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

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

On Sat, 8 Dec 2007 09:44:52 -0500 (EST)
Aditya Mahajan <adityam@umich.edu> wrote:

> On Sat, 8 Dec 2007, Wolfgang Schuster wrote:
> 
> > 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.
> 
> \setuplines[space=yes]
> 
> followed by
> 
> > \startlines
> > verbatin text
> > \stoplines
> 
> Note that everything between start-stop lines is normal tex code.

you mean start/stoplines need style and color keys.

> Aditya

Wolfgang
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