As stated before, the ASCII converter basically only strips macronames in its
input. This converter is so rudimentary, that the groff
converters are a
better path to generate plain ASCII output. As it is, the ASCII converter is
now only usable as a last resort, when neither LaTeX, nor a HTML browser, nor
groff
is available.
The layout of the input file is very important in the ASCII converter, since
the output is basically the same as the input. The only exception to this rule
are multiple empty lines, which are eaten up by a post-processor
yodl2txt-post
and replaced by one empty line each.
For example, you should format your sections in the following way to make sure
that the titles start at the leftmost column:
chapter(Some chapter) Text of the chapter. Text of the chapter. Text of the chapter. Text of the chapter. Text of the chapter. Text of the chapter. sect(A section within the chapter) Text of the section. Text of the section. Text of the section. Text of the section. Text of the section. sect(A second section) More text.
This ensures that the chapter and section titles appear `left-flushed'. Optionally you might want to try the following layout:
chapter(Some chapter) Text of the chapter. Text of the chapter. Text of the chapter. Text of the chapter. Text of the chapter. Text of the chapter. sect(A section within the chapter) Text of the section. Text of the section. Text of the section. sect(A second section) More text.
Similarly, you should choose a `good-looking' way to format your lists, as in:
Text before an itemized list. itemize( it() Some item. Some item. Some item. Some item. Some item. it() Another item. Another item. Another item. Another item. Another item. ) Text following the list.
This makes sure that (a) the itemized list is `indented' relative to the other text, and (b) that the lines within one item of the list are indented to the same level.
Don't blame Yodl as a package for the ugliness of the ASCII converter. Rather,
blame me: I wrote the ASCII converter when I was too lazy to dig into the
groff format. Now that there's a man
and a ms
output format, you're
probably better off using that.
Please send Yodl questions and comments to yodl@icce.rug.nl.
Please send comments on these web pages to (address unknown)
Copyright (c) 1997, 1998, 1999 Karel Kubat and Jan Nieuwenhuizen.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved.