Re: moving from m4

[Denis Barbier <nospam@thanx>]

On Mon, 24 May 1999, Xose Manoel Ramos wrote:

> Hi!
> 
> Before trying `WML' I was using `m4' for my web pages. `m4' is
> usefull,  but it becomes very frustrating. Anyway, I had already
> written plenty of complex macros (recursive and looping), and I
> wanted to still use them.
> 
> Under `WML', `m4'  works with quotes disabled. I can only agree with
> that choice (that was one of the reasons I gave up `m4'). The problem
> is I have plenty of commas (,) inside my macros, so I have to quote
> them.
> 
> I thought about a `<m4>' tag to surround my macros, but somebody has
> already included it before me. (Probably because that was a good
> idea).
> 
> I just make it more handy:
> 
> --------------------------
> <define-container m4>
> m4_quotes
> {: [[s/&lquot;/`/]] [[s/&rquot;/'/]]
> %body 
> :}
> m4_noquotes
> </define-container>
> -------------------------
> 
> I added two entities for (`) and (') if I want to include them in a
> macro. There already exist: &#96; and &acute; but with such a name
> nobody will ever remember them.
> 
> Anyway, I think it should be easier try to migrate my macros to
> Meta-HTML. 

Hi Xose,

in the next release, i took another way. With your method, the quotes
have to be escaped (i mean ``replaced'') in the body of the text. It's
not a problem for you, but it is for people with a minimal knowledge
of programming.

Please keep in mind that macros are written by developers whereas
webpages might be written by everyone.
The <m4> tag in wml::std::tag will be defined by

<define-container m4>
<preserve quotes>\
<set-var quotes="`,'">\
<set-var %attributes>\
m4_noquotes()m4_dnl
m4_changequote(<get-var quotes>)m4_dnl
%body \
m4_noquotes()m4_dnl
<restore quotes>
</define-container>

The <symbol> tag has been redefined to use this new ``quotes''
attribute:

<define-tag symbol>
<m4 quotes="<`,'>">
<ifeq <get-var %1> undef
      <prog m4_undefine(<`%0'>)>
      <prog m4_define(<`%0'>,\
            <`m4_noquotes()m4_changequote(<`,'>)<`%1'>'>)>>
</m4>
</define-tag>

This is an example of what i expect : tricks are done in macro files,
not in the source of the web pages.

In your case, you could replace all occurences of quotes (` and ') by
<` and '> respectively, and define another macro
<define-container mym4>
<m4 quotes="<`,'>">
%body
</m4>
</define-container>

Few people use this m4 pass, so any feedback is really helpful.

Denis

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