Pod::PlainText(3p) Perl Programmers Reference Guide Pod::PlainText(3p)NAMEPod::PlainText - Convert POD data to formatted ASCII text
SYNOPSIS
use Pod::PlainText;
my $parser = Pod::PlainText->new (sentence => 0, width => 78);
# Read POD from STDIN and write to STDOUT.
$parser->parse_from_filehandle;
# Read POD from file.pod and write to file.txt.
$parser->parse_from_file ('file.pod', 'file.txt');
DESCRIPTIONPod::PlainText is a module that can convert documentation in the POD
format (the preferred language for documenting Perl) into formatted
ASCII. It uses no special formatting controls or codes whatsoever, and
its output is therefore suitable for nearly any device.
As a derived class from Pod::Parser, Pod::PlainText supports the same
methods and interfaces. See Pod::Parser for all the details; briefly,
one creates a new parser with "Pod::PlainText->new()" and then calls
either parse_from_filehandle() or parse_from_file().
new() can take options, in the form of key/value pairs, that control
the behavior of the parser. The currently recognized options are:
alt If set to a true value, selects an alternate output format that,
among other things, uses a different heading style and marks
"=item" entries with a colon in the left margin. Defaults to
false.
indent
The number of spaces to indent regular text, and the default
indentation for "=over" blocks. Defaults to 4.
loose
If set to a true value, a blank line is printed after a "=headN"
headings. If set to false (the default), no blank line is printed
after "=headN". This is the default because it's the expected
formatting for manual pages; if you're formatting arbitrary text
documents, setting this to true may result in more pleasing output.
sentence
If set to a true value, Pod::PlainText will assume that each
sentence ends in two spaces, and will try to preserve that spacing.
If set to false, all consecutive whitespace in non-verbatim
paragraphs is compressed into a single space. Defaults to true.
width
The column at which to wrap text on the right-hand side. Defaults
to 76.
The standard Pod::Parser method parse_from_filehandle() takes up to two
arguments, the first being the file handle to read POD from and the
second being the file handle to write the formatted output to. The
first defaults to STDIN if not given, and the second defaults to
STDOUT. The method parse_from_file() is almost identical, except that
its two arguments are the input and output disk files instead. See
Pod::Parser for the specific details.
DIAGNOSTICS
Bizarre space in item
(W) Something has gone wrong in internal "=item" processing. This
message indicates a bug in Pod::PlainText; you should never see it.
Can't open %s for reading: %s
(F) Pod::PlainText was invoked via the compatibility mode
pod2text() interface and the input file it was given could not be
opened.
Unknown escape: %s
(W) The POD source contained an "E<>" escape that Pod::PlainText
didn't know about.
Unknown sequence: %s
(W) The POD source contained a non-standard internal sequence
(something of the form "X<>") that Pod::PlainText didn't know
about.
Unmatched =back
(W) Pod::PlainText encountered a "=back" command that didn't
correspond to an "=over" command.
RESTRICTIONS
Embedded Ctrl-As (octal 001) in the input will be mapped to spaces on
output, due to an internal implementation detail.
NOTES
This is a replacement for an earlier Pod::Text module written by Tom
Christiansen. It has a revamped interface, since it now uses
Pod::Parser, but an interface roughly compatible with the old
Pod::Text::pod2text() function is still available. Please change to
the new calling convention, though.
The original Pod::Text contained code to do formatting via termcap
sequences, although it wasn't turned on by default and it was
problematic to get it to work at all. This rewrite doesn't even try to
do that, but a subclass of it does. Look for Pod::Text::Termcap.
SEE ALSO
Pod::Parser, Pod::Text::Termcap, pod2text(1)AUTHOR
Please report bugs using <http://rt.cpan.org>.
Russ Allbery <rra@stanford.edu>, based very heavily on the original
Pod::Text by Tom Christiansen <tchrist@mox.perl.com> and its conversion
to Pod::Parser by Brad Appleton <bradapp@enteract.com>.
perl v5.12.2 September 28, 2010
