Re: "Semi-verbatim" - preserve whitespace - don't escape characters

["Wolfgang Schuster" <schuster.wolfgang@googlemail.com>]

2007/12/7, dexterclarke@safe-mail.net <dexterclarke@safe-mail.net>:
> Hi.
>
> I'm working on a document processor that has multiple backends
> for different output formats (XHTML, nroff, plain text, ConTeXt).
>
> The processor uses s-expression syntax with commands such as:
>
>   (para "this is a paragraph")
>
> The various backends then convert this statement in their own
> way (using <p></p> tags in XHTML, for example).
>
> There is one command that allows rendering of external files
> based on whatever backend is selected:
>
>   (render "file")
>
> The XHTML backend includes "file", escaping all 'illegal' characters
> such as <, >, & etc. The ConTeXt backend reads the file and also
> escapes characters, placing their TeX equivalent in the output -
> $\}$, $\backslash$ etc. Both backends place the contents of "file"
> directly in the output, they don't, for example, use the <object>
> tags in XHTML, or any ConTeXt file inclusion directives. This is
> desirable for many reasons that are out of scope for this post...
>
> The problem I am having is that one may do this:
>
>   (para-verbatim (render "file"))
>
> The para-verbatim tag is meant to preserve whitespace in the output.
>
> For example, this becomes:
>
>   <pre>contents of file</pre>
>
> in the XHTML output. Unfortunately, I've hit a wall when it comes
> to the ConTeXt equivalent: The ConTeXt backend reads
> in "file" and prints it to the output, escaping all reserved TeX
> characters, as mentioned earlier, but unfortunately there doesn't
> seem to be the equivalent of:
>
>   \preservewhitespace
>   contents of file
>   \stoppreservingwhitespace
>
> "\starttyping" is too heavy handed in that it also escapes characters
> rather than just preserving whitespace (they've already been escaped
> by my document processor, as mentioned earlier). What I need is a
> directive that says "preserve whitespace" but does not escape reserved
> TeX characters.
>
> Does any such thing exist in ConTeXt? Unfortunately, I'm inexperienced
> with TeX so I don't know how feasible this is.

\startlines
verbatin text
\stoplines

Wolfgang
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