Pod::Text
Pod::Text(3) Perl Programmers Reference Guide Pod::Text(3)
NAME
Pod::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');
DESCRIPTION
Pod::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 controls or codes whatsoever, and its output
is therefore suitable for nearly any device.
As a derived class from Pod::Parser, Pod::Text supports the same meth-
ods 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 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.
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 inden-
tation 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 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 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 STD-
OUT. 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" processing. 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.
Invalid quote specification "%s"
(F) The quote specification given (the quotes option to the con-
structor) 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 (some-
thing 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 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 problem-
atic 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 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.
perl v5.8.6 2001-09-21 Pod::Text(3)
