PerlPoint-Converters 0.10 uploaded to CPAN

The PerlPoint-Converters Package 0.10 has been uploaded to CPAN
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=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
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This is a major release and you will need version 0.34 of the
PerlPoint-Package for this.

One of the most important changes is the handling of references to
included images, both graphics in \IMAGE tags and bullet graphics
specified via --bullet options. Due to this change you might have to
adapt pathnames in previous PerlPoint input files.

Now we use the following philosophie: PerlPoint input files and the
images referenced from these files are closely related i. e. you have
a directory where the PerlPoint input file is located and in the same
directory or in some sub-directory you keep the image files which
belong to this text. This means that the pathnames in the \IMAGE
tag should be relative to the directory where the PerlPoint file is
located. If your input file includes another PerlPoint file
(\INCLUDE ...) and this second files references some images, then
these images are relative to the home of the included input file.
(Of course it is still possible to specify all pathnames for sources
as absolute pathnames.)

The HTML files (slides) which are created by pp2html can be put into the
current working directory or in some directory which is specified via the
--slide_dir (or --target_dir option). All the referenced images are now
automatically copied to an image directory which may be specified via the
--image_dir option. The image dir defaults to the target dir and the images
are referenced via relative pathnames in the <IMG SRC=3D....> tags in HTML.

There is, however, another option which controls how the images are
referenced in the <IMG SRC=3D....> tags: --image_ref
With this option it is possible to supply logical pathnames, e. g.=20
--image_ref=3D"/server_images". This example assumes that your webserver
is configured in such a way that the logical name "/server_images" is
mapped to a common image directory on your server machine. This makes it
possible that several PerlPoint documents which will be installed on=20
the server (use the --target_dir option to place the slides in some
/htdocs/xyz directory ...) can share a common base of images. The binary
image files are only copied to the --image_dir directory, when they have no=
t
yet been copied or when the source is newer than the target file.

Note: Images for bullets (--bullet=3Dpath/to/my/bullet.gif) must now be spe=
cified
with absolute pathnames or relative to the current working directory where
pp2html is called. The bullet images are als copied to the image directory.

Ok, this sounds a little bit complicated and setting up a good looking=20
presentation with the help of templates is still not so easy.
Therefore this release comes with a new set of options:

  --style=3Dstyle_name
  --style_dir=3Dstyle_dir_name

These options are explained (shortly) in the Usage of pp2html. Style_dir_na=
me
is the name of a directory which contains some sub-directories which are ca=
lled
styles. A style is a collection of template files and option files which co=
ntrol
the appearance of the resulting presentation or document. Have a look at th=
e
styles which come with this release (directory ./pp2html_styles). If you ca=
ll
'make test', the t/test_styles.t script will create sample directories with
these styles.


What about style sheets?
There is also a new option --style_sheet which allows to specifiy a style s=
heet
which will be referenced in the header templates. This is still an experime=
tal
feature and the results might not be what you expected. At the moment, pp2h=
tml
uses some laypout tricks like <TABLE> ... </TABLE>,  <UL> ... </UL> etc. to
influence the layout of the slides. This contradicts (in some cases) the
philosophie of a style sheet.=20

Things to come:
The most important thing for the next release will be a better documentatio=
n.
* We think of splitting it up into several parts:
  -  Getting started (Tutorial)
  -  FAQs for PerlPoint, pp2html ...
  -  Style Guide
  -  PerlPoint and pp2html Reference Manuals

* There will be more styles in the stlye collection

* Hopefully there will be a Perl/Tk based Editor for options files. The ide=
a is that
  this script greps for all options in the pp2html source file and presents=
 them in
  a Perl/Tk GUI. Context sensitive help for each option could also be extra=
cted
  from the program source ... No need to remember all the options and their=
 weird
  spellings (more than 80 in the meantime ... :-)

Regards, Lorenz Domke
---------------------------------------------------------------------------=
------

From=20Changes:
-------------
Revision history for PerlPoint-Converters.

Version 0.10   06/16/2001
-  Nested tags bug fixed: it was not possible to use \I, \C inside=20
   a link \L tag.
   NOTE: It is still not posslble to have an \X tag in the body of
         a \L tag!
-  Require PerlPoint::Parser 0.34
-  Using new tag definition Module: PerlPoint::Tags::HTML, PerlPoint::Tags:=
:LaTeX
-  Comment with version numbers in each created file
-  Bugfix: \C, \I, \B, ... etc in headers was not correctly handled in form=
er versions
-  --box_border option (for border width of text boxes)
-  --style_sheet option (still as an experiment; the behaviour of pp2html m=
ay change
   when style sheets are used)
-  die when wrong options have been specified
-  workaround for bug in TreeApplet: / was not possible in headers.
   now slashes are replaced with commas.
-  Empty fields in tables are now filled with "&nbsp;" so that the border w=
ill be
   displayed
-  --style_dir and --style options
   Support for styles (pre-defined sets of template and configuration files=
)
-  Bug with list indentation fixed: if the last item in a list is shifted (=
i.e.
   shift_level > 1) then the following text or block was indented. Now the
   shift_level is automatically reduced.
-  Some new Keywords which are replaced when templates are copied to the
   target directory: TOP_LEFT_TXT, TOP_MIDDLE_TXT, TOP_RIGHT_TXT,
   same for BASE, and LOGO_IMAGE_FILENAME;
   corresponding options: --top_left_txt, ...
-  Option --slide_md5: all filenames have the form=20
    <slide_prefix><md5-checksum>.<slide_suffix>
-  Nested tables are now supported (see PerlPoint::Parser Docu)
-  Variables can now be used in template Files, see the ex_std_norm-top.tpl=
 for an
   example: VAR(AUTHOR)
-  support of hierarchical anchor names for slide headers
-  pp2latex: fix for formatting of URLs included (thanks to Alex Sigel)

From=20README:
------------

Introduction
------------
PerlPoint is a simple text format which allows easy typing of text
with headlines, bullet lists, normal text paragraphs, indented
paragraphs for code examples etc., from which slides for presentations
can be generated by a script without the need of proprietary software.
Since there is a large variety of platforms which provide web browsers,
HTML is a good choice for the output format. In principle, however, it
is possible to generate each output format whose specification is
known. At the moment there exist converters for HTML, LaTeX (alpha software=
)
and SDF. The latter both may be used to generate printable output or to
provide the basis for further processing.


What's new in this version
--------------------------
This is version 0.10
You will need PerlPoint-Packet version 0.34 for this release.

Please refer to file "Changes".

NOTE: This is a major release. The handling of directories in \IMAGE tags h=
as changed:
      Now the image filenames must be specified relative to the calling Per=
lPoint=20
      file (or as absolute pathnames).=20

      Filenames specified with the --bullet options must now also be relati=
ve to
      the start directory (where pp2html is called) or relative to the styl=
e
      directory.

      The --style, --style_dir options are new and should simplify the hand=
ling of
      templates. You can now build a collection of pre-defined styles which=
 can
      easily be called with the --style option.

NOTE: Documentation is not yet perfect. This will be one of the major issue=
s of the
      next release which will come soon! Please keep tuned.


Installation
------------
Just get the PerlPoint-Converters-<release>.tar.gz file and unpack it in a =
temp directory:

  tar zxvf PerlPoint-Converters-<release>.tar.gz=20
  cd PerlPoint-Converters-<release>
  perl Makefile.PL
  make
  make test
  make install

The main program is `pp2html'. Try `pp2html --help | less' to get more=20
information.

The test script `t/test_pp.t', which is invoked via `make test', runs the i=
nput=20
file `ppdoc.pp' four times through `pp2html' using four different configura=
tion
files.  The resulting HTML files are placed in the `ex_*' subdirectories. T=
hese
examples contain documentation for `pp2html'.

Bug Reports
-----------
Please send bug reports and requests to <[email protected]>

Lorenz Domke

--=20
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lorenz Domke                                        [email protected]
Endelhauserstr. 30     GnuPG Key-ID: BACCE490         [email protected]
D-80686 M=FCnchen                                    Tel: (0 89) 5 70 33 80