SGML: TclYasp SGML Tool available for testing

SGML: TclYasp SGML Tool available for testing


Subject: TclYasp SGML Tool available for testing (Mac, Unix)

Date: 16 Apr 1996 05:10:34 GMT

From: dgd@cs.bu.edu (David Durand)

Newsgroups: comp.text.sgml, comp.lang.tcl




    This is a public announcement of the TclYasp SGML toolkit. TclYasp
integrates a conforming SGML parser with the TCL scripting language.

    Unlike CoST 1.1, it uses an simplest-possible procedure call
interface, rather than an eloborate object-oriented interface. I
understand that CoST has moved in a similar direction, but have not
had a change to try the 2.0 version.

    TclYasp does have a few unique features: it's based on YASP, which
is more easily portable (it's in ANSI C and not C++) and was designed
to be integrated with an application. Since Yasp is fully re-entrant,
more than one parser can be active at a time. It is not restricted to
the informationd efined by the ESIS, as the full parser data is
available. That means that you can get the values of parameter
entities, content models, minimization status of element instances and
the like.

    Yasp also does I/O and file opening via callbacks to the
application so entity resolution is under program control (currently
only to a filename, but eventually to any I/O stream). Yasp doesn't
have catalog support built in, but it can be added as a TCL Script.

   TclYasp/Mac includes a command shell, multiple-pane windows,
limited on-screen text formatting, and a variety of interface features
as well as the SGML processing stuff. There are some interface
examples included. The full source to the Mac version is not currently
available.

   The Unix version is compatible with Tk, but there's been no
interface work on the Unix version. The full source to the Unix
version is available.

The documentation is weak, but there's sample code, and the sources
to the tcl/yasp interface are there as a last resort.

I hope that TclYasp is useful to people, especially those using SGML
on the Macintosh. I'm willing to help with questions via
email, or set up a list if things turn out to be busy enough to
warrant it. I will be continuing to work this as time and my thesis
permit -- I will happily integrate contributions of C and TCL code if
they make sense to me (or at least put them on the site if they
don't).

The files are available from the Scholarly Technology group at Brown
University. They have kindly provided computing resources to help me
create and distribute it.
   The directory is:

   ftp://ftp.stg.brown.edu/pub/sgml

   I will post a message when there are upgrades. If you fetch
TclYasp, and use it at all, please let me know, as I'd like to
know how and if it is being used.

--------------------------------------------+----------------------------
David Durand                 dgd@cs.bu.edu  | david@dynamicDiagrams.com
Boston University Computer Science          | Dynamic Diagrams
http://cs-www.bu.edu:80/students/grads/dgd/ | http://dynamicDiagrams.com/