-.\" $Id: mdoc.3,v 1.13 2009/02/27 09:14:02 kristaps Exp $
+.\" $Id: mdoc.3,v 1.17 2009/03/14 05:21:58 kristaps Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 2009 Kristaps Dzonsons <kristaps@kth.se>
.\"
.\" TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR
.\" PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
.\"
-.Dd $Mdocdate: February 27 2009 $
+.Dd $Mdocdate: March 14 2009 $
.Dt mdoc 3
.Os
.\" SECTION
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm mdoc
-library parses lines of mdoc input into an abstract syntax tree.
-.Dq mdoc ,
-which is used to format BSD manual pages, is a macro package of the
-.Dq roff
-language. The
-.Nm
-library implements only those macros documented in the
+library parses lines of
.Xr mdoc 7
-and
-.Xr mdoc.samples 7
-manuals. Documents with
-.Xr refer 1 ,
-.Xr eqn 1
-and other pre-processor sections aren't accomodated.
-.\" PARAGRAPH
-.Pp
+input (and
+.Em only
+mdoc) into an abstract syntax tree that generalises the semantic
+annotation of its input. Common front-ends for
.Nm
-is
-.Ud
+are
+.Xr mdocterm 1 ,
+.Xr mdoclint 1
+and
+.Xr mdoctree 1 .
.\" PARAGRAPH
.Pp
In general, applications initiate a parsing sequence with
.Sx Functions
and
.Sx Variables
-available to programmers. Following that,
-.Sx Character Encoding
-describes input format. Lastly,
-.Sx Abstract Syntax Tree ,
-documents the output tree.
+available to programmers. Following that, the
+.Sx Abstract Syntax Tree
+section documents the output tree.
.\" SUBSECTION
.Ss Types
Both functions (see
An array of string-ified token argument names.
.El
.\" SUBSECTION
-.Ss Character Encoding
-The
-.Xr mdoc 3
-library accepts only printable ASCII characters as defined by
-.Xr isprint 3 .
-Non-ASCII character sequences are delimited in various ways. All are
-preceeded by an escape character
-.Sq \\
-and followed by either an open-parenthesis
-.Sq \&(
-for two-character sequences; an open-bracket
-.Sq \&[
-for n-character sequences (terminated at a close-bracket
-.Sq \&] ) ;
-an asterisk and open-parenthesis
-.Sq \&*(
-for two-character sequences;
-an asterisk and non-open-parenthesis
-.Sq \&*
-for single-character sequences; or one of a small set of standalone
-single characters for other escapes.
-.\" PARAGRAPH
-.Pp
-Examples:
-.Pp
-.Bl -tag -width "XXXXXXXX" -offset "XXXX" -compact
-.\" LIST-ITEM
-.It \\*(<=
-prints
-.Dq \*(<=
-.Pq greater-equal
-.\" LIST-ITEM
-.It \\(<-
-prints
-.Dq \(<-
-.Pq left-arrow
-.\" LIST-ITEM
-.It \\[<-]
-also prints
-.Dq \(<-
-.Pq left-arrow
-.\" LIST-ITEM
-.It \\*(Ba
-prints
-.Dq \*(Ba
-.Pq bar
-.\" LIST-ITEM
-.It \\*q
-prints
-.Dq \*q
-.Pq double-quote
-.El
-.\" PARAGRAPH
-.Pp
-All escaped sequences are syntax-checked, but it's up to the front-end
-system to correctly render them to the output device.
-.\" SUBSECTION
.Ss Abstract Syntax Tree
The
.Nm
-functions produce an abstract syntax tree (AST) describing the input
-lines in a regular form. It may be reviewed at any time with
+functions produce an abstract syntax tree (AST) describing input in a
+regular form. It may be reviewed at any time with
.Fn mdoc_nodes ;
however, if called before
.Fn mdoc_endparse ,
.Fn mdoc_endparse
or
.Fn mdoc_parseln
-fail, it may be incomplete.
+fail, it may be incomplete. This AST is governed by the ontological
+rules dictated in
+.Xr mdoc 7
+and derives its terminology accordingly.
+.Qq In-line
+elements described in
+.Xr mdoc 7
+are described simply as
+.Qq elements .
.\" PARAGRAPH
.Pp
The AST is composed of
the specific case of
.Sq \&.Bd \-literal ,
an empty line will produce a zero-length string.
-.\" PARAGRAPH
-.Pp
-The rule-of-thumb for mapping node types to macros follows. In-line
-elements, such as
-.Sq \&.Em foo ,
-are classified as ELEMENT nodes, which can only contain text.
-Multi-line elements, such as
-.Sq \&.Sh ,
-are BLOCK elements, where the HEAD constitutes line contents and the
-BODY constitutes subsequent lines. In-line elements with matching
-pairs, such as
-.Sq \&.So
-and
-.Sq \&.Sc ,
-are BLOCK elements with no HEAD tag. The only exception to this is
-.Sq \&.Eo
-and
-.Sq \&.Ec ,
-which has a HEAD and TAIL node corresponding to the enclosure string.
-TEXT nodes, obviously, constitute text, and the ROOT node is the
-document's root.
.\" SECTION
.Sh EXAMPLES
The following example reads lines from stdin and parses them, operating
.Ed
.\" SECTION
.Sh SEE ALSO
-.Xr mdoc 7 ,
-.Xr mdoc.samples 7 ,
-.Xr groff 1 ,
-.Xr mdocml 1
+.Xr mdocterm 1 ,
+.Xr mdoclint 1 ,
+.Xr mdoctree 1 ,
+.Xr mdoc 7
.\" SECTION
.Sh AUTHORS
The
utility was written by
.An Kristaps Dzonsons Aq kristaps@kth.se .
.\" SECTION
-.Sh BUGS
-Bugs, un-implemented macros and incompabilities are documented in this
-section. The baseline for determining whether macro parsing is
-.Qq incompatible
-is the default
-.Xr groff 1
-system bundled with
-.Ox .
-.\" PARAGRAPH
-.Pp
-Un-implemented: the
+.Sh CAVEATS
+.Bl -dash -compact
+.\" LIST-ITEM
+.It
+The
.Sq \&Xc
and
.Sq \&Xo
macros aren't handled when used to span lines for the
.Sq \&It
-macro. Such usage is specifically discouraged in
-.Xr mdoc.samples 7 .
-.\" PARAGRAPH
-.Pp
-Bugs: when
-.Sq \&It \-column
-is invoked, whitespace is not stripped around
-.Sq \&Ta
-or tab-character separators.
-.\" PARAGRAPH
-.Pp
-Bugs: elements within columns for
-.Sq \&It \-column
-are not yet supported.
-.\" PARAGRAPH
-.Pp
-Incompatible: the
-.Sq \&At
-macro only accepts a single parameter. Furthermore, several macros
-.Pf ( Sq \&Pp ,
-.Sq \&It ,
-and possibly others) accept multiple arguments with a warning.
-.\" PARAGRAPH
-.Pp
-Incompatible: only those macros specified by
-.Xr mdoc.samples 7
-and
-.Xr mdoc 7
-for
-.Ox
-are supported; support for
-.Nx
-and other
-.Bx
-systems is in progress.
+macro.
+.\" LIST-ITEM
+.It
+The
+.Sq \&Bsx
+macro doesn't yet understand version arguments.
+.El
git.ckatri.com / mandoc.git / blobdiff