Style featured

Styles were introduced into PerlPoint with pp2html, Lorenz Domkes PerlPoint converter to HTML. With the new formatter (or generator) model, all converters can use styles, and styles of an extended definition.

A style (according to this new definition) is a directory structure (or possibly PAR file in the future) that defines several things:

• An option collection. A configuration file combines all the options that set up a certain layout.
• Formatters. A style can define and use its own formatter modules. If it contains a lib subdirectory with a module PerlPoint::Generator::<special_language>::<special_formatter>, and the options set up in the style contain -target special_language -formatter special_formatter, the lib directory is added to the module search path dynamically and the modules of the style are loaded. This happens transparently. For users, this results in simple style choices, without need of special one shot installations.
• Template engines. Similar to formatters, a style can extend the installed PerlPoint libraries by own <template engines>. This works the same way: if the style contains a lib directory with an own engine module PerlPoint::Template::<special_engine> and the style options contain -templatetype special_engine, than perlpoint will use that engine to process your template files.
• Templates. A formatter can be template driven. The style contains all necessary template files. The template system is not fix - PerlPoint allows to use any system by providing a generalized API. To add a new template system, only a small layer module needs to be written. For available template interfaces, see PerlPoint::Template modules on CPAN.
• Description and documentation. Style directories can be set up to hold short descriptions, screenshots and manuals for a certain style. These can be used by external tools, like librarians or Web pages, to present a style.