[AscToHTM] Documentation for AscToHTM conversion utility ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5 HTML markup produced 5.1 Indentation AscToHTM performs statistical analysis on the document to determine at what character positions indentations occur. This information is used on the output pass to determine the indentation level for each source line. AscToHTM attempts to indent the HTML code to match the output indentation level, to make it easier to read. The indentations themselves will be marked up using tags. Note: This is argueably not strictly correct HTML as we omit the
  • tag that would give a bullet character. However, this does produce simpler HTML than using ...
    markups which are not supported by earlier browsers, and which give (apparently, if not actually) slower-loading HTML. 5.2 Header Lines AscToHTM recognises various types of headers. Where headers are found, and deemed to be consistent with the prevailing document policy (correct indentation, right type, in numerical sequence etc), AscToHTM will use the standard ... markup. In addition to this, AscToHTM will insert a named Anchor tag ( ... ) to allow hyperlink jumps to this point. These anchors are used for example in the contents list and cross-reference hyperlinks that AscToHTM generates. 5.2.1 Numbered headers This is the preferred heading type and the type that AscToHTM has most success with. Sections of type N.N.N can be checked for consistency, and references to them can be spotted and converted into hyperlinks. At present more exotic numbering schemes using roman numerals and letters of the alphabet are not fully supported. This is planned to be implemented soon, possibly via user policy files. 5.2.2 Capitalised headers AscToHTM can treat wholly capitalised lines as headers. It also allows for such headers to be spread over more than one line. 5.2.3 Underlined headers AscToHTM can recognise underlined text, and optionally promote the preceding line to be a section header. 5.2.4 Numbered paragraphs Some types of documents use what look like section numbers to number paragraphs (e.g. legal documents, or sets of rules). AscToHTM can recognise this, and mark up such lines by placing the number in bold, and not using ... markup on the whole line. 5.3 Hyperlinks 5.3.1 Contents List lines Contents list lines are marked up in bold, and turned into a hyperlink pointing at the section referenced. The text is sized according to heading type in the range +/- 1 font size from normal (3). 5.3.2 Cross-references AscToHTM can convert cross-references to other sections into hyperlinks to those sections. Unfortunately this is currently only possible for second, third, fourth... level numeric headings (n.n, n.n.n, n.n.n.n etc) This is because the error rate becomes too high on single numbers/letters or roman numerals. This may be refined in later releases. 5.3.3 URLs AscToHTM can convert any URLs in the document to hyperlinks. This includes http and ftp URLs and any web addresses beginning with www. 5.3.4 Usenet Newsgroups AscToHTM can convert any newsgroup names is spots into hyperlinks to those newsgroups. Currently only third level newsgroups such as comp.os.vms are converted to reduce the error rate. This may be inproved in later releases. 5.3.5 E-mail addresses AscToHTML can convert any email addresses into hypertext mailto: links. 5.4 Hanging paragraph indents Some documents, especially ones dumped from Word, have hanging paragraph indents. That is, each paragraph starts at an offset to the rest of the paragraph. AscToHTM stuggles heroically with this, and tries not to treat this as text at two indent levels, but it does occasionally get confused. If writing a text file from scratch with AscToHTM in mind, then it is best to avoid this practice. 5.5 Bullets AscToHTML detects and supports several types of bullets. 5.5.1 Bullet chars Bullet chars are lines of the type - this is a bullet line - this is a bullet paragraph because it carries over onto more lines That is, a single character followed by the bullet line. AscToHTM can determine via statistical analysis which character, if any, is being used in this way. Special attention is paid to the '-' and 'o' characters. Bullets of this type are given a markup. 5.5.2 Numbered bullets AscToHTM can spot numbered bullets. These can sometimes be confused with section headings in some documents. This is one area where the use of a document policy really pays dividends in sorting the sheep from the goats. Numbered bullets are given a
      ...
    1. ... < /OL> markup. Note: Not all browsers support this type of markup. In such cases, it's possible that the numbering of bullets will get reset to 1 every so often. However, this isn't a problem with either Netscape or Internet Explorer. 5.5.3 Alphabetic bullets AscToHTM detects upper and lower case alphabetic bullets. These are marked up like numbered bullets, with TYPE=a. 5.5.4 Roman Numeral bullets AscToHTM detects upper and lower case roman numeral bullets. These are marked up like numbered bullets, with TYPE=a. 5.6 Definitions 5.6.1 Definition lines A definition line is a single line that appears to be defining something. Usually this is a line with either a colon (:) or an equals sign (=) in it. For example IMHO = In my humble opinion Address : Somewhere over the rainbow. AscToHTM attempts to determine what definition characters are used and whether they are strong (only ever used in a definition) or weak (only sometimes used in a definition). AscToHTM marks up definition lines by placing a
      on the end of the line to preseve the original line structure. Where this decision is made incorrectly unexpected breaks can appear in text. AscToHTM offers the option of marking up the definition term in bold. This is not the default behaviour however. 5.6.2 Definition paragraphs AscToHTM also recognises the use of definition paragraphs such as :- Note: This is a definition paragraph whereby the whole paragraph is defining the term shown on the first line. Unfortunately AscToHTM currently only copes with single paragraphs (i.e. not with continuation paragraphs), and only with single word definitions. This gets marked up in a
      ...
      ...< /DD>
      sequence Note: This is a "definition" paragraph, i.e. the whole paragraph defines the term shown on the first line. Unfortunately AscToHTM currently only copes with single paragraphs (i.e. not with continuation paragraphs), and only with single word definitions. 5.7 Quoted lines AscToHTM recognises that, especially in Internet files, it is increasingly common to quote from other text sources such as e-mail. The convention used in such cases is to insert a quote character such as > at the start of each line. Consequently, AscToHTM adds a
      tag at the end of such lines to preserve the layout in the original. 5.8 Pre-formatted text 5.8.1 Lines and form feeds Lines are interpreted in context. If they appear to be underlining text, or part of some pre-formatted structure such as a table, then they are treated as such. Otherwise they become horizontal rules (
      ). Form feeds or page beaks also become
      markups. 5.8.2 User defined pre-formatted text AscToHTM normally ignores any HTML markup in the original text. The sole exceptions are the < PRE> ... < /PRE> tags which a user may insert into their text document. For example :- The use of < PRE> and < /PRE> in the text documents tells AscToHTM that this portion of the document has been formatted and should be left unchanged. Note: Because of this, care has to be taken when referring to < PRE> and < /PRE> HTML tags in source document. A single space after the opening < is sufficient. All other HTML tags are ignored and converted into "safe" text. 5.8.3 Automatically detected pre-formatted text AscToHTM attempts to spot chunks of preformatted text. This can vary from a single line (e.g. a line with a page number on the right-hand margin) to a complete table of data. Where such text is detected AscToHTM marks these sections up in < PRE> ... < /PRE> tags. Eventually it is hoped to add full ...
      generation for such sections. 5.9 Centred text AscToHTM can attempt to spot chunks of centred text. However, because this can easily go wrong this option is normally switched off. Centering is only switched on for single isolated lines, or any group of at least two lines.
      ...
      markup is used. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prev | Next | Contents ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- © 1997 John A. Fotheringham