Access to Intermediate Document after Pre-processing

Access to Intermediate Document after Pre-processing

[Malte Stien]

Hi all,

I am working with a reasonably complex document structure, where I make heavy use of the following constructs

\input (to import a number of source files)
\if and \newif (to switch between different paragraphs depending on some conditions)
\setvariable and \getvariable (to reuse some text in different places)

So, does ConTeXt run some sort of pre-processing step that processes all of the above and which results in an intermediate document that is then type-set? And is it possible to only run this pre-processing step and get access to that intermediate document?

I am asking as I have some Ruby scripts that take ConTeXt documents and convert it to another format. However, those scripts do not deal with any of the above and rather than implementing the necessary logic to deal with importing of files, conditions and variables, I thought ConTeXt does that already if only I could get access to the resulting intermediate file.

Does that makes sense?

Thank you,
Malte.

Malte Stien, PhD | Chief Technology Officer | SmartWard Pty Ltd
E: malte.stien@smartward.com.au | W: www.smartward.com.au
P: +61 (0)2 6251 1798 | M: +61 (0)413 928 895
-- Please consider the environment before printing this email --

___________________________________________________________________________________
If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!

maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
webpage  : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net
archive  : http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/
wiki     : http://contextgarden.net
___________________________________________________________________________________

Re: Access to Intermediate Document after Pre-processing

[Henri Menke]

On 08/03/2016 03:25 PM, Malte Stien wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I am working with a reasonably complex document structure, where I make heavy use of the following constructs
> 
> \input (to import a number of source files)
> \if and \newif (to switch between different paragraphs depending on some conditions)
> \setvariable and \getvariable (to reuse some text in different places)
> 
> So, does ConTeXt run some sort of pre-processing step that processes all of the above and which results in an intermediate document that is then type-set? And is it possible to only run this pre-processing step and get access to that intermediate document?

This is a TeX thing.  Unfortunately, TeX does not have any introspection into the expansion processor which is why you cannot preprocess your source files as, e.g., with the C preprocessor.  You might be able though to hook into the process_input_buffer callback and craft your preprocessed file by hand.

> 
> I am asking as I have some Ruby scripts that take ConTeXt documents and convert it to another format. However, those scripts do not deal with any of the above and rather than implementing the necessary logic to deal with importing of files, conditions and variables, I thought ConTeXt does that already if only I could get access to the resulting intermediate file.
> 
> Does that makes sense?
> 
> Thank you,
> Malte.

Cheers, Henri

> 
> Malte Stien, PhD | Chief Technology Officer | SmartWard Pty Ltd
> E: malte.stien@smartward.com.au | W: www.smartward.com.au
> P: +61 (0)2 6251 1798 | M: +61 (0)413 928 895
> -- Please consider the environment before printing this email --
> 
> ___________________________________________________________________________________
> If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!
> 
> maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
> webpage  : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net
> archive  : http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/
> wiki     : http://contextgarden.net
> ___________________________________________________________________________________
> 

___________________________________________________________________________________
If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!

maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
webpage  : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net
archive  : http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/
wiki     : http://contextgarden.net
___________________________________________________________________________________

Re: Access to Intermediate Document after Pre-processing

[Hans Hagen]

On 8/3/2016 4:20 PM, Henri Menke wrote:
> On 08/03/2016 03:25 PM, Malte Stien wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I am working with a reasonably complex document structure, where I make heavy use of the following constructs
>>
>> \input (to import a number of source files)
>> \if and \newif (to switch between different paragraphs depending on some conditions)
>> \setvariable and \getvariable (to reuse some text in different places)

are you sure that there are no mechanism already built in context that 
can be of help? (of just lua)

>> So, does ConTeXt run some sort of pre-processing step that processes all of the above and which results in an intermediate document that is then type-set? And is it possible to only run this pre-processing step and get access to that intermediate document?
>
> This is a TeX thing.  Unfortunately, TeX does not have any introspection into the expansion processor which is why you cannot preprocess your source files as, e.g., with the C preprocessor.  You might be able though to hook into the process_input_buffer callback and craft your preprocessed file by hand.

apart from severe performance issues, such introspection has not much 
advantage as you then end up with interpreting something that either has 
lost information or get information that is already available otherwise

Hans



-----------------------------------------------------------------
                                           Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE
               Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands
        tel: 038 477 53 69 | www.pragma-ade.nl | www.pragma-pod.nl
-----------------------------------------------------------------
___________________________________________________________________________________
If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!

maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
webpage  : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net
archive  : http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/
wiki     : http://contextgarden.net
___________________________________________________________________________________

Re: Access to Intermediate Document after Pre-processing

[Hans Hagen]

On 8/3/2016 3:25 PM, Malte Stien wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I am working with a reasonably complex document structure, where I make heavy use of the following constructs
>
> \input (to import a number of source files)
> \if and \newif (to switch between different paragraphs depending on some conditions)
> \setvariable and \getvariable (to reuse some text in different places)
>
> So, does ConTeXt run some sort of pre-processing step that processes all of the above and which results in an intermediate document that is then type-set? And is it possible to only run this pre-processing step and get access to that intermediate document?

use the exporter and then mess with the xml

> I am asking as I have some Ruby scripts that take ConTeXt documents and convert it to another format. However, those scripts do not deal with any of the above and rather than implementing the necessary logic to deal with importing of files, conditions and variables, I thought ConTeXt does that already if only I could get access to the resulting intermediate file.
>
> Does that makes sense?
>
> Thank you,
> Malte.
>
> Malte Stien, PhD | Chief Technology Officer | SmartWard Pty Ltd
> E: malte.stien@smartward.com.au | W: www.smartward.com.au
> P: +61 (0)2 6251 1798 | M: +61 (0)413 928 895
> -- Please consider the environment before printing this email --
>
> ___________________________________________________________________________________
> If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!
>
> maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
> webpage  : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net
> archive  : http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/
> wiki     : http://contextgarden.net
> ___________________________________________________________________________________
>


-- 

-----------------------------------------------------------------
                                           Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE
               Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands
        tel: 038 477 53 69 | www.pragma-ade.nl | www.pragma-pod.nl
-----------------------------------------------------------------
___________________________________________________________________________________
If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!

maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
webpage  : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net
archive  : http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/
wiki     : http://contextgarden.net
___________________________________________________________________________________