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<head><title>Using the Lore Documentation System</title></head>
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<h1>Using the Lore Documentation System</h1>
<h2>Writing Lore Documents</h2>
<h3>Overview</h3>
<p>Lore documents are a special subset of XHTML documents. They use specific
subset of XHTML, together with custom classes, to allow a wide variety of
document elements, including some Python-specific ones. Lore documents, in
particular, are well-formed XML documents. XML can be written using a wide
variety of tools: from run of the mill editors such as vi, through editors
with XML help like EMACS and ending with XML specific tools like (need name
of XML editor here). Here, we will not cover the specifics of writing XML
documents, except for a very broad overview.</p>
<p>XML documents contain elements, which are delimited by an opening tag
which looks like <code><tag-name attribute="value"></code> and ends with
a closing tag, which looks like <code></tag-name></code>. If an
elements happen to contain nothing, it can be shortened to
<code><tag-name /></code>. Elements can contain other elements, or
text. Text can contain any characters except <, > and &. These
characters are rendered by &lt;, &gt; and &amp;, respectively.</p>
<p>A Lore document is a single <code>html</code> element. Inside this element,
there are exactly two top-level elements: <code>head</code> and
<code>body</code>. The <code>head</code> element must contain exactly one
element: <code>title</code>, containing the title of the document.
Most of the document will be contained in the <code>body</code> element.
The <code>body</code> element must start with an <code>h1</code> (top-level
header) element, which contains the exact same content as the
<code>title</code> element.</p>
<p>Thus, a fairly minimal Lore document might look like:</p>
<pre>
<html>
<head><title>Title</title></head>
<body><h1>Title</h1></body>
</html>
</pre>
<h3>Elements and Their Uses</h3>
<p><code>p</code>: The paragraph element. Most of the document should be inside
paragraphs.</p>
<p><code>span</code>: The span element is an element which has no meaning
-- unless it has a special <code>class</code> attributes.
The following classes have the stated meanings:
<dl>
<dt><code>footnote</code></dt>
<dd>a small comment which should not be inside the main text-flow.</dd>
<dt><code>manhole-output</code></dt>
<dd>This signifies, within a manhole transcript, that the enclosed text is
the output and not something the user has to input.</dd>
<dt><code>span</code></dt>
<dd>This should be an <em>empty</em> element, with an attribute
<code>value</code>. That attribute should be an index term, in the
format of <code>generic!specific!more specific</code>. Usually,
you will only have one level, in which case <code>value="term"</code>
works.</dd>
</dl>
</p>
<p><code>div</code>: The div element is equivalent to a span, except it always
appears outside paragraphs. The following classes have the given meanings:
<dl>
<dt><code>note</code></dt>
<dd>A short note which is not necessary for the understanding of the text.</dd>
<dt><code>doit</code></dt>
<dd>An indication that the discussed feature is not complete or implemented
yet.</dd>
<dt><code>boxed</code></dt>
<dd>An indication that the text should be clearly separated from its
surroundings.</dd>
</dl></p>
<p><code>a</code>: This element can have several meanings, depending on
the attributes:
<dl>
<dt><code>name</code> attribute</dt>
<dd>Add a label to the current position, which might be used in this document
or other documents to refer to.</dd>
<dt><code>href=URL</code></dt>
<dd>Refer to some WWW resource.</dd>
<dt><code>href=relative-path</code>, <code>href=relative-path#label</code> or
<code>href=#label</code></dt>
<dd>Refer to a position in a Lore resource. By default, relative links to
<code>.xhtml</code> files are changed to point to a <code>.html</code> file.
If you need a link to a local non-Lore .xhtml file, use
<code>class=absolute</code> to make Lore treat it as an absolute link.</dd>
<dt><code>href=relative-path</code> with <code>class=py-listing</code> or
<code>class=html-listing</code></dt>
<dd>Indicate the given resource is a part of the text flow, and should be
inlined (and if possible, syntax highlighted).</dd>
</dl></p>
<p><code>ol</code>, <code>ul</code>: A list. It can be enumerated or
bulleted. Inside a list, the element <code>li</code> (for a list element)
is valid.</p>
<p><code>h2</code>, <code>h3</code>: Second- and third-level section
headings.</p>
<p><code>code</code>: a string which has meaning to the computer.
There are many possible classes:
<dl>
<dt><code>API</code></dt>
<dd>A class, function or a module. It does not have to be a fully qualified
name -- but if it isn't, a <code>base</code> attribute is necessary.
Example:
<code><code class="API" base="urllib">urlencode<code></code>.</dd>
<dt><code>shell</code></dt>
<dd>Shell (usually Bourne) code.</dd>
<dt><code>python</code></dt>
<dd>Python code</dd>
<dt><code>py-prototype</code></dt>
<dd>Function prototype</dd>
<dt><code>py-filename</code></dt>
<dd>Python file</dd>
<dt><code>py-src-string</code></dt>
<dd>Python string</dd>
<dt><code>py-signature</code></dt>
<dd>Function signature</dd>
<dt><code>py-src-parameter</code></dt>
<dd>Parameter</dd>
<dt><code>py-src-identifier</code></dt>
<dd>Identifier</dd>
<dt><code>py-src-keyword</code></dt>
<dd>Keyword</dd>
</dl></p>
<p><code>pre</code>: Preformatted text, usually for file listings. It can
be used with the <code>python</code>
class to indicate Python syntax coloring. Other possible classes are
<code>shell</code> (to indicate a shell-transcript) or
<code>python-interpreter</code> (to indicate an interactive interpreter
transcript).</p>
<p><code>img</code>: Insert the image indicated by the <code>src</code>
attribute.</p>
<p><code>q</code>: The quote signs (<code>"</code>) are not recommended
except in preformatted or code environment. Instead, quote by using the
<code>q</code> element which allows nested quotes and properly distinguishes
opening quote from closing quote.</p>
<p><code>em</code>, <code>strong</code>: Emphasise (or strongly emphasise)
text.</p>
<p><code>table</code>: Tabular data. Inside a table, use the <code>tr</code>
element for each rows, and inside it use either <code>td</code> for a regular
table cell or <code>th</code> for a table header (column or row).</p>
<p><code>blockquote</code>: A long quote which should be properly seperated
from the main text.</p>
<p><code>cite</code>: Cite a resource.</p>
<p><code>sub</code>, <code>sup</code>: subscripts and superscripts.</p>
<p><code>link</code>: currently, the only <code>link</code> elements supported
are for for indicating authorship. <code><link rel="author"
href="author-address@examples.com" title="Author Name" /></code>
should be used to indicate authorship. Multiple instances
are allowed, and indicate shared authorship.</p>
<h2>Writing Lore XHTML Templates</h2>
<p>One of Lore's output formats is XHTML. Lore itself is very markup-light,
but the output XHTML is much more markup intensive. Part of the auto-generated
markup is directed by a special template.</p>
<p>The output of Lore is inserted into template in the following way:</p>
<ul>
<li>The title is appended into each element with class <code>title</code>.</li>
<li>The body is inserted into the first element that has class
<code>body</code>.</li>
<li>The table of contents is inserted into the first element that has class
<code>toc</code>.</li>
</ul>
<p>In particular, most of the header is not tampered with -- so it is
easy to indicate a CSS stylesheet in the template.</p>
<h2>Using Lore to Generate HTML</h2>
<p>After having written a template, the easiest way to build HTML from the Lore
document is by:</p>
<pre class="shell">
% lore --config template=mytemplate.tpl mydocument.xhtml
</pre>
<p>This will create a file called <code class="shell">mydocument.html</code>.
</p>
<p>For example, to generate the HTML version of the Twisted docs from a CVS
checkout, do:<span class="footnote">See also the
<code>admin/process-docs</code> script.</span></p>
<pre class="shell">
% lore --config template=doc/howto/template.tpl doc/howto/*.xhtml
</pre>
<p>
In order to generate files with a different extension, use the <code class="shell">--config</code> commandline flag to tell the HTML output plugin to
use a different extension:
</p>
<pre class="shell">
% lore --config ext=.html doc/howto/*.xhtml
</pre>
<h2>Using Lore to Generate LaTex</h2>
<h3>Articles</h3>
<pre class="shell">
% lore --output latex mydocument.xhtml
</pre>
<h3>Books</h3>
<p>Have a Lore file for each section. Then, have a LaTeX file which inputs
all the given LaTeX files. Generate all the LaTeX files by using</p>
<pre class="shell">
% lore --output latex --config section *.xhtml
</pre>
<p>in the relevant directory.</p>
<h2>Using Lore to Generate Slides</h2>
<p>Lore can also be used to generate slides for presentations. The start
of a new slide is indicated by use of an h2 tag, with the content
between the opening and closing tags the title of the slide. Slides
are generated by</p>
<pre class="shell">
% lore --input lore-slides myslides.xhtml
</pre>
<p>This, by default, will produce HTML output with one HTML file for
each slide. For our example, the files would be named
myslides-<number>.html, where number is the slide number,
starting with 0 for the title slide. Lore will look for a template
file, either indicated by the <code>--config
template=mytemplate.tpl</code> or the default template.tpl in the
current directory. An example slide template is found in
<code>doc/examples/slides-template.tpl</code></p>
<p>The slides module currently supports three major output types:
HTML, Magic Point, and LaTeX. The options for the latter two will be
covered individually.</p>
<h3>Magic Point Output</h3>
<p>Lore supports outputting to the Magic Point file format.
Magicpoint is a presentation program for X, which can be installed on
Debian by <code>apt-get install mgp</code> or by visiting <a
href="http://www.mew.org/mgp/">the Magic Point homepage</a>
otherwise. A template file is required, <code>template.mgp</code> is
shipped in the <code>twisted/lore</code> directory. Magic Point
slides are generated by </p>
<pre class="shell">
% lore --input lore-slides --output mgp \
--config template=~/Twisted/twisted/lore/template.mgp \
myslides.xhtml
</pre>
<p>That will produce <code>myslides.mgp</code>.</p>
<h3>LaTeX Output</h3>
<p>Lore can also produce slides in LaTeX format. It supports three
main styles: one slide per page, two per page, and Prosper format,
with the <code>--config</code> parameters being <code>page</code>,
<code>twopage</code>, and <code>prosper</code> respectively. Prosper
is a LaTeX class for creating slides, which can be installed on Debian
by <code>apt-get install prosper</code> or by visiting <a
href="http://prosper.sourceforge.net/">the Prosper homepage</a>.
LaTeX format slides (using the Prosper option, for example) are
generated by</p>
<pre class="shell">
% lore --input lore-slides --output latex \
--config prosper myslides.xhtml
</pre>
<p> This will generate <code>myslides.tex</code> file that can be processed
with <code>latex</code> or <code>pdftex</code> or the appropriate
LaTeX processing command.</p>
<h2>Linting</h2>
<pre>
% lore --output lint mydocument.xhtml
</pre>
<p>This will generate compiler-style (file:line:column:message) warnings.
It is possible to integrate these warnings into a smart editor such as
EMACS, but it has not been done yet.</p>
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