Module Text_tags

Controls tags in format strings.

This module provides facilities to control tags in the format strings. For simplicity and readability we're using sexp to define tags with attributes. See below for more information.

The default behavior is to ignore tags. You can switch between modes using install and with_mode function (the last one will restore previous state of the formatter).

Tags allows to literally tag pieces of text in format strings, the format of tagging can be explained with the following example:

"@{<html> @{<head> @{<title> Tags!@}@}@{<body> Hello!@}@}"

In html mode, this will produce a valid HTML document:

      <html>
       <head>
        <title>
          Tags!
        </title>
       </head>
       <body>
         Hello!
       </body>
      </html>

none mode

In this mode (the default one) the tags will be ignored, and they will have no effect on the final output.

html mode

If tag has attributes, then they should be passed as S-expressions, with the following grammar (EBNF):

    tag = name | "(", name, {arg}, ")";
    arg = "(", name, value, ")".

Where name is arbitrary html valid name without > in it. The same is true for value with an addition of double quotes. If value start with double quotes it will be stored as is, otherwise it will be properly escaped and double quoted.

Implementation details

Tags in Format module are stringly typed, so we will use a trick, and encode them using s-expressions. Not very typesafe, but better than arbitrary string.

Example: (a (href #) (id x)) will be converted to <a href="#" id="x">. Note, that quotes will be inserted automatically, and special symbols will be escaped. If attribute value is quoted by itself, then it will be taken as is. If tag doesn't contain attributes, then it can be provided as an atom, e.g. html, but more verbose (html) is still accepted

Attr mode

In this mode the tag has the following syntax:

tag = ".", name, value, "\n"

where name is a strings that must not contain whitespaces. (Usually we use dashes to separate words), and value is an arbitrary sequence of chars that must not contain the newline character.

The attributes will be printed as is, if the mode is enabled, and a name of the attribute is marked to be shown with Attr.show function (by default no attributes will be shown).

Ansi color submode

When Attr.print_colors is set to true, the foreground and background attributes will be handled specially. The attribute value, that must be a valid ansi color escape sequence, will switch the foreground and background colors of the text, if the terminal allows it (otherwise ugly things will happen, that's why the attribute is ignored when color submode is disabled).

Blocks mode

The blocks mode grammar is very similar to html mode, as it also uses sexp syntax.

tag := "(", "id", value, ")" | "(", "title", value, ")"

Where value is a string, delimited with quotes if it contains whitespaces.

The tag will be rendered as begin/end block, with the body indented by one space. E.g.,

Will be rendered as:

      begin(main)
       r0 := r1 + r2
       r1 := r2 + r2
       return lr
      end(main)

If both id and title is specified, then only title will be outputted. Otherwise, id and title has the same behavior.

type mode = string

A name of mode, by default the following modes ares supported html, blocks, attr and none

exception Unknown_mode of string
val install : Stdlib.Format.formatter -> mode -> unit

install ppf mode switch formatter ppf into a mode. In a default mode (named none), the semantics tags are ignored. Once a mode is installed, all tags will be rendered according to the mode.

val with_mode : Stdlib.Format.formatter -> mode -> f:(unit -> 'a) -> 'a

with_mode ppf mode f installs mode, calls f, and then reinstalls the previous mode.

val register_mode : mode -> (Stdlib.Format.formatter -> unit) -> unit

register_mode mode init installs new mode. The init function must install all mode hooks using Format interface.

val available_modes : unit -> mode list

available_modes () lists all currently installed modes.

module Attr : sig ... end

Attributes mode.