Pod::Text(3p) Perl Programmers Reference Guide Pod::Text(3p)NAMEPod::Text - Convert POD data to formatted ASCII text
SYNOPSIS
use Pod::Text;
my $parser = Pod::Text->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::Text 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 con-
trols or codes whatsoever, and its output is therefore suit-
able for nearly any device.
As a derived class from Pod::Parser, Pod::Text supports the
same methods and interfaces. See Pod::Parser for all the
details; briefly, one creates a new parser with
"Pod::Text->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 recog-
nized options are:
alt If set to a true value, selects an alternate output for-
mat that, among other things, uses a different heading
style and marks "=item" entries with a colon in the left
margin. Defaults to false.
code
If set to a true value, the non-POD parts of the input
file will be included in the output. Useful for viewing
code documented with POD blocks with the POD rendered
and the code left intact.
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
"=head1" heading. If set to false (the default), no
blank line is printed after "=head1", although one is
still printed after "=head2". This is the default
because it's the expected formatting for manual pages;
if you're formatting arbitrary text documents, setting
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this to true may result in more pleasing output.
margin
The width of the left margin in spaces. Defaults to 0.
This is the margin for all text, including headings, not
the amount by which regular text is indented; for the
latter, see the indent option. To set the right margin,
see the width option.
quotes
Sets the quote marks used to surround C<> text. If the
value is a single character, it is used as both the left
and right quote; if it is two characters, the first
character is used as the left quote and the second as
the right quoted; and if it is four characters, the
first two are used as the left quote and the second two
as the right quote.
This may also be set to the special value "none", in
which case no quote marks are added around C<> text.
sentence
If set to a true value, Pod::Text will assume that each
sentence ends in two spaces, and will try to preserve
that spacing. If set to false, all consecutive whi-
tespace 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
Item called without tag
(W) Something has gone wrong in internal "=item" pro-
cessing. These messages indicate a bug in Pod::Text;
you should never see them.
Can't open %s for reading: %s
(F) Pod::Text was invoked via the compatibility mode
pod2text() interface and the input file it was given
could not be opened.
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Invalid quote specification "%s"
(F) The quote specification given (the quotes option to
the constructor) was invalid. A quote specification
must be one, two, or four characters long.
%s:%d: Unknown command paragraph: %s
(W) The POD source contained a non-standard command
paragraph (something of the form "=command args") that
Pod::Man didn't know about. It was ignored.
%s:%d: Unknown escape: %s
(W) The POD source contained an "E<>" escape that
Pod::Text didn't know about.
%s:%d: Unknown formatting code: %s
(W) The POD source contained a non-standard formatting
code (something of the form "X<>") that Pod::Text didn't
know about.
%s:%d: Unmatched =back
(W) Pod::Text 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 writ-
ten 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 avail-
able. 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)
The current version of this module is always available from
its web site at
<http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/software/podlators/>. It is
also part of the Perl core distribution as of 5.6.0.
AUTHOR
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
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Brad Appleton <bradapp@enteract.com>.
COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
Copyright 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Russ Allbery
<rra@stanford.edu>.
This program is free software; you may redistribute it
and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
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