Using Inclusion for Definitions

\INCLUDE is not only useful for teams, it can also help to centralize definitions of macros and variables. A centralized definition then can be included into various documents, all making use of the same macros and variables. And this, by the way, helps teams as well - the team can share common definitions.

Central definition files are just PerlPoint sources with definitions. Let's say we want to define a few macros to make them available for all project sources. The definitions could be stored in macros.pp. Here is an example:

    +RED:\F{color=red}<__body__>
  
    +BLUE:\F{color=blue}<__body__>

With this file, all our sources could begin this way:

    // load macro definitions
    \INCLUDE{type=pp src="macros.pp"}

That's all to do!

Likewise, we could have central variables, in variables.pp.

    $path=there/or/there/

.. and then, in all our sources that need this path:

    // load global variables
    \INCLUDE{type=pp src="variables.pp"}

The only problem is that when all documents include these files, and some of these documents include each other, the definitions are read multiply. That's a waste of time at least, but it can be suppressed: add option smart with a true value, and the \INCLUDE will be ignored if the file was already included before.

    // load macro definitions
    \INCLUDE{type=pp src="macros.pp" smart=1}
  
    // load global variables
    \INCLUDE{type=pp src="variables.pp" smart=1}