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diff --git a/man/man1/mi5.1df b/man/man1/mi5.1df new file mode 100644 index 00000000..53d98bf1 --- /dev/null +++ b/man/man1/mi5.1df @@ -0,0 +1,70 @@ +.TH MI5 1df "June 2017" "Manual page for mi5" +.SH NAME +.B mi5 +\- m4 inverted preprocessor +.SH SYNOPSIS +.B mi5 +FILE > out.m4 +.br +.B mi5 +open='{{{' shut='}}}' FILE > out.m4 +.br +.B mi5 +FILE1 FILE2 > out.m4 +.br +prog | +.B mi5 +> out.m4 +.br +.SH DESCRIPTION +.B mi5 +is a simple and crude m4 preprocessor to make using m4 slightly more bearable +and predictable for its author, who wants badly to like m4 but doesn't. It's +primarily intended for situations where the majority of a file is simple static +text, and only a few simple macros need to be defined and expanded, which +covers almost every usage case for the author. It's written to work with any +POSIX awk and to generate output for any POSIX m4. +.P +mi5 inverts m4's usual approach by approaching most of the file as if it were +part of an m4 quote, with <% and %> as the (default) delimiters to specify +markers in which macro expansion should occur. This is therefore a way to +shoehorn m4 into working in a way reminiscent of templating libraries or +languages like PHP. +.P +Macros can be expanded as blocks: +.P + <% + + define(`FOO', `bar') + define(`BAZ', include(`include/quux.inc')) + + %> +.P +For this format, `dnl' macros to delete newlines for each declaration are +inserted for you. Blank lines are skipped, and leading and trailing spaces are +ignored. The above code therefore produces no actual output, as it only has two +define calls. +.P +For inline expansion, the syntax is similar, but the behaviour slightly different: +.P + The value of the FOO macro is <% FOO %>. +.P +Spaces immediately after the opening delimiter and before the closing delimiter +are ignored, but spaces produced within the macro are preserved. `dnl` macros +are not inserted for inline blocks. +.P +Ideally, you do your complex macro definition in a block at the top of your +file, and your simple macro expansion of those results in an inline. +.SH CAVEATS +There's no way to escape the delimiters. +.P +Inline expansions cannot span multiple lines. Use blocks for that. +.P +Doesn't cope at all with `changequote'. If you need to specify different ones +from this tool's point of view, you can change the "quote" and "unquote" vars +in the same way as "open" and "shut", but if you're getting to that point then +you should probably write raw m4. +.SH SEE ALSO +m4(1) +.SH AUTHOR +Tom Ryder <tom@sanctum.geek.nz> |