
notableofcontents()
article(YODL - or, Yet Oneother Document Language)
       (Karel Kubat tt(karel@icce.rug.nl) nl()
        Frank B. Brokken (frank@icce.rug.nl))
       (1997)

    quote(This file double-serves as the announcement that goes to
    em(comp.os.linux.announce), and as a message to the maintainers of
    em(sunsite.unc.edu) and em(tsx-11.mit.edu). So it's a slightly unpersonal
    message... sorry 'bout that.

    What's more, this message is in the YODL document language. What better
    way to demonstrate? If you see a lot of parentheses, just read over them.
    This file in `source' format should be readable nevertheless. This same
    document is included at the end formatted to plain ASCII. If you want
    to see the full documentation, try
    http://www.icce.rug.nl/docs/programs/yodl/yodl.html.)

nsect(What's YODL?)
    YODL (Yet Oneother Document Language) is a package that consists of
    programs, some shell scripts, and auxiliary "lib" files for which hold
    macro files. The whole purpose of the package is to provide a
    simple-to-use and extensible document language, that can be used to
    convert documents in the YODL format to a variety of other formats. In
    this purpose, YODL somewhat resembles generic markup languages, e.g. SGML
    footnote(Standard Generalized Markup Language) but:

nsect(How easy to use is it?)
    YODL is easier to use. Well I find so. Typing parentheses is I think
    less work than typing <> or \{}.

nsect(How good is the documentation?)
    YODL is very well documented. That my version of SGML isn't is, I guess,
    no fault of SGML, but I had a bf(very) hard time getting SGML to do what I
    wanted it to do! Well, YODL should be easier to handle.  The docs include
    various manpages and a full document of approximately 60 DIN A4 pages. (If
    you don't like DIN A4, just make your own reference docs! The sources for
    the document, of course in YODL format, are included.)

nsect(Does it use tags?)
    YODL doesn't insist on weird tags. YODL is not a markup language in that
    sense (starting and ending tags), YODL handles all its commands in a
    C-style manner; e.g. tt(em(...)) will set the text emphasized.  Similarly,
    macros can have two arguments or more, also all in a parameter-list
    format. This is more of an advantage than you might think at first glance:
    e.g., my editor won't match a closing tag in HTML with the opening tag,
    but it bf(will) show the open-parenthesis when I type a closing
    parenthesis!

nsect(Does it have conditional parsing?)
    YODL has support for conditional processing: by testing for some symbol,
    or say for the presence of an argument, you can do different things in a
    macro. Or you can redefine macros, and the such.

nsect(What can it do?)
    Currently the package supports conversions to LaTeX, HTML, to the "man"
    format, to the "ms" format, and poor-mans conversions to plain ASCII and
    SGML (for compatibility reasons at our site).  Other conversions are of
    course possible, but these are the formats that I use and hence the
    converters that I put some effort into.

nsect(Where to get it?)
    If you want to obtain YODL and try it out, ftp to
    ftp://ftp.icce.rug.nl/pub/unix/ and look for a file yodl-X.YY.tar.gz, with
    X.YY being a version number (0.00 is of course the first). The YODL
    distribution is also on the `standard' Linux sites.
    Unpack it in a "sources" directory and type "make htmldoc" or "make 
    latexdoc" and see for yourself...

nsect(Who should I contact ?)
    For the benefit of Yodl-users we maintain a Yodl-mailing list. Subscribe
    to the list by sending an email to yodl-request@icce.rug.nl, containing
    the lines
    verb(
    subscribe
    end
    )
    and submit your postings to yodl@icce.rug.nl thereafter.

    As of August, 13, 1997 Yodl is maintained by Frank B. Brokken
    (frank@icce.rug.nl). Direct all other correspondence about Yodl to him,
    and bf(NOT) to Karel.





