, Next: Test/Unit/InnerClass, Prev: Test/Unit/ExceptionFailure, Up: Module List unit testing framework helper class *********************************** NAME ==== Test::Unit::HarnessUnit - unit testing framework helper class SYNOPSIS ======== # this class is not intended to be used directly DESCRIPTION =========== This is a test runner which outputs in the same format that Test::Harness expects. AUTHOR ====== Copyright (c) 2000 Brian Ewins. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. Thanks go to the other PerlUnit framework people: Christian Lemburg, Cayte Lindner, J.E. Fritz, Zhon Johansen. SEE ALSO ======== - Test::Unit::UnitHarness - Test::Unit::TestRunner - Test::Unit::TkTestRunner  File: pm.info, Node: Test/Unit/InnerClass, Next: Test/Unit/Test, Prev: Test/Unit/HarnessUnit, Up: Module List unit testing framework helper class *********************************** NAME ==== Test::Unit::InnerClass - unit testing framework helper class SYNOPSIS ======== # this class is not intended to be used directly DESCRIPTION =========== This class is used by the framework to emulate the anonymous inner classes feature of Java. It is much easier to port Java to Perl using this class. AUTHOR ====== Copyright (c) 2000 Christian Lemburg, . All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. Thanks go to the other PerlUnit framework people: Brian Ewins, Cayte Lindner, J.E. Fritz, Zhon Johansen. SEE ALSO ======== - the JUnit testing framework by Kent Beck and Erich Gamma  File: pm.info, Node: Test/Unit/Test, Next: Test/Unit/TestCase, Prev: Test/Unit/InnerClass, Up: Module List unit testing framework abstract base class ****************************************** NAME ==== Test::Unit::Test - unit testing framework abstract base class SYNOPSIS ======== # this class is not intended to be used directly DESCRIPTION =========== This class is used by the framework to define the interface of a test. It is an abstract base class implemented by Test::Unit::TestCase and Test::Unit::TestSuite. Due to the nature of the Perl OO implementation, this class is not really needed, but rather serves as documentation of the interface. AUTHOR ====== Copyright (c) 2000 Christian Lemburg, . All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. Thanks go to the other PerlUnit framework people: Brian Ewins, Cayte Lindner, J.E. Fritz, Zhon Johansen. SEE ALSO ======== - Test::Unit::Assert - Test::Unit::TestCase - Test::Unit::TestSuite  File: pm.info, Node: Test/Unit/TestCase, Next: Test/Unit/TestFailure, Prev: Test/Unit/Test, Up: Module List unit testing framework base class ********************************* NAME ==== Test::Unit::TestCase - unit testing framework base class SYNOPSIS ======== package FooBar; use base qw(Test::Unit::TestCase); sub new { my $self = shift()->SUPER::new(@_); # your state for fixture here return $self; } sub set_up { # provide fixture } sub tear_down { # clean up after test } sub test_foo { # test the foo feature } sub test_bar { # test the bar feature } DESCRIPTION =========== (Taken from the JUnit TestCase class documentation) A test case defines the "fixture" (resources need for testing) to run multiple tests. To define a test case: 1) implement a subclass of TestCase 2) define instance variables that store the state of the fixture 3) initialize the fixture state by overriding set_up() 4) clean-up after a test by overriding tear_down(). Each test runs in its own fixture so there can be no side effects among test runs. Here is an example: package MathTest; use base qw(Test::Unit::TestCase); sub new { my $self = shift()->SUPER::new(@_); $self->{value_1} = 0; $self->{value_2} = 0; return $self; } sub set_up { my $self = shift; $self->{value_1} = 2; $self->{value_2} = 3; } For each test implement a method which interacts with the fixture. Verify the expected results with assertions specified by calling $self->assert() with a boolean value. sub test_add { my $self = shift; my $result = $self->{value_1} + $self->{value_2}; $self->assert($result == 5); } Once the methods are defined you can run them. The normal way to do this uses reflection to implement run_test. It dynamically finds and invokes a method. For this the name of the test case has to correspond to the test method to be run. The tests to be run can be collected into a TestSuite. The framework provides different test runners, which can run a test suite and collect the results. A test runner either expects a method suite() as the entry point to get a test to run or it will extract the suite automatically. If you do not like the rather verbose backtrace that appears when a test fails, you can use the quell_backtrace() method. You will get any message provided, but not the backtrace. AUTHOR ====== Framework JUnit authored by Kent Beck and Erich Gamma. Ported from Java to Perl by Christian Lemburg. Copyright (c) 2000 Christian Lemburg, . All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. Thanks go to the other PerlUnit framework people: Brian Ewins, Cayte Lindner, J.E. Fritz, Zhon Johansen. Thanks for patches go to: Matthew Astley. SEE ALSO ======== - Test::Unit::TestSuite - Test::Unit::TestRunner - Test::Unit::TkTestRunner - For further examples, take a look at the framework self test collection (Test::Unit::tests::AllTests).  File: pm.info, Node: Test/Unit/TestFailure, Next: Test/Unit/TestListener, Prev: Test/Unit/TestCase, Up: Module List unit testing framework helper class *********************************** NAME ==== Test::Unit::TestFailure - unit testing framework helper class SYNOPSIS ======== # this class is not intended to be used directly DESCRIPTION =========== This class is used by the framework to record the results of failed tests, which will throw an instance of a subclass of Test::Unit::Exception in case of errors or failures. AUTHOR ====== Copyright (c) 2000 Christian Lemburg, . All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. Thanks go to the other PerlUnit framework people: Brian Ewins, Cayte Lindner, J.E. Fritz, Zhon Johansen. SEE ALSO ======== - Test::Unit::TestResult - Test::Unit::Exception  File: pm.info, Node: Test/Unit/TestListener, Next: Test/Unit/TestLoader, Prev: Test/Unit/TestFailure, Up: Module List unit testing framework abstract base class ****************************************** NAME ==== Test::Unit::TestListener - unit testing framework abstract base class SYNOPSIS ======== # this class is not intended to be used directly DESCRIPTION =========== This class is used by the framework to define the interface of a test listener. It is an abstract base class implemented by the test runners. Due to the nature of the Perl OO implementation, this class is not really needed, but rather serves as documentation of the interface. Each of the add_ methods gets two arguments: 'test' and 'exception'. The test is a Test::Unit::Test and the exception is a Test::Unit::Exception. Typically you want to display test->name() and keep the rest as details. AUTHOR ====== Copyright (c) 2000 Brian Ewins, Christian Lemburg, . All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. Thanks go to the other PerlUnit framework people: Cayte Lindner, J.E. Fritz, Zhon Johansen. SEE ALSO ======== - Test::Unit::Exception - Test::Unit::TestRunner - Test::Unit::TkTestRunner  File: pm.info, Node: Test/Unit/TestLoader, Next: Test/Unit/TestResult, Prev: Test/Unit/TestListener, Up: Module List unit testing framework helper class *********************************** NAME ==== Test::Unit::TestLoader - unit testing framework helper class SYNOPSIS ======== # this class is not intended to be used directly DESCRIPTION =========== This class is used by the framework to load testcase classes into the runtime environment. It handles testcase class names (that is, classes inheriting from Test::Unit::TestCase), Test::Harness style test files, and directory names. =head1 AUTHOR Copyright (c) 2000 Brian Ewins. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. Thanks go to the other PerlUnit framework people: Christian Lemburg, Cayte Lindner, J.E. Fritz, Zhon Johansen. SEE ALSO ======== - Test::Unit::TestCase - Test::Unit::UnitHarness - Test::Unit::TkTestRunner  File: pm.info, Node: Test/Unit/TestResult, Next: Test/Unit/TestRunner, Prev: Test/Unit/TestLoader, Up: Module List unit testing framework helper class *********************************** NAME ==== Test::Unit::TestResult - unit testing framework helper class SYNOPSIS ======== # this class is not intended to be used directly DESCRIPTION =========== This class is used by the framework to record the results of tests, which will throw an instance of a subclass of Test::Unit::Exception in case of errors or failures. To achieve this, this class gets called with a test case as argument. It will call this test case's run method back and catch any exceptions thrown. This is the quintessential call tree of the communication needed to record the results of a given test: $aTestCase->run() { # creates result $aTestResult->run($aTestCase) { # catches exception and records it $aTestCase->run_bare() { # runs test method inside eval $aTestCase->run_test() { # calls method $aTestCase->name() # and propagates exception # method will call Assert::assert() # to cause failure if test fails on # test assertion # it finds this because $aTestCase is-a Assert } } } } AUTHOR ====== Copyright (c) 2000 Christian Lemburg, . All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. Thanks go to the other PerlUnit framework people: Brian Ewins, Cayte Lindner, J.E. Fritz, Zhon Johansen. SEE ALSO ======== - Test::Unit::Assert - Test::Unit::TestCase - Test::Unit::Exception  File: pm.info, Node: Test/Unit/TestRunner, Next: Test/Unit/TestSuite, Prev: Test/Unit/TestResult, Up: Module List unit testing framework helper class *********************************** NAME ==== Test::Unit::TestRunner - unit testing framework helper class SYNOPSIS ======== use Test::Unit::TestRunner; my $testrunner = Test::Unit::TestRunner->new(); $testrunner->start($my_testcase_class); DESCRIPTION =========== This class is the test runner for the command line style use of the testing framework. It is used by simple command line tools like the TestRunner.pl script provided. The class needs one argument, which is the name of the class encapsulating the tests to be run. Options: -wait : wait for user confirmation between tests -v : Version info AUTHOR ====== Framework JUnit authored by Kent Beck and Erich Gamma. Ported from Java to Perl by Christian Lemburg. Copyright (c) 2000 Christian Lemburg, . All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. Thanks go to the other PerlUnit framework people: Brian Ewins, Cayte Lindner, J.E. Fritz, Zhon Johansen. SEE ALSO ======== - Test::Unit::TestCase - Test::Unit::TestListener - Test::Unit::TestSuite - Test::Unit::TestResult - Test::Unit::TkTestRunner - For further examples, take a look at the framework self test collection (Test::Unit::tests::AllTests).  File: pm.info, Node: Test/Unit/TestSuite, Next: Test/Unit/TkTestRunner, Prev: Test/Unit/TestRunner, Up: Module List unit testing framework base class ********************************* NAME ==== Test::Unit::TestSuite - unit testing framework base class SYNOPSIS ======== use Test::Unit::TestSuite; # more code here ... sub suite { my $class = shift; # create an empty suite my $suite = Test::Unit::TestSuite->empty_new("A Test Suite"); # get and add an existing suite $suite->add_test(Test::Unit::TestSuite->new("MyModule::Suite_1")); # extract suite by way of suite method and add $suite->add_test(MyModule::Suite_2->suite()); # get and add another existing suite $suite->add_test(Test::Unit::TestSuite->new("MyModule::TestCase_2")); # return the suite built return $suite; } DESCRIPTION =========== This class is normally not used directly, but it can be used for creating your own custom built aggregate suites. Normally, this class just provides the functionality of auto-building a test suite by extracting methods with a name prefix of "test" from a given package to the test runners. AUTHOR ====== Framework JUnit authored by Kent Beck and Erich Gamma. Ported from Java to Perl by Christian Lemburg. Copyright (c) 2000 Christian Lemburg, . All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. Thanks go to the other PerlUnit framework people: Brian Ewins, Cayte Lindner, J.E. Fritz, Zhon Johansen. SEE ALSO ======== - Test::Unit::TestRunner - Test::Unit::TkTestRunner - For further examples, take a look at the framework self test collection (Test::Unit::tests::AllTests).  File: pm.info, Node: Test/Unit/TkTestRunner, Next: Test/Unit/Tutorial, Prev: Test/Unit/TestSuite, Up: Module List unit testing framework helper class *********************************** NAME ==== Test::Unit::TkTestRunner - unit testing framework helper class SYNOPSIS ======== use Test::Unit::TkTestRunner; Test::Unit::TkTestRunner::main($my_testcase_class); DESCRIPTION =========== This class is the test runner for the GUI style use of the testing framework. It is used by simple command line tools like the TkTestRunner.pl script provided. The class needs as arguments the names of the classes encapsulating the tests to be run. =head1 AUTHOR Framework JUnit authored by Kent Beck and Erich Gamma. Copyright (c) 2000 Brian Ewins. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. Thanks go to the other PerlUnit framework people: Christian Lemburg, Cayte Lindner, J.E. Fritz, Zhon Johansen. Thanks for patches go to: David Esposito. SEE ALSO ======== - Test::Unit::TestLoader - Test::Unit::TestListener - Test::Unit::TestResult - Test::Unit::TestRunner - Test::Unit::TestCase - Test::Unit::TestSuite - For further examples, take a look at the framework self test collection (Test::Unit::tests::AllTests).  File: pm.info, Node: Test/Unit/Tutorial, Next: Test/Unit/UnitHarness, Prev: Test/Unit/TkTestRunner, Up: Module List Tutorial on unit testing ************************ NAME ==== Test::Unit::Tutorial - Tutorial on unit testing SYNOPSIS ======== perldoc Test::Unit::Tutorial DESCRIPTION =========== Here should be extensive documentation on what unit testing is, why it is useful, and how to do it with the Test::Unit collection of modules. Sorry for not implementing this yet. Please have a look at the examples in the examples directory and read the README file that came with this distribution. A short tutorial on how to use the unit testing framework is included in the Test::Unit::TestCase documentation. Further examples can be found by looking at the self test collection, starting in Test::Unit::tests::AllTests. AUTHOR ====== Christian Lemburg SEE ALSO ======== - The module documentation for all modules in the Test::Unit tree. - Refactoring. Improving The Design Of Existing Code. Martin Fowler. Addison-Wesley, 1999. - The JUnit (unit testing framework for Java) documentation. - http://www.xProgramming.com/  File: pm.info, Node: Test/Unit/UnitHarness, Next: Test/Unit/tests/AllTests, Prev: Test/Unit/Tutorial, Up: Module List unit testing framework helper class *********************************** NAME ==== Test::Unit::UnitHarness - unit testing framework helper class SYNOPSIS ======== # this class is not intended to be used directly DESCRIPTION =========== This is a makeover of Test::Harness to allow its tests to be retrofitted as unit tests. AUTHOR ====== Copyright (c) 2000 Brian Ewins. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. Thanks go to the other PerlUnit framework people: Christian Lemburg, Cayte Lindner, J.E. Fritz, Zhon Johansen. SEE ALSO ======== - Test::Unit::UnitHarness - Test::Unit::TestRunner - Test::Unit::TkTestRunner  File: pm.info, Node: Test/Unit/tests/AllTests, Next: Text/Abbrev, Prev: Test/Unit/UnitHarness, Up: Module List unit testing framework self tests ********************************* NAME ==== Test::Unit::tests::AllTests - unit testing framework self tests SYNOPSIS ======== # command line style use perl TestRunner.pl Test::Unit::tests::AllTests # GUI style use perl TkTestRunner.pl Test::Unit::tests::AllTests DESCRIPTION =========== This class is used by the unit testing framework to encapsulate all the self tests of the framework. =head1 AUTHOR Framework JUnit authored by Kent Beck and Erich Gamma. Ported from Java to Perl by Christian Lemburg. Copyright (c) 2000 Christian Lemburg, . All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. Thanks go to the other PerlUnit framework people: Brian Ewins, Cayte Lindner, J.E. Fritz, Zhon Johansen. SEE ALSO ======== - Test::Unit::TestCase - Test::Unit::TestSuite  File: pm.info, Node: Text/Abbrev, Next: Text/Annotated/Line, Prev: Test/Unit/tests/AllTests, Up: Module List create an abbreviation table from a list **************************************** NAME ==== abbrev - create an abbreviation table from a list SYNOPSIS ======== use Text::Abbrev; abbrev $hashref, LIST DESCRIPTION =========== Stores all unambiguous truncations of each element of LIST as keys in the associative array referenced by $hashref. The values are the original list elements. EXAMPLE ======= $hashref = abbrev qw(list edit send abort gripe); %hash = abbrev qw(list edit send abort gripe); abbrev $hashref, qw(list edit send abort gripe); abbrev(*hash, qw(list edit send abort gripe));  File: pm.info, Node: Text/Annotated/Line, Next: Text/Annotated/Reader, Prev: Text/Abbrev, Up: Module List strings with annotation about their origin ****************************************** NAME ==== Text::Annotated::Line - strings with annotation about their origin SYNOPSIS ======== use Text::Annotated::Line; # construct a line $line = new Text::Annotated::Line( filename => 'foo', linenr => 23, content => 'This is the line content', ); # print the line, with annotation print $line->stringify_annotated, "\n"; # print the line without annotation print $line, "\n"; DESCRIPTION =========== FIELDS ------ All of the following fields must be set through the constructor new(): filename name of the file the string originates from linenr number of the line in the file the string is located content the actual content of the string METHODS ------- new() Constructs a new Text::Annotated::Line object. Fields can be set by passing them as a hash to new(). stringify() Returns the line without annotations. This method is used for overloading, so you implicitly call it in any circumstance where you use a Text::Annotated::Line object where a string is expected. stringify_annotated() Returns a string with the content AND the annotation if the format `[filename#linenr]content'. Trailing newlines in the content are omitted. SEE ALSO ======== Filters for handling annotated lines are described in *Note Text/Annotated/Reader: Text/Annotated/Reader, and *Note Text/Annotated/Writer: Text/Annotated/Writer,. CVS VERSION =========== This is CVS version $Revision: 1.3 $, last updated at $Date: 2000/12/05 15:45:10 $. AUTHOR ====== Wim Verhaegen COPYRIGHT ========= Copyright (c) 2000 Wim Verhaegen. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.  File: pm.info, Node: Text/Annotated/Reader, Next: Text/Annotated/Writer, Prev: Text/Annotated/Line, Up: Module List a filter for annotating lines coming from a file ************************************************ NAME ==== Text::Annotated::Reader - a filter for annotating lines coming from a file SYNOPSIS ======== use Text::Annotated::Reader; my $reader = new Text::Annotated::Reader(input => 'text.in'); $reader->read(); $ra_annotated_lines = $reader->{annotated_lines}; DESCRIPTION =========== Text::Annotated::Reader is a subclass of Text::Filter, with as purpose the reading of lines from a file, and annotating the filename and linenumber for each line. The following issues are specific to Text::Annotated::Reader: * The set_input() method only accepts filenames as a valid input argument. This requirement is also imposed on the input argument passed to new(), as new() invokes set_input(). * The read() method executes the input operation. run() is an alias for read(). * The reader() method builds a Text::Annotated::Reader filter with the supplied arguments, calls read() and finally returns the filter. It is thus possible to combine the whole input operation in a single statement like my $ra_annotated_lines = Text::Annotated::Reader->reader(input => 'text.in')->{annotated_lines}; SEE ALSO ======== More info on using filters is available from *Note Text/Filter: Text/Filter,. *Note Text/Annotated/Line: Text/Annotated/Line, describes annotated lines. CVS VERSION =========== This is CVS version $Revision: 1.4 $, last updated at $Date: 2000/12/05 15:45:11 $. AUTHOR ====== Wim Verhaegen COPYRIGHT ========= Copyright (c) 2000 Wim Verhaegen. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.  File: pm.info, Node: Text/Annotated/Writer, Next: Text/Autoformat, Prev: Text/Annotated/Reader, Up: Module List filter for writing Text::Annotated lines **************************************** NAME ==== Text::Annotated::Writer - filter for writing Text::Annotated lines SYNOPSIS ======== use Text::Annotated::Writer; my $writer = new Text::Annotated::Writer( input => $ra_annotated_lines, # ref to array with Text::Annotated objects output => 'text.out', # output file no_annotation => 1, # suppresses writing of the annotations ); $writer->write(); # actually writes the lines to file DESCRIPTION =========== Text::Annotated::Writer is a subclass of Text::Filter, with as purpose the dumping of annotated lines to an array of ASCII lines or a file. The following issues are specific to Text::Annotated::Writer: * The list of allowed arguments to new() includes the `no_annotation' flag. When set to a true value, the annotation of the lines is suppressed in the output, and only the ASCII content is shown. The default behaviour is to output the annotation with each line. * The write() method executes the output operation. run() is an alias for write(). * The writer() method builds a Text::Annotated::Writer filter with the supplied arguments, calls write() and finally returns the filter. It is thus possible to combine the whole output operation in a single statement like Text::Annotated::Writer->writer( input => $ra_annotated_lines, output => 'text.out', no_annotation => 1, ); SEE ALSO ======== More info on using filters is available from *Note Text/Filter: Text/Filter,. *Note Text/Annotated/Line: Text/Annotated/Line, describes annotated lines. CVS VERSION =========== This is CVS version $Revision: 1.4 $, last updated at $Date: 2000/12/05 15:45:11 $. AUTHOR ====== Wim Verhaegen COPYRIGHT ========= Copyright (c) 2000 Wim Verhaegen. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.  File: pm.info, Node: Text/Autoformat, Next: Text/Balanced, Prev: Text/Annotated/Writer, Up: Module List Automatic and manual text wrapping and reformating formatting ************************************************************* NAME ==== Text::Autoformat - Automatic and manual text wrapping and reformating formatting VERSION ======= This document describes version 1.04 of Text::Autoformat, released December 5, 2000. SYNOPSIS ======== # Minimal use: read from STDIN, format to STDOUT... use Text::Autoformat; autoformat; # In-memory formatting... $formatted = autoformat $rawtext; # Configuration... $formatted = autoformat $rawtext, { %options }; # Margins (1..72 by default)... $formatted = autoformat $rawtext, { left=>8, right=>70 }; # Justification (left by default)... $formatted = autoformat $rawtext, { justify => 'left' }; $formatted = autoformat $rawtext, { justify => 'right' }; $formatted = autoformat $rawtext, { justify => 'full' }; $formatted = autoformat $rawtext, { justify => 'centre' }; # Filling (does so by default)... $formatted = autoformat $rawtext, { fill=>0 }; # Squeezing whitespace (does so by default)... $formatted = autoformat $rawtext, { squeeze=>0 }; # Case conversions... $formatted = autoformat $rawtext, { case => 'lower' }; $formatted = autoformat $rawtext, { case => 'upper' }; $formatted = autoformat $rawtext, { case => 'sentence' }; $formatted = autoformat $rawtext, { case => 'title' }; $formatted = autoformat $rawtext, { case => 'highlight' }; BACKGROUND ========== The problem ----------- Perl plaintext formatters just aren't smart enough. Given a typical piece of plaintext in need of formatting: In comp.lang.perl.misc you wrote: : > writes: : > CN> PERL sux because: : > CN> * It doesn't have a switch statement and you have to put $ : > CN>signs in front of everything : > CN> * There are too many OR operators: having |, || and 'or' : > CN>operators is confusing : > CN> * VB rools, yeah!!!!!!!!! : > CN> So anyway, how can I stop reloads on a web page? : > CN> Email replies only, thanks - I don't read this newsgroup. : > : > Begone, sirrah! You are a pathetic, Bill-loving, microcephalic : > script-infant. : Sheesh, what's with this group - ask a question, get toasted! And how : *dare* you accuse me of Ianuphilia! both the venerable Unix `fmt' in this node tool and Perl's standard Text::Wrap module produce: In comp.lang.perl.misc you wrote: : > writes: : > CN> PERL sux because: : > CN> * It doesn't have a switch statement and you have to put $ : > CN>signs in front of everything : > CN> * There are too many OR operators: having |, || and 'or' : > CN>operators is confusing : > CN> * VB rools, yeah!!!!!!!!! : > CN> So anyway, how can I stop reloads on a web page? : > CN> Email replies only, thanks - I don't read this newsgroup. : > : > Begone, sirrah! You are a pathetic, Bill-loving, microcephalic : > script-infant. : Sheesh, what's with this group - ask a question, get toasted! And how : *dare* you accuse me of Ianuphilia! Other formatting modules - such as Text::Correct and Text::Format - provide more control over their output, but produce equally poor results when applied to arbitrary input. They simply don't understand the structural conventions of the text they're reformatting. The solution ------------ The Text::Autoformat module provides a subroutine named `autoformat' that wraps text to specified margins. However, `autoformat' reformats its input by analysing the text's structure, so it wraps the above example like so: In comp.lang.perl.misc you wrote: : > writes: : > CN> PERL sux because: : > CN> * It doesn't have a switch statement and you : > CN> have to put $ signs in front of everything : > CN> * There are too many OR operators: having |, || : > CN> and 'or' operators is confusing : > CN> * VB rools, yeah!!!!!!!!! So anyway, how can I : > CN> stop reloads on a web page? Email replies : > CN> only, thanks - I don't read this newsgroup. : > : > Begone, sirrah! You are a pathetic, Bill-loving, : > microcephalic script-infant. : Sheesh, what's with this group - ask a question, get toasted! : And how *dare* you accuse me of Ianuphilia! Note that the various quoting conventions have been observed. In fact, their structure has been used to determine where some paragraphs begin. Furthermore `autoformat' correctly distinguished between the leading '*' bullets of the nested list (which were outdented) and the leading emphatic '*' of "*dare*" (which was inlined). DESCRIPTION =========== Paragraphs ---------- The fundamental task of the `autoformat' subroutine is to identify and rearrange independent paragraphs in a text. Paragraphs typically consist of a series of lines containing at least one non-whitespace character, followed by one or more lines containing only optional whitespace. This is a more liberal definition than many other formatters use: most require an empty line to terminate a paragraph. Paragraphs may also be denoted by bulleting, numbering, or quoting (see the following sections). Once a paragraph has been isolated, `autoformat' fills and re-wraps its lines according to the margins that are specified in its argument list. These are placed after the text to be formatted, in a hash reference: $tidied = autoformat($messy, {left=>20, right=>60}); By default, `autoformat' uses a left margin of 1 (first column) and a right margin of 72. Normally, `autoformat' only reformats the first paragraph it encounters, and leaves the remainder of the text unaltered. This behaviour is useful because it allows a one-liner invoking the subroutine to be mapped onto a convenient keystroke in a text editor, to provide one-paragraph-at-a-time reformatting: % cat .exrc map f !Gperl -MText::Autoformat -e'autoformat' (Note that to facilitate such one-liners, if `autoformat' is called in a void context without any text data, it takes its text from STDIN and writes its result to STDOUT). To enable `autoformat' to rearrange the entire input text at once, the all argument is used: $tidied_all = autoformat($messy, {left=>20, right=>60, all=>1}); Bulleting and (re-)numbering ---------------------------- Often plaintext will include lists that are either: * bulleted, * simply numbered (i.e. 1., 2., 3., etc.), or * hierarchically numbered (1, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2, 2.1. and so forth). In such lists, each bulleted item is implicitly a separate paragraph, and is formatted individually, with the appropriate indentation: * bulleted, * simply numbered (i.e. 1., 2., 3., etc.), or * hierarchically numbered (1, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2, 2.1. and so forth). More importantly, if the points are numbered, the numbering is checked and reordered. For example, a list whose points have been rearranged: 2. Analyze problem 3. Design algorithm 1. Code solution 5. Test 4. Ship would be renumbered automatically by `autoformat': 1. Analyze problem 2. Design algorithm 3. Code solution 4. Ship 5. Test The same reordering would be performed if the "numbering" was by letters (`a.' `b.' `c.' etc.) or Roman numerals (`i.' `ii.' `iii.)' or by some combination of these (`1a.' `1b.' `2a.' `2b.' etc.) Handling disordered lists of letters and Roman numerals presents an interesting challenge. A list such as: C. Put cat in box. D. Close lid. E. Activate Geiger counter. should be reordered as `A.' `B.' `C.,' whereas: C. Put cat in box. D. Close lid. XLI. Activate Geiger counter. should be reordered `I.' `II.' `III.' The `autoformat' subroutine solves this problem by always interpreting alphabetic bullets as being letters, unless the full list consists only of valid Roman numerals, at least one of which is two or more characters long. Quoting ------- Another case in which contiguous lines may be interpreted as belonging to different paragraphs, is where they are quoted with distinct quoters. For example: : > CN> So anyway, how can I stop reloads on a web page? : > CN> Email replies only, thanks - I don't read this newsgroup. : > Begone, sirrah! You are a pathetic, Bill-loving, : > microcephalic script-infant. : Sheesh, what's with this group - ask a question, get toasted! : And how *dare* you accuse me of Ianuphilia! `autoformat' recognizes the various quoting conventions used in this example and treats it as three paragraphs to be independently reformatted. Block quotations present a different challenge. A typical formatter would render the following quotation: "We are all of us in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars" -- Oscar Wilde like so: "We are all of us in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars" -- Oscar Wilde `autoformat' recognizes the quotation structure by matching the following regular expression against the text component of each paragraph: / \A(\s*) # leading whitespace for quotation (["']|``) # opening quotemark (.*) # quotation (''|\2) # closing quotemark \s*?\n # trailing whitespace after quotation (\1[ ]+) # leading whitespace for attribution # (must be indented more than quotation) (--|-) # attribution introducer ([^\n]*?\n) # first attribution line ((\5[^\n]*?$)*) # other attribution lines # (indented no less than first line) \s*\Z # optional whitespace to end of paragraph /xsm When reformatted (see below), the indentation and the attribution structure will be preserved: "We are all of us in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars" -- Oscar Wilde Widow control ------------- Note that in the last example, `autoformat' broke the line at column 68, four characters earlier than it should have. It did so because, if the full margin width had been used, the formatting would have left the last two words by themselves on an oddly short last line: "We are all of us in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars" This phenomenon is known as "widowing" and is heavily frowned upon in typesetting circles. It looks ugly in plaintext too, so `autoformat' avoids it by stealing extra words from earlier lines in a paragraph, so as to leave enough for a reasonable last line. The heuristic used is that final lines must be at least 10 characters long (though this number may be adjusted by passing a `widow => *minlength*' argument to `autoformat'). If the last line is too short, the paragraph's right margin is reduced by one column, and the paragraph is reformatted. This process iterates until either the last line exceeds nine characters or the margins have been narrowed by 10% of their original separation. In the latter case, the reformatter gives up and uses its original formatting. Justification ------------- The `autoformat' subroutine also takes a named argument: `{justify => *type*}', which specifies how each paragraph is to be justified. The options are: `'left'' (the default), `'right',' `'centre'' (or `'center''), and `'full''. These act on the complete paragraph text (but not on any quoters before that text). For example, with `'right'' justification: R3> Now is the Winter of our discontent made R3> glorious Summer by this son of York. And all R3> the clouds that lour'd upon our house In the R3> deep bosom of the ocean buried. Full justification is interesting in a fixed-width medium like plaintext because it usually results in uneven spacing between words. Typically, formatters provide this by distributing the extra spaces into the first available gaps of each line: R3> Now is the Winter of our discontent made R3> glorious Summer by this son of York. And all R3> the clouds that lour'd upon our house In R3> the deep bosom of the ocean buried. This produces a rather jarring visual effect, so `autoformat' reverses the strategy and inserts extra spaces at the end of lines: R3> Now is the Winter of our discontent made R3> glorious Summer by this son of York. And all R3> the clouds that lour'd upon our house In R3> the deep bosom of the ocean buried. Most readers find this less disconcerting. Implicit centring ----------------- Even if explicit centring is not specified, `autoformat' will attempt to automatically detect centred paragraphs and preserve their justification. It does this by examining each line of the paragraph and asking: "if this line were part of a centred paragraph, where would the centre line have been?" The answer can be determined by adding the length of leading whitespace before the first word, plus half the length of the full set of words on the line. That is, for a single line: $line =~ /^(\s*)(.*?)(\s*)$/ $centre = length($1)+0.5*length($2); By making the same estimate for every line, and then comparing the estimates, it is possible to deduce whether all the lines are centred with respect to the same axis of symmetry (with an allowance of E1 to cater for the inevitable rounding when the centre positions of even-length rows were originally computed). If a common axis of symmetry is detected, `autoformat' assumes that the lines are supposed to be centred, and switches to centre-justification mode for that paragraph. Case transformations -------------------- The `autoformat' subroutine can also optionally perform case conversions on the text it processes. The `{case => *type*}' argument allows the user to specify five different conversions: `'upper'' This mode unconditionally converts every letter in the reformatted text to upper-case; `'lower'' This mode unconditionally converts every letter in the reformatted text to lower-case; `'sentence'' This mode attempts to generate correctly-cased sentences from the input text. That is, the first letter after a sentence-terminating punctuator is converted to upper-case. Then, each subsequent word in the sentence is converted to lower-case, unless that word is originally mixed-case or contains punctuation. For example, under `{case => 'sentence'}': 'POVERTY, MISERY, ETC. are the lot of the PhD candidate. alas!' becomes: 'Poverty, misery, etc. are the lot of the PhD candidate. Alas!' Note that `autoformat' is clever enough to recognize that the period after abbreviations such as etc. is not a sentence terminator. If the argument is specified as `'sentence '' (with one or more trailing whitespace characters) those characters are used to replace the single space that appears at the end of the sentence. For example, `autoformat($text, {case=>'sentence '}') would produce: 'Poverty, misery, etc. are the lot of the PhD candidate. Alas!' 'title' This mode behaves like `'sentence'' except that the first letter of every word is capitalized: 'What I Did On My Summer Vacation In Monterey' `'highlight'' This mode behaves like 'title' except that trivial words are not capitalized: 'What I Did on my Summer Vacation in Monterey' OTHER FEATURES ============== The form sub ------------ The `form()' subroutine may be exported from the module. It takes a series of format (or "picture") strings followed by replacement values, interpolates those values into each picture string, and returns the result. The effect is similar to the inbuilt perl format mechanism, although the field specification syntax is simpler and some of the formatting behaviour is more sophisticated. A picture string consists of sequences of the following characters: < Left-justified field indicator. A series of sequential <'s specify a left-justified field to be filled by a subsequent value. > Right-justified field indicator. A series of sequential >'s specify a right-justified field to be filled by a subsequent value. ^ Centre-justified field indicator. A series of sequential ^'s specify a centred field to be filled by a subsequent value. >>>.<<<< A numerically formatted field with the specified number of digits to either side of the decimal place. See `Numerical formatting' in this node below. [ Left-justified block field indicator. Just like a < field, except it repeats as required on subsequent lines. See below. ] Right-justified block field indicator. Just like a > field, except it repeats as required on subsequent lines. See below. | Centre-justified block field indicator. Just like a ^ field, except it repeats as required on subsequent lines. See below. ]]].[[[[ A numerically formatted block field with the specified number of digits to either side of the decimal place. Just like a >>>.<<<< field, except it repeats as required on subsequent lines. See below. \ Literal escape of next character (e.g. `\|' is formatted as '|', not a one character wide centre-justified block field). Any other character That literal character. Any substitution value which is undef (either explicitly so, or because it is missing) is replaced by an empty string. Controlling line filling. ------------------------- Note that, unlike the a perl format, form preserves whitespace (including newlines) unless called with certain options. The "squeeze" option (when specified with a true value) causes any sequence of spaces and/or tabs (but not newlines) in an interpolated string to be replaced with a single space. The "fill" option causes newlines to also be squeezed. Hence: $frmt = "# [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[["; $data = "h e\t \tl lo\nworld\t\t\t\t\t"; print form $frmt, $data; # h e l lo # world print form {squeeze=>1}, $frmt, $data; # h e l lo # world print form {fill=>1}, $frmt, $data; # h e l lo world print form {squeeze=>1, fill=>1}, $frmt, $data; # h e l lo world Whether or not filling or squeezing is in effect, form can also be directed to trim any extra whitespace from the end of each line it formats, using the "trim" option. If this option is specified with a true value, every line returned by form will automatically have the substitution `s/[ \t]+$//gm' applied to it. Hence: print length form "[[[[[[[[[[", "short"; # 11 print length form {trim=>1}, "[[[[[[[[[[", "short"; # 6 Temporary and permanent default options --------------------------------------- If form is called with options, but no template string or data, it resets it's defaults to the options specified. If called in a void context: form { squeeze => 1, trim => 1 }; the options become permanent defaults. However, when called with only options in non-void context, form resets its defaults to those options and returns an object. The reset default values persist only until that returned object is destroyed. Hence to temporarily reset form's defaults within a single subroutine: sub single { my $tmp = form { squeeze => 1, trim => 1 }; # do formatting with the obove defaults } # form's defaults revert to previous values as $tmp object destroyed How form hyphenates ------------------- Any line with a block field repeats on subsequent lines until all block fields on that line have consumed all their data. Non-block fields on these lines are replaced by the appropriate number of spaces. Words are wrapped whole, unless they will not fit into the field at all, in which case they are broken and (by default) hyphenated. Simple hyphenation is used (i.e. break at the *N-1*th character and insert a '-'), unless a suitable alternative subroutine is specified instead. Words will not be broken if the break would leave less than 2 characters on the current line. This minimum can be varied by setting the 'minbreak' option to a numeric value indicating the minumum total broken characters (including hyphens) required on the current line. Note that, for very narrow fields, words will still be broken (but *unhyphenated*). For example: print form '|', 'split'; would print: s p l i t whilst: print form {minbreak=>1}, '|', 'split'; would print: s- p- l- i- t Alternative breaking subroutines can be specified using the "break" option in a configuration hash. For example: form { break => \&my_line_breaker } $format_str, @data; form expects any user-defined line-breaking subroutine to take three arguments (the string to be broken, the maximum permissible length of the initial section, and the total width of the field being filled). The `hypenate' sub must return a list of two strings: the initial (broken) section of the word, and the remainder of the string respectively). For example: sub tilde_break = sub($$$) { (substr($_[0],0,$_[1]-1).'~', substr($_[0],$_[1]-1)); } form { break => \&tilde_break } $format_str, @data; makes '~' the hyphenation character, whilst: sub wrap_and_slop = sub($$$) { my ($text, $reqlen, $fldlen) = @_; if ($reqlen==$fldlen) { $text =~ m/\A(\s*\S*)(.*)/s } else { ("", $text) } } form { break => \&wrap_and_slop } $format_str, @data; wraps excessively long words to the next line and "slops" them over the right margin if necessary. The Text::Autoformat package provides three functions to simplify the use of variant hyphenation schemes. The exportable subroutine `Text::Autoformat::break_wrap' generates a reference to a subroutine implementing the "wrap-and-slop" algorithm shown in the last example, which could therefore be rewritten: use Text::Autoformat qw( form break_wrap ); form { break => break_wrap } $format_str, @data; The subroutine `Text::Autoformat::break_with' takes a single string argument and returns a reference to a sub which hyphenates with that string. Hence the first of the two examples could be rewritten: use Text::Autoformat qw( form break_wrap ); form { break => break_with('~') } $format_str, @data; The subroutine `Text::Autoformat::break_TeX' returns a reference to a sub which hyphenates using Jan Pazdziora's TeX::Hyphen module. For example: use Text::Autoformat qw( form break_wrap ); form { break => break_TeX } $format_str, @data; Note that in the previous examples there is no leading '\&' before `break_wrap', `break_with', or `break_TeX', since each is being directly *called* (and returns a reference to some other suitable subroutine); The form formatting algorithm ----------------------------- The algorithm form uses is: 1. split the first string in the argument list into individual format lines and add a terminating newline (unless one is already present). 2. for each format line... 2.1. determine the number of fields and shift that many values off the argument list and into the filling list. If insufficient arguments are available, generate as many empty strings as are required. 2.2. generate a text line by filling each field in the format line with the initial contents of the corresponding arg in the filling list (and remove those initial contents from the arg). 2.3. replace any <,>, or ^ fields by an equivalent number of spaces. Splice out the corresponding args from the filling list. 2.4. Repeat from step 2.2 until all args in the filling list are empty. 3. concatenate the text lines generated in step 2 4. repeat from step 1 until the argument list is empty form examples ------------- As an example of the use of form, the following: $count = 1; $text = "A big long piece of text to be formatted exquisitely"; print form q { |||| <<<<<<<<<< ---------------- ^^^^ ]]]]]]]]]]\| = ]]].[[[ }, $count, $text, $count+11, $text, "123 123.4\n123.456789"; produces the following output: 1 A big long ---------------- 12 piece of| text to be| formatted| exquisite-| ly| = 123.0 123.4 123.456 Picture strings and replacement values can be interleaved in the traditional format format, but care is needed to ensure that the correct number of substitution values are provided. For example: $report = form 'Name Rank Serial Number', '==== ==== =============', '<<<<<<<<<<<<< ^^^^ <<<<<<<<<<<<<', $name, $rank, $serial_number, '' 'Age Sex Description', '=== === ===========', '^^^ ^^^ [[[[[[[[[[[', $age, $sex, $description; How form consumes strings ------------------------- Unlike format, within form non-block fields do consume the text they format, so the following: $text = "a line of text to be formatted over three lines"; print form "<<<<<<<<<<\n <<<<<<<<\n <<<<<<\n", $text, $text, $text; produces: a line of text to be fo- not: a line of a line a line To achieve the latter effect, convert the variable arguments to independent literals (by double-quoted interpolation): $text = "a line of text to be formatted over three lines"; print form "<<<<<<<<<<\n <<<<<<<<\n <<<<<<\n", "$text", "$text", "$text"; Although values passed from variable arguments are progressively consumed *within* form, the values of the original variables passed to form are not altered. Hence: $text = "a line of text to be formatted over three lines"; print form "<<<<<<<<<<\n <<<<<<<<\n <<<<<<\n", $text, $text, $text; print $text, "\n"; will print: a line of text to be fo- a line of text to be formatted over three lines To cause form to consume the values of the original variables passed to it, pass them as references. Thus: $text = "a line of text to be formatted over three lines"; print form "<<<<<<<<<<\n <<<<<<<<\n <<<<<<\n", \$text, \$text, \$text; print $text, "\n"; will print: a line of text to be fo- rmatted over three lines Note that, for safety, the "non-consuming" behaviour takes precedence, so if a variable is passed to form both by reference and by value, its final value will be unchanged. Numerical formatting -------------------- The ">>>.<<<" and "]]].[[[" field specifiers may be used to format numeric values about a fixed decimal place marker. For example: print form '(]]]]].[[)', < AllPlaces }, '(]]]]].[[)', <<'EONUMS'; 1 1.0 EONUMS would print: ( 1.00) ( 1.00) Note that although decimal digits are rounded to fit the specified width, the integral part of a number is never modified. If there are not enough places before the decimal place to represent the number, the entire number is replaced with hashes. If a non-numeric sequence is passed as data for a numeric field, it is formatted as a series of question marks. This querulous behaviour can be changed by giving the configuration option 'numeric' a value that matches /\bSkipNaN\b/i in which case, any invalid numeric data is simply ignored. For example: print form { numeric => 'SkipNaN' } '(]]]]].[[)', < sub { "Page $_[0]\n\n" }, footer => sub { return "" if $_[1]; "-"x50 . "\n" . form ">"x50", "...".($_[0]+1); }, pagefeed => "\n\n", pagelen => 60 pagenum => \$page, }, $template, @data; Note the recursive use of form within the "footer" option. Alternatively, to set up headers and footers such that the running head is right justified in the header and the page number is centred in the footer: form { header => { right => "Running head" }, footer => { centre => sub { "Page $_[0]" } }, pagelen => 60 }, $template, @data; The tag sub ----------- The tag subroutine may be exported from the module. It takes two arguments: a tag specifier and a text to be entagged. The tag specifier indicates the indenting of the tag, and of the text. The sub generates an end-tag (using the usual "/tag" variant), unless an explicit end-tag is provided as the third argument. The tag specifier consists of the following components (in order): An optional vertical spacer (zero or more whitespace-separated newlines) One or more whitespace characters up to a final mandatory newline. This vertical space is inserted before the tag and after the end-tag An optional tag indent Zero or more whitespace characters. Both the tag and the end-tag are indented by this whitespace. An optional left (opening) tag delimiter Zero or more non-"word" characters (not alphanumeric or '_'). If the opening delimiter is omitted, the character '<' is used. A tag One or more "word" characters (alphanumeric or '_'). Optional tag arguments Any number of any characters An optional right (closing) tag delimiter Zero or more non-"word" characters which balance some sequential portion of the opening tag delimiter. For example, if the opening delimiter is "<-(" then any of the following are acceptible closing delimiters: ")->", "->", or ">". If the closing delimiter is omitted, the "inverse" of the opening delimiter is used (for example, ")->"), An optional vertical spacer (zero or more newlines) One or more whitespace characters up to a mandatory newline. This vertical space is inserted before and after the complete text. An optional text indent Zero or more space of tab characters. Each line of text is indented by this whitespace (in addition to the tag indent). For example: $text = "three lines\nof tagged\ntext"; print tag "A HREF=#nextsection", $text; prints: three lines of tagged text whereas: print tag "[-:GRIN>>>\n", $text; prints: [-:GRIN>>>:-] three lines of tagged text [-:/GRIN>>>:-] and: print tag "\n\n \n\n ", $text, ""; prints: three lines of tagged text (with the indicated spacing fore and aft). AUTHOR ====== Damian Conway (damian@conway.org) BUGS ==== There are undoubtedly serious bugs lurking somewhere in code this funky :-) Bug reports and other feedback are most welcome. COPYRIGHT ========= Copyright (c) 1997-2000, Damian Conway. All Rights Reserved. This module is free software. It may be used, redistributed and/or modified under the terms of the Perl Artistic License (see http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html)