Next: Command_reference Prev: Highlights Up: Top Top: Top

0.2. A LaTeX-like document markup language (tutorial-ish)

Here is a simple silly literate Haskell program:

\documentstyle[literate]{report}
\rootsectiontype{\part}

\begin{document}

Here is my \Haskell{} program to send a message to my friends:

\begin{code}

main _ = [ AppendChan stdout (message ++ " to " ++ my_friends) ]

\end{code}


\section[message]{The Message}

\begin{code}

message = "Hello"

\end{code}

\subsection{Comments about the message and its implementation}

\begin{enumerate}

\item

The message is given as a top-level pattern binding.

\item

The @message@ binding does not violate the monomorphic restriction;

its type is \tr{[Char]}, which is not overloaded.

\end{enumerate}


\section[friends]{My friends}


\begin{code}

my_friends = ( \ y -> "Bob and Joe" ) 3

\end{code}


\printindex

\end{document}

Here are some things to see in this example (don't worry if it doesn't make sense first time):

• The compilable program (the parts between `\begin{code}'s and `\end{code}'s) is simply contained in marked-off parts of your document, and the code therein is completely ordinary (no special programming notation).
Such code is one "kind of stuff" in your literate program; text is the other.
• The overall document is arranged hierarchically (`\section', `\subsection', etc.) and looks an awful lot like a LaTeX document.
• There is quite a bit about what makes up your document (sections, code, enumerated lists) and very little about how your document should be formatted (e.g., "skip 2 lines"). This is "declarative" markup.
• Your program code will be indexed automatically; the `\printindex' command is how you say where you want the index included.
• You can refer to things-in-your-code in the text parts of your document, by enclosing the reference in `@''s, as in `@message@'. The reference will be suitably indexed.
• The sectioning commands (e.g., `\section') are odd (if you are used to LaTeX). Most important, a sectioning command gives a relative position in the hierarchy; this means that commands like `\rootsectiontype' can be used to adjust the absolute sectioning in the final document. In this example, the topmost section would be a LaTeX `\chapter' by default, but it's been changed to be a `\part'.
• More not-LaTeX trivia: the optional argument to `\section' serves both as a label name (for `\ref', etc.) and as a node name for GNU Info files.

The following sections describe the more interesting parts of our LaTeX-like notation, illustrated in the example above. (Before that is a micro-tutorial on LaTeX conventions, in section See micro-latex.)

• As the example above showed, the sectioning commands diverge quite significantly from LaTeX. Section See Sectioning gives the full details about sectioning.
• The example shows how program code is included in a document in the simplest way: just begin `\begin{code}' and `\end{code}' around it. Section See code-in-doc describes the more involved uses of this feature.
• Section See Cross_references and Section See Indexing describe how to take full advantage of the cross-referencing and indexing facilities in your literate programs.
• Section See Examples is supposed to include several complete examples of literate programs but IT IS NOT FINISHED YET.

Remember: Section See Command_reference is (supposed to be) a complete reference document about the LaTeX-like commands you may safely use.

micro-latex: A micro-tutorial on our LaTeX-like conventions.
Sectioning: Sectioning commands.
code-in-doc: Including program code in your document.
Cross_references: Cross-referencing.
Indexing: Indexing.
Examples: Some complete examples [NOT FINISHED].
Shortcuts: Helpful short-cut notations.

0.2. A LaTeX-like document markup language (tutorial-ish)

Menu