Re: XML processing

[Hans Hagen <pragma@wxs.nl>]

At 08:53 PM 8/26/2002 +0200, Simon Pepping wrote:
>On Mon, Aug 26, 2002 at 12:33:44PM +0100, Robbie Pickering wrote:
> > We have for example definitions DEFN which are sometimes followed by an
> > example EGPH and sometimes not.
> >
> > ...
> > <DNUM>3</DNUM>
> > <DEFN>a large body, esp. of a person</DEFN>
> > <EGPH>he eased his bulk out of the chair</EGPH>
> > <DNUM>4</DNUM>
> > <DEFN>unpackaged cargo or goods</DEFN>
> >
> > I have setup DEFN very simply
> >
> > \defineXMLenvironment [DEFN] {}{.}
> > to add a full stop after the definition. It would be nice, though, to be
> > able to automatically add a colon instead in those cases where the DEFN
> > environment is immediately followed by a EGPH.
>
>This is very difficult, because your tagging has no moment at which
>this can be concluded: </DEFN> is too early to know, but when there is
>no following EGPH, there is nothing that can trigger the period or
>colon. It would be easier if the whole definition would be in a
>container: <definition><DNUM/><DEFN/><EGPH/></definition>. Then you
>can save EGPH, and </definition> could typeset it with preceding
>colon, or it could typeset a period.

actually, there is a trick:

say that you add a signal:

\newsignal\MySignal

bla bla\hskip\MySignal

then you can test for this signal:

\ifdim\lastskip\MySignal
   ...
\else
   ...
\fi

so, here EGPH should do the test, and DEFN add the skip

of course a little bit of hmode testing and removing of spaces helps

[if needed i can make a mechanism for that since i use it myself occasionally]

Hans
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                                   Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE | pragma@wxs.nl
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