[ANN] ERBook 7.0.0

snk · May 4, 2009, 10:26am

                       ERBook 7.0.0

       Extensible document processor based on eRuby

           http://snk.tuxfamily.org/lib/erbook/

ERBook is an extensible document processor that emits [1]any
document you can imagine from [2]eRuby templates that allow
scripting and dynamic content generation.

A working [3]XHTML (web page) format is provided, while
[4]LaTeX (PDF), [5]UNIX manual page, and [6]plain text
formats are planned… [7]patches are welcome!

ERBook is exciting because:

 * Its documents are scriptable [8]eRuby templates.

 * It lets you [9]define your own document formats.

 * Its core contains less than 300 lines of code.

These features distinguish ERBook from the competition, which
offers neither scriptable documents nor definable document
formats:

 * [10]DocBook

 * [11]Deplate

 * [12]SiSU

 * [13]AsciiDoc

 * [14]txt2tags

 * [15]Grutatxt

Logistics

 * [16]Release notes -- history of project releases.

 * [17]Source code -- obtain via [18]Git or browse online.

 * [19]API reference -- documentation for source code.

 * [20]Project home -- the ERBook project home page.

To get help or provide feedback, simply [21]contact the
authors.

Version numbers

ERBook releases are numbered in major.minor.patch form
according to the [22]RubyGems rational versioning policy,
which can be summarized thus:
What increased in the version number? The increase indicates
that the release:
Is backward compatible? Has new features? Has bug fixes?
major No Yes Yes
minor Yes Yes Yes
patch Yes No Yes

Version 7.0.0 (2009-05-03)

This release improves the appearance, usability, and validity
of [23]XHTML (web page) output, upgrades to a new eRuby
templating system, adds new processing options to node
definitions, and fixes some bugs.

Incompatible changes

 * If you add methods to the ERBook::Template class, in
   order to provide them to eRuby templates, you must now
   add those methods to the ERBook::Template::Sandbox class
   instead.

 * The [24]Ember template processor is now used to render
   eRuby templates instead of the ERB library that is
   shipped with Ruby.
      + The file inclusion directive has been removed:

<%# include YOUR_FILE #%>
Ember provides equivalent functionality:
%< “YOUR_FILE”

 * The erbook/to_xhtml library now annotates <code> elements
   with a "line" or "para" class indicating whether they
   span a single or mulitple lines respectively.
   The "pre.code" CSS class is no longer emitted.

 * The erbook/rdoc library has been updated to work with
   RDoc 2.4.3. It no longer supports the old RDoc that is
   shipped with Ruby 1.8.

 * Just a reminder from the [25]Version 5.0.0 (2008-11-22)
   release notes:

 Internet Explorer 6 and 7 [26]do not support the
 application/xhtml+xml mime type, so the output generated
 by the [27]XHTML (web page) format cannot be viewed in
 those browsers.

New features

 * Replace dark background theme with a "wide open spaces"
   theme.
      + Use icons instead of unicode glyphs for mini
        navigation menus.
      + Put mini navigation menus on right-hand side of
        headings
      + Use [28]scrolling animation when local links (URI
        fragments) are visited, instead of instantly
        teleporting to the destination. This gives a sense
        of spatial existence to the web page, making it feel
        almost tangible!

 * XHTML output is now valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional! And the
   embedded CSS it contains is now valid CSS 3!
      + Minify CSS in XHTML output using the [29]Rainpress
        library.
      + Add CSS style for HTML definition lists.

 * Omit target type and index ("Section X.Y.Z") in output of
   xref() nodes in the screen-version (CSS stylesheet) of
   the generated output document.
   This information is still present in the print-version
   (CSS stylesheet) of the generated output document, where
   it is truly helpful to the reader.

 * Add "bypass" option to node definitions to properly
   support the generic "node" node. Invalid XHTML was being
   generated because the `node' node was marked as simply
   "inline", so it was not pulled out of the <p> tag created
   by Maruku.

Bug fixes

 * The "silent" property in node definitions was not being
   honored.

 * Fix error when inserting reference nodes (they are not
   inline!).

 * Add workaround for Maruku treating first line of input as
   parameter definition, and thereby omitting it from the
   output!

 * Array#to_s is equivalent to Array#inspect in Ruby 1.9.

 * [30]HelloWorld format specification file added methods to
   the nonexistent ERBook::Node class instead of adding them
   to the ERBook::Document::Node class.

Housekeeping

 * Simplify language phrases used in mini navigation menus.

 * Remove CSS hacks for supporting IE6; it cannot render
   XHTML anyway.

 * Render italics and boldface equally in serif font. Bold
   is truly bold now and italic is distinctive.

 * Adjust spacing between document title, author, and date
   headings.

 * Add copyright notice at the top of every file.

References