NAME

Pod::Text - Convert POD data to formatted ASCII text

SYNOPSIS

    use Pod::Text;
    my $parser = Pod::Text->new (sentence => 0, width => 78);

    # Read POD from STDIN and write to STDOUT.
    $parser->parse_from_filehandle;

    # Read POD from file.pod and write to file.txt.
    $parser->parse_from_file ('file.pod', 'file.txt');

DESCRIPTION

Pod::Text is a module that can convert documentation in the POD format (such as can be found throughout the Perl distribution) into formatted ASCII. It uses no special formatting controls or codes whatsoever, and its output is therefore suitable for nearly any device.

As a derived class from Pod::Parser, Pod::Text supports the same methods and interfaces. See Pod::Parser for all the details; briefly, one creates a new parser with Pod::Text->new() and then calls either parse_from_filehandle() or parse_from_file().

new() can take options, in the form of key/value pairs, that control the behavior of the parser. The currently recognized options are:

alt

If set to a true value, selects an alternate output format that, among other things, uses a different heading style and marks =item entries with a colon in the left margin. Defaults to false.

indent

The number of spaces to indent regular text, and the default indentation for =over blocks. Defaults to 4.

loose

If set to a true value, a blank line is printed after a =head1 heading. If set to false (the default), no blank line is printed after =head1, although one is still printed after =head2. This is the default because it's the expected formatting for manual pages; if you're formatting arbitrary text documents, setting this to true may result in more pleasing output.

sentence

If set to a true value, Pod::Text will assume that each sentence ends in two spaces, and will try to preserve that spacing. If set to false, all consecutive whitespace in non-verbatim paragraphs is compressed into a single space. Defaults to true.

width

The column at which to wrap text on the right-hand side. Defaults to 76.

The standard Pod::Parser method parse_from_filehandle() takes up to two arguments, the first being the file handle to read POD from and the second being the file handle to write the formatted output to. The first defaults to STDIN if not given, and the second defaults to STDOUT. The method parse_from_file() is almost identical, except that its two arguments are the input and output disk files instead. See Pod::Parser for the specific details.

DIAGNOSTICS

Unknown escape: %s

The POD source contained an E<> escape that Pod::Text didn't know about.

Unknown sequence: %s

The POD source contained a non-standard internal sequence (something of the form X<>) that Pod::Text didn't know about.

Unmatched =back

Pod::Text encountered a =back command that didn't correspond to an =over command.

NOTES

I'm hoping this module will eventually replace Pod::Text in Perl core once Pod::Parser has been added to Perl core. Accordingly, don't be surprised if the name of this module changes to Pod::Text down the road.

The original Pod::Text contained code to do formatting via termcap sequences, although it wasn't turned on by default and it was problematic to get it to work at all. This module doesn't even try to do that, but a subclass of it does. Look for Pod::Text::Termcap.

SEE ALSO

Pod::Parser, Pod::Text::Termcap

AUTHOR

Russ Allbery <rra@stanford.edu>, based very heavily on the original Pod::Text by Tom Christiansen <tchrist@mox.perl.com> and its conversion to Pod::Parser by Brad Appleton <bradapp@enteract.com>.