ANN: Atox 0.4 released

[Magnus Lie Hetland]

What is it?
===========

Atox is a framework for automated markup. With it one can quite easily
write custom scripts for converting plain text into XML in any way one
wishes. Atox is normally used as a command-line script, using a simple
XML language to specify the desired transformation from text to
markup, but it is also possible to build custom parsers using the Atox
library. The name (short for ASCII-to-XML) is inspired by such UNIX
tools and system functions as atops and atoi.


What can it do?
===============

The examples in the distribution demonstrate how you can use Atox to:

  - Mark up a (relatively simple) technical document (the Atox
    manual);

  - Mark up code blocks only through indentation;

  - Nest lists through indentation
  
  - Discern between different indentation "shapes" (e.g. a block quote
    versus a description list item);

  - Transform simple LaTeX into XML;

  - Add XML "syntax highlighting" to Python code;

  - Mark up screenplays or stageplays, largely based on indentation;

  - Mark up simple fictional prose;

  - Mark up simple tables.


What's new in 0.4?
==================

These are the changes I've made:

  - Made the error handling slightly more user-friendly.

  - Added some basic improvements to the command-line interface (the
    '-e', '-f' and '-o' switches, as well the ability to use multiple
    input files or standard input). Note that the new calling
    convention is incompatible with the previous version, in that the
    format file is no longer supplied as an argument.

  - Normalized newline-handling.
  
  - Added the utility tags 'ax:block', 'ax:sob' (start-of-block) and
    'ax:eob' (end-of-block).

  - Fixed an important bug in the indentation code, which affected
    'ax:indented'.
    
  - Made empty sequences legal.
  
  - Added support for config files.


Where can I get it?
===================

Atox is hosted at SourceForge (http://atox.sf.net) and the current
release (0.4) is available for download via its project page
(http://sf.net/projects/atox).


The Small Print
===============

Atox is released under the MIT license. It comes with no warranty of
any kind. Also, even though the current version works well, and the
project is currently (as per early 2004) being actively developed,
there is no guarantee of continued support. What you see is what you
get.


-- 
Magnus Lie Hetland  "Oppression and harassment is a small price to pay
http://hetland.org   to live in the land of the free."  -- C. M. Burns