Mailing List Archive

Nagwa Abdel-Mottaleb wrote:
>
> Greetings:
>
> I am looking for a suitable language that will enable me to
> down-translate XML files into something like LaTeX files.
> Is it easy to use Python for this process? For example,
> how easy it is to write code segments that enable to
> translate

You want to find out about the Python XML sig.

http://www.python.org/sigs/xml-sig

You can use the code from the xml-sig to build a DOM which is an in-memory
tree model of the data. Then you can walk the DOM and output the relevant
LaTeX tags using "sys.stdout.write" or something like it.

--
Paul Prescod - ISOGEN Consulting Engineer speaking for only himself
http://itrc.uwaterloo.ca/~papresco

"The Excursion [Sport Utility Vehicle] is so large that it will come
equipped with adjustable pedals to fit smaller drivers and sensor
devices that warn the driver when he or she is about to back into a
Toyota or some other object." -- Dallas Morning News

Nagwa Abdel-Mottaleb <nagwa@math.ephouse.com> wrote:
> I am looking for a suitable language that will enable me to
> down-translate XML files into something like LaTeX files.
> Is it easy to use Python for this process? For example,
> how easy it is to write code segments that enable to
> translate
>
> <tag>foo</tag>
>
> in the xml input file into
>
> \begin{tag}
> foo
> \end{tag}
>
> and things like that in the tex output file?
>
> Any pointers and/or sample code will be appreciated.
> (Please e-mail me if possible.)

Python comes with an XML parser:
http://www.python.org/doc/lib/module-xmllib.html

here's some code to start with:

---

import sys, xmllib

class myParser(xmllib.XMLParser):

_eoln = 1

def __init__(self, out):
xmllib.XMLParser.__init__(self) # initiate base class
self.write = out.write
# for special tags, initiate self.elements here:
# self.elements = {
# "mytag": (self.start_mytag, self.end_mytag)
# }

def handle_data(self, data):
self.write(data)
self._eoln = (data[:-1] == "\n")

def unknown_starttag(self, tag, attributes):
# default is to map tags to begin/end constructs
if not self._eoln:
self.write("\n")
self.write("begin{%s}\n" % tag)
self._eoln = 1

def unknown_endtag(self, tag):
if not self._eoln:
self.write("\n")
self.write("end{%s}\n" % tag)
self._eoln = 1

p = myParser(sys.stdout)
p.feed("<tag>text</tag>")
p.close()

---

</F>