


Pod::Text(3p)    Perl Programmers Reference Guide   Pod::Text(3p)


NAME
       Pod::Text - Convert POD data to formatted ASCII text

SYNOPSIS
           use Pod::Text;
           my $parser = Pod::Text->new (sentence => 0, width => 78);

           # Read POD from STDIN and write to STDOUT.
           $parser->parse_from_filehandle;

           # Read POD from file.pod and write to file.txt.
           $parser->parse_from_file ('file.pod', 'file.txt');

DESCRIPTION
       Pod::Text is a module that can convert documentation in
       the POD format (the preferred language for documenting
       Perl) into formatted ASCII.  It uses no special formatting
       controls or codes whatsoever, and its output is therefore
       suitable for nearly any device.

       As a derived class from Pod::Parser, Pod::Text supports
       the same methods and interfaces.  See Pod::Parser for all
       the details; briefly, one creates a new parser with
       "Pod::Text->new()" and then calls either parse_from_file-
       handle() or parse_from_file().

       new() can take options, in the form of key/value pairs,
       that control the behavior of the parser.  The currently
       recognized options are:

       alt If set to a true value, selects an alternate output
           format that, among other things, uses a different
           heading style and marks "=item" entries with a colon
           in the left margin.  Defaults to false.

       code
           If set to a true value, the non-POD parts of the input
           file will be included in the output.  Useful for view-
           ing code documented with POD blocks with the POD ren-
           dered and the code left intact.

       indent
           The number of spaces to indent regular text, and the
           default indentation for "=over" blocks.  Defaults to
           4.

       loose
           If set to a true value, a blank line is printed after
           a "=head1" heading.  If set to false (the default), no
           blank line is printed after "=head1", although one is
           still printed after "=head2".  This is the default
           because it's the expected formatting for manual pages;
           if you're formatting arbitrary text documents, setting
           this to true may result in more pleasing output.



perl v5.8.8                 2002-10-27                          1





Pod::Text(3p)    Perl Programmers Reference Guide   Pod::Text(3p)


       margin
           The width of the left margin in spaces.  Defaults to
           0.  This is the margin for all text, including head-
           ings, not the amount by which regular text is
           indented; for the latter, see the indent option.  To
           set the right margin, see the width option.

       quotes
           Sets the quote marks used to surround C<> text.  If
           the value is a single character, it is used as both
           the left and right quote; if it is two characters, the
           first character is used as the left quote and the sec-
           ond as the right quoted; and if it is four characters,
           the first two are used as the left quote and the sec-
           ond two as the right quote.

           This may also be set to the special value "none", in
           which case no quote marks are added around C<> text.

       sentence
           If set to a true value, Pod::Text will assume that
           each sentence ends in two spaces, and will try to pre-
           serve that spacing.  If set to false, all consecutive
           whitespace in non-verbatim paragraphs is compressed
           into a single space.  Defaults to true.

       width
           The column at which to wrap text on the right-hand
           side.  Defaults to 76.

       The standard Pod::Parser method parse_from_filehandle()
       takes up to two arguments, the first being the file handle
       to read POD from and the second being the file handle to
       write the formatted output to.  The first defaults to
       STDIN if not given, and the second defaults to STDOUT.
       The method parse_from_file() is almost identical, except
       that its two arguments are the input and output disk files
       instead.  See Pod::Parser for the specific details.

DIAGNOSTICS
       Bizarre space in item
       Item called without tag
           (W) Something has gone wrong in internal "=item" pro-
           cessing.  These messages indicate a bug in Pod::Text;
           you should never see them.

       Can't open %s for reading: %s
           (F) Pod::Text was invoked via the compatibility mode
           pod2text() interface and the input file it was given
           could not be opened.

       Invalid quote specification "%s"
           (F) The quote specification given (the quotes option
           to the constructor) was invalid.  A quote



perl v5.8.8                 2002-10-27                          2





Pod::Text(3p)    Perl Programmers Reference Guide   Pod::Text(3p)


           specification must be one, two, or four characters
           long.

       %s:%d: Unknown command paragraph: %s
           (W) The POD source contained a non-standard command
           paragraph (something of the form "=command args") that
           Pod::Man didn't know about.  It was ignored.

       %s:%d: Unknown escape: %s
           (W) The POD source contained an "E<>" escape that
           Pod::Text didn't know about.

       %s:%d: Unknown formatting code: %s
           (W) The POD source contained a non-standard formatting
           code (something of the form "X<>") that Pod::Text
           didn't know about.

       %s:%d: Unmatched =back
           (W) Pod::Text encountered a "=back" command that
           didn't correspond to an "=over" command.

RESTRICTIONS
       Embedded Ctrl-As (octal 001) in the input will be mapped
       to spaces on output, due to an internal implementation
       detail.

NOTES
       This is a replacement for an earlier Pod::Text module
       written by Tom Christiansen.  It has a revamped interface,
       since it now uses Pod::Parser, but an interface roughly
       compatible with the old Pod::Text::pod2text() function is
       still available.  Please change to the new calling conven-
       tion, though.

       The original Pod::Text contained code to do formatting via
       termcap sequences, although it wasn't turned on by default
       and it was problematic to get it to work at all.  This
       rewrite doesn't even try to do that, but a subclass of it
       does.  Look for Pod::Text::Termcap.

SEE ALSO
       Pod::Parser, Pod::Text::Termcap, pod2text(1)

       The current version of this module is always available
       from its web site at <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/soft-
       ware/podlators/>.  It is also part of the Perl core dis-
       tribution as of 5.6.0.

AUTHOR
       Russ Allbery <rra@stanford.edu>, based very heavily on the
       original Pod::Text by Tom Christiansen
       <tchrist@mox.perl.com> and its conversion to Pod::Parser
       by Brad Appleton <bradapp@enteract.com>.




perl v5.8.8                 2002-10-27                          3





Pod::Text(3p)    Perl Programmers Reference Guide   Pod::Text(3p)


COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
       Copyright 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Russ Allbery
       <rra@stanford.edu>.

       This program is free software; you may redistribute it
       and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.



















































perl v5.8.8                 2002-10-27                          4


