PERLPODSPEC(1) Perl Programmers Reference Guide PERLPODSPEC(1)
NAME
perlpodspec - Plain Old Documentation: format specification and notes
DESCRIPTION
This document is detailed notes on the Pod markup language. Most people
will only have to read perlpod to know how to write in Pod, but this
document may answer some incidental questions to do with parsing and
rendering Pod.
In this document, "must" / "must not", "should" / "should not", and
"may" have their conventional (cf. RFC 2119) meanings: "X must do Y"
means that if X doesn't do Y, it's against this specification, and
should really be fixed. "X should do Y" means that it's recommended,
but X may fail to do Y, if there's a good reason. "X may do Y" is
merely a note that X can do Y at will (although it is up to the reader
to detect any connotation of "and I think it would be nice if X did Y"
versus "it wouldn't really bother me if X did Y").
Notably, when I say "the parser should do Y", the parser may fail to do
Y, if the calling application explicitly requests that the parser not do
Y. I often phrase this as "the parser should, by default, do Y." This
doesn't require the parser to provide an option for turning off whatever
feature Y is (like expanding tabs in verbatim paragraphs), although it
implicates that such an option may be provided.
Pod Definitions
Pod is embedded in files, typically Perl source files, although you can
write a file that's nothing but Pod.
A line in a file consists of zero or more non-newline characters,
terminated by either a newline or the end of the file.
A newline sequence is usually a platform-dependent concept, but Pod
parsers should understand it to mean any of CR (ASCII 13), LF (ASCII
10), or a CRLF (ASCII 13 followed immediately by ASCII 10), in addition
to any other system-specific meaning. The first CR/CRLF/LF sequence in
the file may be used as the basis for identifying the newline sequence
for parsing the rest of the file.
A blank line is a line consisting entirely of zero or more spaces (ASCII
32) or tabs (ASCII 9), and terminated by a newline or end-of-file. A
non-blank line is a line containing one or more characters other than
space or tab (and terminated by a newline or end-of-file).
(Note: Many older Pod parsers did not accept a line consisting of
spaces/tabs and then a newline as a blank line. The only lines they
considered blank were lines consisting of no characters at all,
terminated by a newline.)
Whitespace is used in this document as a blanket term for spaces, tabs,
and newline sequences. (By itself, this term usually refers to literal
whitespace. That is, sequences of whitespace characters in Pod source,
as opposed to "E<32>", which is a formatting code that denotes a
whitespace character.)
A Pod parser is a module meant for parsing Pod (regardless of whether
this involves calling callbacks or building a parse tree or directly
formatting it). A Pod formatter (or Pod translator) is a module or
program that converts Pod to some other format (HTML, plaintext, TeX,
PostScript, RTF). A Pod processor might be a formatter or translator,
or might be a program that does something else with the Pod (like
counting words, scanning for index points, etc.).
Pod content is contained in Pod blocks. A Pod block starts with a line
that matches "m/\A=[a-zA-Z]/", and continues up to the next line that
matches "m/\A=cut/" or up to the end of the file if there is no
"m/\A=cut/" line.
Note that a parser is not expected to distinguish between something that
looks like pod, but is in a quoted string, such as a here document.
Within a Pod block, there are Pod paragraphs. A Pod paragraph consists
of non-blank lines of text, separated by one or more blank lines.
For purposes of Pod processing, there are four types of paragraphs in a
Pod block:
• A command paragraph (also called a "directive"). The first line of
this paragraph must match "m/\A=[a-zA-Z]/". Command paragraphs are
typically one line, as in:
=head1 NOTES
=item *
But they may span several (non-blank) lines:
=for comment
Hm, I wonder what it would look like if
you tried to write a BNF for Pod from this.
=head3 Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to
Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Some command paragraphs allow formatting codes in their content
(i.e., after the part that matches "m/\A=[a-zA-Z]\S*\s*/"), as in:
=head1 Did You Remember to C<use strict;>?
In other words, the Pod processing handler for "head1" will apply
the same processing to "Did You Remember to C<use strict;>?" that it
would to an ordinary paragraph (i.e., formatting codes like
"C<...>") are parsed and presumably formatted appropriately, and
whitespace in the form of literal spaces and/or tabs is not
significant.
• A verbatim paragraph. The first line of this paragraph must be a
literal space or tab, and this paragraph must not be inside a
"=begin identifier", ... "=end identifier" sequence unless
"identifier" begins with a colon (":"). That is, if a paragraph
starts with a literal space or tab, but is inside a "=begin
identifier", ... "=end identifier" region, then it's a data
paragraph, unless "identifier" begins with a colon.
Whitespace is significant in verbatim paragraphs (although, in
processing, tabs are probably expanded).
• An ordinary paragraph. A paragraph is an ordinary paragraph if its
first line matches neither "m/\A=[a-zA-Z]/" nor "m/\A[ \t]/", and if
it's not inside a "=begin identifier", ... "=end identifier"
sequence unless "identifier" begins with a colon (":").
• A data paragraph. This is a paragraph that is inside a "=begin
identifier" ... "=end identifier" sequence where "identifier" does
not begin with a literal colon (":"). In some sense, a data
paragraph is not part of Pod at all (i.e., effectively it's "out-of-
band"), since it's not subject to most kinds of Pod parsing; but it
is specified here, since Pod parsers need to be able to call an
event for it, or store it in some form in a parse tree, or at least
just parse around it.
For example: consider the following paragraphs:
# <- that's the 0th column
=head1 Foo
Stuff
$foo->bar
=cut
Here, "=head1 Foo" and "=cut" are command paragraphs because the first
line of each matches "m/\A=[a-zA-Z]/". "[space][space]$foo->bar" is a
verbatim paragraph, because its first line starts with a literal
whitespace character (and there's no "=begin"..."=end" region around).
The "=begin identifier" ... "=end identifier" commands stop paragraphs
that they surround from being parsed as ordinary or verbatim paragraphs,
if identifier doesn't begin with a colon. This is discussed in detail
in the section "About Data Paragraphs and "=begin/=end" Regions".
Pod Commands
This section is intended to supplement and clarify the discussion in
"Command Paragraph" in perlpod. These are the currently recognized Pod
commands:
"=head1", "=head2", "=head3", "=head4", "=head5", "=head6"
This command indicates that the text in the remainder of the
paragraph is a heading. That text may contain formatting codes.
Examples:
=head1 Object Attributes
=head3 What B<Not> to Do!
Both "=head5" and "=head6" were added in 2020 and might not be
supported on all Pod parsers. Pod::Simple 3.41 was released on
October 2020 and supports both of these providing support for all
Pod::Simple-based Pod parsers.
"=pod"
This command indicates that this paragraph begins a Pod block. (If
we are already in the middle of a Pod block, this command has no
effect at all.) If there is any text in this command paragraph
after "=pod", it must be ignored. Examples:
=pod
This is a plain Pod paragraph.
=pod This text is ignored.
"=cut"
This command indicates that this line is the end of this previously
started Pod block. If there is any text after "=cut" on the line,
it must be ignored. Examples:
=cut
=cut The documentation ends here.
=cut
# This is the first line of program text.
sub foo { # This is the second.
It is an error to try to start a Pod block with a "=cut" command.
In that case, the Pod processor must halt parsing of the input file,
and must by default emit a warning.
"=over"
This command indicates that this is the start of a list/indent
region. If there is any text following the "=over", it must consist
of only a nonzero positive numeral. The semantics of this numeral
is explained in the "About =over...=back Regions" section, further
below. Formatting codes are not expanded. Examples:
=over 3
=over 3.5
=over
"=item"
This command indicates that an item in a list begins here.
Formatting codes are processed. The semantics of the (optional)
text in the remainder of this paragraph are explained in the "About
=over...=back Regions" section, further below. Examples:
=item
=item *
=item *
=item 14
=item 3.
=item C<< $thing->stuff(I<dodad>) >>
=item For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended
offenses
=item He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign
mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and
tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy
scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally
unworthy the head of a civilized nation.
"=back"
This command indicates that this is the end of the region begun by
the most recent "=over" command. It permits no text after the
"=back" command.
"=begin formatname"
"=begin formatname parameter"
This marks the following paragraphs (until the matching "=end
formatname") as being for some special kind of processing. Unless
"formatname" begins with a colon, the contained non-command
paragraphs are data paragraphs. But if "formatname" does begin with
a colon, then non-command paragraphs are ordinary paragraphs or data
paragraphs. This is discussed in detail in the section "About Data
Paragraphs and "=begin/=end" Regions".
It is advised that formatnames match the regexp
"m/\A:?[-a-zA-Z0-9_]+\z/". Everything following whitespace after
the formatname is a parameter that may be used by the formatter when
dealing with this region. This parameter must not be repeated in
the "=end" paragraph. Implementors should anticipate future
expansion in the semantics and syntax of the first parameter to
"=begin"/"=end"/"=for".
"=end formatname"
This marks the end of the region opened by the matching "=begin
formatname" region. If "formatname" is not the formatname of the
most recent open "=begin formatname" region, then this is an error,
and must generate an error message. This is discussed in detail in
the section "About Data Paragraphs and "=begin/=end" Regions".
"=for formatname text..."
This is synonymous with:
=begin formatname
text...
=end formatname
That is, it creates a region consisting of a single paragraph; that
paragraph is to be treated as a normal paragraph if "formatname"
begins with a ":"; if "formatname" doesn't begin with a colon, then
"text..." will constitute a data paragraph. There is no way to use
"=for formatname text..." to express "text..." as a verbatim
paragraph.
"=encoding encodingname"
This command, which should occur early in the document (at least
before any non-US-ASCII data!), declares that this document is
encoded in the encoding encodingname, which must be an encoding name
that Encode recognizes. (Encode's list of supported encodings, in
Encode::Supported, is useful here.) If the Pod parser cannot decode
the declared encoding, it should emit a warning and may abort
parsing the document altogether.
A document having more than one "=encoding" line should be
considered an error. Pod processors may silently tolerate this if
the not-first "=encoding" lines are just duplicates of the first one
(e.g., if there's a "=encoding utf8" line, and later on another
"=encoding utf8" line). But Pod processors should complain if there
are contradictory "=encoding" lines in the same document (e.g., if
there is a "=encoding utf8" early in the document and "=encoding
big5" later). Pod processors that recognize BOMs may also complain
if they see an "=encoding" line that contradicts the BOM (e.g., if a
document with a UTF-16LE BOM has an "=encoding shiftjis" line).
If a Pod processor sees any command other than the ones listed above
(like "=head", or "=haed1", or "=stuff", or "=cuttlefish", or "=w123"),
that processor must by default treat this as an error. It must not
process the paragraph beginning with that command, must by default warn
of this as an error, and may abort the parse. A Pod parser may allow a
way for particular applications to add to the above list of known
commands, and to stipulate, for each additional command, whether
formatting codes should be processed.
Future versions of this specification may add additional commands.
Pod Formatting Codes
(Note that in previous drafts of this document and of perlpod,
formatting codes were referred to as "interior sequences", and this term
may still be found in the documentation for Pod parsers, and in error
messages from Pod processors.)
There are two syntaxes for formatting codes:
• A formatting code starts with a capital letter (just US-ASCII [A-Z])
followed by a "<", any number of characters, and ending with the
first matching ">". Examples:
That's what I<you> think!
What's C<CORE::dump()> for?
X<C<chmod> and C<unlink()> Under Different Operating Systems>
• A formatting code starts with a capital letter (just US-ASCII [A-Z])
followed by two or more "<"'s, one or more whitespace characters,
any number of characters, one or more whitespace characters, and
ending with the first matching sequence of two or more ">"'s, where
the number of ">"'s equals the number of "<"'s in the opening of
this formatting code. Examples:
That's what I<< you >> think!
C<<< open(X, ">>thing.dat") || die $! >>>
B<< $foo->bar(); >>
With this syntax, the whitespace character(s) after the "C<<<" and
before the ">>>" (or whatever letter) are not renderable. They do
not signify whitespace, are merely part of the formatting codes
themselves. That is, these are all synonymous:
C<thing>
C<< thing >>
C<< thing >>
C<<< thing >>>
C<<<<
thing
>>>>
and so on.
Finally, the multiple-angle-bracket form does not alter the
interpretation of nested formatting codes, meaning that the
following four example lines are identical in meaning:
B<example: C<$a E<lt>=E<gt> $b>>
B<example: C<< $a <=> $b >>>
B<example: C<< $a E<lt>=E<gt> $b >>>
B<<< example: C<< $a E<lt>=E<gt> $b >> >>>
In parsing Pod, a notably tricky part is the correct parsing of
(potentially nested!) formatting codes. Implementors should consult the
code in the "parse_text" routine in Pod::Parser as an example of a
correct implementation.
"I<text>" -- italic text
See the brief discussion in "Formatting Codes" in perlpod.
"B<text>" -- bold text
See the brief discussion in "Formatting Codes" in perlpod.
"C<code>" -- code text
See the brief discussion in "Formatting Codes" in perlpod.
"F<filename>" -- style for filenames
See the brief discussion in "Formatting Codes" in perlpod.
"X<topic name>" -- an index entry
See the brief discussion in "Formatting Codes" in perlpod.
This code is unusual in that most formatters completely discard this
code and its content. Other formatters will render it with
invisible codes that can be used in building an index of the current
document.
"Z<>" -- a null (zero-effect) formatting code
Discussed briefly in "Formatting Codes" in perlpod.
This code is unusual in that it should have no content. That is, a
processor may complain if it sees "Z<potatoes>". Whether or not it
complains, the potatoes text should ignored.
"L<name>" -- a hyperlink
The complicated syntaxes of this code are discussed at length in
"Formatting Codes" in perlpod, and implementation details are
discussed below, in "About L<...> Codes". Parsing the contents of
L<content> is tricky. Notably, the content has to be checked for
whether it looks like a URL, or whether it has to be split on
literal "|" and/or "/" (in the right order!), and so on, before
E<...> codes are resolved.
"E<escape>" -- a character escape
See "Formatting Codes" in perlpod, and several points in "Notes on
Implementing Pod Processors".
"S<text>" -- text contains non-breaking spaces
This formatting code is syntactically simple, but semantically
complex. What it means is that each space in the printable content
of this code signifies a non-breaking space.
Consider:
C<$x ? $y : $z>
S<C<$x ? $y : $z>>
Both signify the monospace (c[ode] style) text consisting of "$x",
one space, "?", one space, ":", one space, "$z". The difference is
that in the latter, with the S code, those spaces are not "normal"
spaces, but instead are non-breaking spaces.
If a Pod processor sees any formatting code other than the ones listed
above (as in "N<...>", or "Q<...>", etc.), that processor must by
default treat this as an error. A Pod parser may allow a way for
particular applications to add to the above list of known formatting
codes; a Pod parser might even allow a way to stipulate, for each
additional command, whether it requires some form of special processing,
as L<...> does.
Future versions of this specification may add additional formatting
codes.
Historical note: A few older Pod processors would not see a ">" as
closing a "C<" code, if the ">" was immediately preceded by a "-". This
was so that this:
C<$foo->bar>
would parse as equivalent to this:
C<$foo-E<gt>bar>
instead of as equivalent to a "C" formatting code containing only
"$foo-", and then a "bar>" outside the "C" formatting code. This
problem has since been solved by the addition of syntaxes like this:
C<< $foo->bar >>
Compliant parsers must not treat "->" as special.
Formatting codes absolutely cannot span paragraphs. If a code is opened
in one paragraph, and no closing code is found by the end of that
paragraph, the Pod parser must close that formatting code, and should
complain (as in "Unterminated I code in the paragraph starting at line
123: 'Time objects are not...'"). So these two paragraphs:
I<I told you not to do this!
Don't make me say it again!>
...must not be parsed as two paragraphs in italics (with the I code
starting in one paragraph and starting in another.) Instead, the first
paragraph should generate a warning, but that aside, the above code must
parse as if it were:
I<I told you not to do this!>
Don't make me say it again!E<gt>
(In SGMLish jargon, all Pod commands are like block-level elements,
whereas all Pod formatting codes are like inline-level elements.)
Notes on Implementing Pod Processors
The following is a long section of miscellaneous requirements and
suggestions to do with Pod processing.
• Pod formatters should tolerate lines in verbatim blocks that are of
any length, even if that means having to break them (possibly
several times, for very long lines) to avoid text running off the
side of the page. Pod formatters may warn of such line-breaking.
Such warnings are particularly appropriate for lines are over 100
characters long, which are usually not intentional.
• Pod parsers must recognize all of the three well-known newline
formats: CR, LF, and CRLF. See perlport.
• Pod parsers should accept input lines that are of any length.
• Since Perl recognizes a Unicode Byte Order Mark at the start of
files as signaling that the file is Unicode encoded as in UTF-16
(whether big-endian or little-endian) or UTF-8, Pod parsers should
do the same. Otherwise, the character encoding should be understood
as being UTF-8 if the first highbit byte sequence in the file seems
valid as a UTF-8 sequence, or otherwise as CP-1252 (earlier versions
of this specification used Latin-1 instead of CP-1252).
Future versions of this specification may specify how Pod can accept
other encodings. Presumably treatment of other encodings in Pod
parsing would be as in XML parsing: whatever the encoding declared
by a particular Pod file, content is to be stored in memory as
Unicode characters.
• The well known Unicode Byte Order Marks are as follows: if the file
begins with the two literal byte values 0xFE 0xFF, this is the BOM
for big-endian UTF-16. If the file begins with the two literal byte
value 0xFF 0xFE, this is the BOM for little-endian UTF-16. On an
ASCII platform, if the file begins with the three literal byte
values 0xEF 0xBB 0xBF, this is the BOM for UTF-8. A mechanism
portable to EBCDIC platforms is to:
my $utf8_bom = "\x{FEFF}";
utf8::encode($utf8_bom);
• A naive, but often sufficient heuristic on ASCII platforms, for
testing the first highbit byte-sequence in a BOM-less file (whether
in code or in Pod!), to see whether that sequence is valid as UTF-8
(RFC 2279) is to check whether that the first byte in the sequence
is in the range 0xC2 - 0xFD and whether the next byte is in the
range 0x80 - 0xBF. If so, the parser may conclude that this file is
in UTF-8, and all highbit sequences in the file should be assumed to
be UTF-8. Otherwise the parser should treat the file as being in
CP-1252. (A better check, and which works on EBCDIC platforms as
well, is to pass a copy of the sequence to utf8::decode() which
performs a full validity check on the sequence and returns TRUE if
it is valid UTF-8, FALSE otherwise. This function is always pre-
loaded, is fast because it is written in C, and will only get called
at most once, so you don't need to avoid it out of performance
concerns.) In the unlikely circumstance that the first highbit
sequence in a truly non-UTF-8 file happens to appear to be UTF-8,
one can cater to our heuristic (as well as any more intelligent
heuristic) by prefacing that line with a comment line containing a
highbit sequence that is clearly not valid as UTF-8. A line
consisting of simply "#", an e-acute, and any non-highbit byte, is
sufficient to establish this file's encoding.
• Pod processors must treat a "=for [label] [content...]" paragraph as
meaning the same thing as a "=begin [label]" paragraph, content, and
an "=end [label]" paragraph. (The parser may conflate these two
constructs, or may leave them distinct, in the expectation that the
formatter will nevertheless treat them the same.)
• When rendering Pod to a format that allows comments (i.e., to nearly
any format other than plaintext), a Pod formatter must insert
comment text identifying its name and version number, and the name
and version numbers of any modules it might be using to process the
Pod. Minimal examples:
%% POD::Pod2PS v3.14159, using POD::Parser v1.92
<!-- Pod::HTML v3.14159, using POD::Parser v1.92 -->
{\doccomm generated by Pod::Tree::RTF 3.14159 using Pod::Tree 1.08}
.\" Pod::Man version 3.14159, using POD::Parser version 1.92
Formatters may also insert additional comments, including: the
release date of the Pod formatter program, the contact address for
the author(s) of the formatter, the current time, the name of input
file, the formatting options in effect, version of Perl used, etc.
Formatters may also choose to note errors/warnings as comments,
besides or instead of emitting them otherwise (as in messages to
STDERR, or "die"ing).
• Pod parsers may emit warnings or error messages ("Unknown E code
E<zslig>!") to STDERR (whether through printing to STDERR, or
"warn"ing/"carp"ing, or "die"ing/"croak"ing), but must allow
suppressing all such STDERR output, and instead allow an option for
reporting errors/warnings in some other way, whether by triggering a
callback, or noting errors in some attribute of the document object,
or some similarly unobtrusive mechanism -- or even by appending a
"Pod Errors" section to the end of the parsed form of the document.
• In cases of exceptionally aberrant documents, Pod parsers may abort
the parse. Even then, using "die"ing/"croak"ing is to be avoided;
where possible, the parser library may simply close the input file
and add text like "*** Formatting Aborted ***" to the end of the
(partial) in-memory document.
• In paragraphs where formatting codes (like E<...>, B<...>) are
understood (i.e., not verbatim paragraphs, but including ordinary
paragraphs, and command paragraphs that produce renderable text,
like "=head1"), literal whitespace should generally be considered
"insignificant", in that one literal space has the same meaning as
any (nonzero) number of literal spaces, literal newlines, and
literal tabs (as long as this produces no blank lines, since those
would terminate the paragraph). Pod parsers should compact literal
whitespace in each processed paragraph, but may provide an option
for overriding this (since some processing tasks do not require it),
or may follow additional special rules (for example, specially
treating period-space-space or period-newline sequences).
• Pod parsers should not, by default, try to coerce apostrophe (') and
quote (") into smart quotes (little 9's, 66's, 99's, etc), nor try
to turn backtick (`) into anything else but a single backtick
character (distinct from an open quote character!), nor "--" into
anything but two minus signs. They must never do any of those
things to text in C<...> formatting codes, and never ever to text in
verbatim paragraphs.
• When rendering Pod to a format that has two kinds of hyphens (-),
one that's a non-breaking hyphen, and another that's a breakable
hyphen (as in "object-oriented", which can be split across lines as
"object-", newline, "oriented"), formatters are encouraged to
generally translate "-" to non-breaking hyphen, but may apply
heuristics to convert some of these to breaking hyphens.
• Pod formatters should make reasonable efforts to keep words of Perl
code from being broken across lines. For example, "Foo::Bar" in
some formatting systems is seen as eligible for being broken across
lines as "Foo::" newline "Bar" or even "Foo::-" newline "Bar". This
should be avoided where possible, either by disabling all line-
breaking in mid-word, or by wrapping particular words with internal
punctuation in "don't break this across lines" codes (which in some
formats may not be a single code, but might be a matter of inserting
non-breaking zero-width spaces between every pair of characters in a
word.)
• Pod parsers should, by default, expand tabs in verbatim paragraphs
as they are processed, before passing them to the formatter or other
processor. Parsers may also allow an option for overriding this.
• Pod parsers should, by default, remove newlines from the end of
ordinary and verbatim paragraphs before passing them to the
formatter. For example, while the paragraph you're reading now
could be considered, in Pod source, to end with (and contain) the
newline(s) that end it, it should be processed as ending with (and
containing) the period character that ends this sentence.
• Pod parsers, when reporting errors, should make some effort to
report an approximate line number ("Nested E<>'s in Paragraph #52,
near line 633 of Thing/Foo.pm!"), instead of merely noting the
paragraph number ("Nested E<>'s in Paragraph #52 of Thing/Foo.pm!").
Where this is problematic, the paragraph number should at least be
accompanied by an excerpt from the paragraph ("Nested E<>'s in
Paragraph #52 of Thing/Foo.pm, which begins 'Read/write accessor for
the C<interest rate> attribute...'").
• Pod parsers, when processing a series of verbatim paragraphs one
after another, should consider them to be one large verbatim
paragraph that happens to contain blank lines. I.e., these two
lines, which have a blank line between them:
use Foo;
print Foo->VERSION
should be unified into one paragraph ("\tuse Foo;\n\n\tprint
Foo->VERSION") before being passed to the formatter or other
processor. Parsers may also allow an option for overriding this.
While this might be too cumbersome to implement in event-based Pod
parsers, it is straightforward for parsers that return parse trees.
• Pod formatters, where feasible, are advised to avoid splitting short
verbatim paragraphs (under twelve lines, say) across pages.
• Pod parsers must treat a line with only spaces and/or tabs on it as
a "blank line" such as separates paragraphs. (Some older parsers
recognized only two adjacent newlines as a "blank line" but would
not recognize a newline, a space, and a newline, as a blank line.
This is noncompliant behavior.)
• Authors of Pod formatters/processors should make every effort to
avoid writing their own Pod parser. There are already several in
CPAN, with a wide range of interface styles -- and one of them,
Pod::Simple, comes with modern versions of Perl.
• Characters in Pod documents may be conveyed either as literals, or
by number in E<n> codes, or by an equivalent mnemonic, as in
E<eacute> which is exactly equivalent to E<233>. The numbers are
the Latin1/Unicode values, even on EBCDIC platforms.
When referring to characters by using a E<n> numeric code, numbers
in the range 32-126 refer to those well known US-ASCII characters
(also defined there by Unicode, with the same meaning), which all
Pod formatters must render faithfully. Characters whose E<> numbers
are in the ranges 0-31 and 127-159 should not be used (neither as
literals, nor as E<number> codes), except for the literal byte-
sequences for newline (ASCII 13, ASCII 13 10, or ASCII 10), and tab
(ASCII 9).
Numbers in the range 160-255 refer to Latin-1 characters (also
defined there by Unicode, with the same meaning). Numbers above 255
should be understood to refer to Unicode characters.
• Be warned that some formatters cannot reliably render characters
outside 32-126; and many are able to handle 32-126 and 160-255, but
nothing above 255.
• Besides the well-known "E<lt>" and "E<gt>" codes for less-than and
greater-than, Pod parsers must understand "E<sol>" for "/" (solidus,
slash), and "E<verbar>" for "|" (vertical bar, pipe). Pod parsers
should also understand "E<lchevron>" and "E<rchevron>" as legacy
codes for characters 171 and 187, i.e., "left-pointing double angle
quotation mark" = "left pointing guillemet" and "right-pointing
double angle quotation mark" = "right pointing guillemet". (These
look like little "<<" and ">>", and they are now preferably
expressed with the HTML/XHTML codes "E<laquo>" and "E<raquo>".)
• Pod parsers should understand all "E<html>" codes as defined in the
entity declarations in the most recent XHTML specification at
"www.W3.org". Pod parsers must understand at least the entities
that define characters in the range 160-255 (Latin-1). Pod parsers,
when faced with some unknown "E<identifier>" code, shouldn't simply
replace it with nullstring (by default, at least), but may pass it
through as a string consisting of the literal characters E, less-
than, identifier, greater-than. Or Pod parsers may offer the
alternative option of processing such unknown "E<identifier>" codes
by firing an event especially for such codes, or by adding a special
node-type to the in-memory document tree. Such "E<identifier>" may
have special meaning to some processors, or some processors may
choose to add them to a special error report.
• Pod parsers must also support the XHTML codes "E<quot>" for
character 34 (doublequote, "), "E<amp>" for character 38 (ampersand,
&), and "E<apos>" for character 39 (apostrophe, ').
• Note that in all cases of "E<whatever>", whatever (whether an
htmlname, or a number in any base) must consist only of alphanumeric
characters -- that is, whatever must match "m/\A\w+\z/". So
"E< 0 1 2 3 >" is invalid, because it contains spaces, which aren't
alphanumeric characters. This presumably does not need special
treatment by a Pod processor; " 0 1 2 3 " doesn't look like a number
in any base, so it would presumably be looked up in the table of
HTML-like names. Since there isn't (and cannot be) an HTML-like
entity called " 0 1 2 3 ", this will be treated as an error.
However, Pod processors may treat "E< 0 1 2 3 >" or "E<e-acute>" as
syntactically invalid, potentially earning a different error message
than the error message (or warning, or event) generated by a merely
unknown (but theoretically valid) htmlname, as in "E<qacute>" [sic].
However, Pod parsers are not required to make this distinction.
• Note that E<number> must not be interpreted as simply "codepoint
number in the current/native character set". It always means only
"the character represented by codepoint number in Unicode." (This
is identical to the semantics of &#number; in XML.)
This will likely require many formatters to have tables mapping from
treatable Unicode codepoints (such as the "\xE9" for the e-acute
character) to the escape sequences or codes necessary for conveying
such sequences in the target output format. A converter to *roff
would, for example know that "\xE9" (whether conveyed literally, or
via a E<...> sequence) is to be conveyed as "e\\*'". Similarly, a
program rendering Pod in a Mac OS application window, would
presumably need to know that "\xE9" maps to codepoint 142 in
MacRoman encoding that (at time of writing) is native for Mac OS.
Such Unicode2whatever mappings are presumably already widely
available for common output formats. (Such mappings may be
incomplete! Implementers are not expected to bend over backwards in
an attempt to render Cherokee syllabics, Etruscan runes, Byzantine
musical symbols, or any of the other weird things that Unicode can
encode.) And if a Pod document uses a character not found in such a
mapping, the formatter should consider it an unrenderable character.
• If, surprisingly, the implementor of a Pod formatter can't find a
satisfactory pre-existing table mapping from Unicode characters to
escapes in the target format (e.g., a decent table of Unicode
characters to *roff escapes), it will be necessary to build such a
table. If you are in this circumstance, you should begin with the
characters in the range 0x00A0 - 0x00FF, which is mostly the heavily
used accented characters. Then proceed (as patience permits and
fastidiousness compels) through the characters that the (X)HTML
standards groups judged important enough to merit mnemonics for.
These are declared in the (X)HTML specifications at the www.W3.org
site. At time of writing (September 2001), the most recent entity
declaration files are:
http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml-lat1.ent
http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml-special.ent
http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml-symbol.ent
Then you can progress through any remaining notable Unicode
characters in the range 0x2000-0x204D (consult the character tables
at www.unicode.org), and whatever else strikes your fancy. For
example, in xhtml-symbol.ent, there is the entry:
<!ENTITY infin "∞"> <!-- infinity, U+221E ISOtech -->
While the mapping "infin" to the character "\x{221E}" will
(hopefully) have been already handled by the Pod parser, the
presence of the character in this file means that it's reasonably
important enough to include in a formatter's table that maps from
notable Unicode characters to the codes necessary for rendering
them. So for a Unicode-to-*roff mapping, for example, this would
merit the entry:
"\x{221E}" => '\(in',
It is eagerly hoped that in the future, increasing numbers of
formats (and formatters) will support Unicode characters directly
(as (X)HTML does with "∞", "∞", or "∞"), reducing
the need for idiosyncratic mappings of Unicode-to-my_escapes.
• It is up to individual Pod formatter to display good judgement when
confronted with an unrenderable character (which is distinct from an
unknown E<thing> sequence that the parser couldn't resolve to
anything, renderable or not). It is good practice to map Latin
letters with diacritics (like "E<eacute>"/"E<233>") to the
corresponding unaccented US-ASCII letters (like a simple character
101, "e"), but clearly this is often not feasible, and an
unrenderable character may be represented as "?", or the like. In
attempting a sane fallback (as from E<233> to "e"), Pod formatters
may use the %Latin1Code_to_fallback table in Pod::Escapes, or
Text::Unidecode, if available.
For example, this Pod text:
magic is enabled if you set C<$Currency> to 'E<euro>'.
may be rendered as: "magic is enabled if you set $Currency to '?'"
or as "magic is enabled if you set $Currency to '[euro]'", or as
"magic is enabled if you set $Currency to '[x20AC]', etc.
A Pod formatter may also note, in a comment or warning, a list of
what unrenderable characters were encountered.
• E<...> may freely appear in any formatting code (other than in
another E<...> or in an Z<>). That is, "X<The E<euro>1,000,000
Solution>" is valid, as is "L<The E<euro>1,000,000
Solution|Million::Euros>".
• Some Pod formatters output to formats that implement non-breaking
spaces as an individual character (which I'll call "NBSP"), and
others output to formats that implement non-breaking spaces just as
spaces wrapped in a "don't break this across lines" code. Note that
at the level of Pod, both sorts of codes can occur: Pod can contain
a NBSP character (whether as a literal, or as a "E<160>" or
"E<nbsp>" code); and Pod can contain "S<foo I<bar> baz>" codes,
where "mere spaces" (character 32) in such codes are taken to
represent non-breaking spaces. Pod parsers should consider
supporting the optional parsing of "S<foo I<bar> baz>" as if it were
"fooNBSPI<bar>NBSPbaz", and, going the other way, the optional
parsing of groups of words joined by NBSP's as if each group were in
a S<...> code, so that formatters may use the representation that
maps best to what the output format demands.
• Some processors may find that the "S<...>" code is easiest to
implement by replacing each space in the parse tree under the
content of the S, with an NBSP. But note: the replacement should
apply not to spaces in all text, but only to spaces in printable
text. (This distinction may or may not be evident in the particular
tree/event model implemented by the Pod parser.) For example,
consider this unusual case:
S<L</Autoloaded Functions>>
This means that the space in the middle of the visible link text
must not be broken across lines. In other words, it's the same as
this:
L<"AutoloadedE<160>Functions"/Autoloaded Functions>
However, a misapplied space-to-NBSP replacement could (wrongly)
produce something equivalent to this:
L<"AutoloadedE<160>Functions"/AutoloadedE<160>Functions>
...which is almost definitely not going to work as a hyperlink
(assuming this formatter outputs a format supporting hypertext).
Formatters may choose to just not support the S format code,
especially in cases where the output format simply has no NBSP
character/code and no code for "don't break this stuff across
lines".
• Besides the NBSP character discussed above, implementors are
reminded of the existence of the other "special" character in
Latin-1, the "soft hyphen" character, also known as "discretionary
hyphen", i.e. "E<173>" = "E<0xAD>" = "E<shy>"). This character
expresses an optional hyphenation point. That is, it normally
renders as nothing, but may render as a "-" if a formatter breaks
the word at that point. Pod formatters should, as appropriate, do
one of the following: 1) render this with a code with the same
meaning (e.g., "\-" in RTF), 2) pass it through in the expectation
that the formatter understands this character as such, or 3) delete
it.
For example:
sigE<shy>action
manuE<shy>script
JarkE<shy>ko HieE<shy>taE<shy>nieE<shy>mi
These signal to a formatter that if it is to hyphenate "sigaction"
or "manuscript", then it should be done as "sig-[linebreak]action"
or "manu-[linebreak]script" (and if it doesn't hyphenate it, then
the "E<shy>" doesn't show up at all). And if it is to hyphenate
"Jarkko" and/or "Hietaniemi", it can do so only at the points where
there is a "E<shy>" code.
In practice, it is anticipated that this character will not be used
often, but formatters should either support it, or delete it.
• If you think that you want to add a new command to Pod (like, say, a
"=biblio" command), consider whether you could get the same effect
with a for or begin/end sequence: "=for biblio ..." or "=begin
biblio" ... "=end biblio". Pod processors that don't understand
"=for biblio", etc, will simply ignore it, whereas they may complain
loudly if they see "=biblio".
• Throughout this document, "Pod" has been the preferred spelling for
the name of the documentation format. One may also use "POD" or
"pod". For the documentation that is (typically) in the Pod format,
you may use "pod", or "Pod", or "POD". Understanding these
distinctions is useful; but obsessing over how to spell them,
usually is not.
About L<...> Codes
As you can tell from a glance at perlpod, the L<...> code is the most
complex of the Pod formatting codes. The points below will hopefully
clarify what it means and how processors should deal with it.
• In parsing an L<...> code, Pod parsers must distinguish at least
four attributes:
First:
The link-text. If there is none, this must be "undef". (E.g.,
in "L<Perl Functions|perlfunc>", the link-text is "Perl
Functions". In "L<Time::HiRes>" and even "L<|Time::HiRes>",
there is no link text. Note that link text may contain
formatting.)
Second:
The possibly inferred link-text; i.e., if there was no real link
text, then this is the text that we'll infer in its place.
(E.g., for "L<Getopt::Std>", the inferred link text is
"Getopt::Std".)
Third:
The name or URL, or "undef" if none. (E.g., in "L<Perl
Functions|perlfunc>", the name (also sometimes called the page)
is "perlfunc". In "L</CAVEATS>", the name is "undef".)
Fourth:
The section (AKA "item" in older perlpods), or "undef" if none.
E.g., in "L<Getopt::Std/DESCRIPTION>", "DESCRIPTION" is the
section. (Note that this is not the same as a manpage section
like the "5" in "man 5 crontab". "Section Foo" in the Pod sense
means the part of the text that's introduced by the heading or
item whose text is "Foo".)
Pod parsers may also note additional attributes including:
Fifth:
A flag for whether item 3 (if present) is a URL (like
"http://lists.perl.org" is), in which case there should be no
section attribute; a Pod name (like "perldoc" and "Getopt::Std"
are); or possibly a man page name (like "crontab(5)" is).
Sixth:
The raw original L<...> content, before text is split on "|",
"/", etc, and before E<...> codes are expanded.
(The above were numbered only for concise reference below. It is
not a requirement that these be passed as an actual list or array.)
For example:
L<Foo::Bar>
=> undef, # link text
"Foo::Bar", # possibly inferred link text
"Foo::Bar", # name
undef, # section
'pod', # what sort of link
"Foo::Bar" # original content
L<Perlport's section on NL's|perlport/Newlines>
=> "Perlport's section on NL's", # link text
"Perlport's section on NL's", # possibly inferred link text
"perlport", # name
"Newlines", # section
'pod', # what sort of link
"Perlport's section on NL's|perlport/Newlines"
# original content
L<perlport/Newlines>
=> undef, # link text
'"Newlines" in perlport', # possibly inferred link text
"perlport", # name
"Newlines", # section
'pod', # what sort of link
"perlport/Newlines" # original content
L<crontab(5)/"DESCRIPTION">
=> undef, # link text
'"DESCRIPTION" in crontab(5)', # possibly inferred link text
"crontab(5)", # name
"DESCRIPTION", # section
'man', # what sort of link
'crontab(5)/"DESCRIPTION"' # original content
L</Object Attributes>
=> undef, # link text
'"Object Attributes"', # possibly inferred link text
undef, # name
"Object Attributes", # section
'pod', # what sort of link
"/Object Attributes" # original content
L<https://www.perl.org/>
=> undef, # link text
"https://www.perl.org/", # possibly inferred link text
"https://www.perl.org/", # name
undef, # section
'url', # what sort of link
"https://www.perl.org/" # original content
L<Perl.org|https://www.perl.org/>
=> "Perl.org", # link text
"https://www.perl.org/", # possibly inferred link text
"https://www.perl.org/", # name
undef, # section
'url', # what sort of link
"Perl.org|https://www.perl.org/" # original content
Note that you can distinguish URL-links from anything else by the
fact that they match "m/\A\w+:[^:\s]\S*\z/". So
"L<http://www.perl.com>" is a URL, but "L<HTTP::Response>" isn't.
• In case of L<...> codes with no "text|" part in them, older
formatters have exhibited great variation in actually displaying the
link or cross reference. For example, L<crontab(5)> would render as
"the crontab(5) manpage", or "in the crontab(5) manpage" or just
"crontab(5)".
Pod processors must now treat "text|"-less links as follows:
L<name> => L<name|name>
L</section> => L<"section"|/section>
L<name/section> => L<"section" in name|name/section>
• Note that section names might contain markup. I.e., if a section
starts with:
=head2 About the C<-M> Operator
or with:
=item About the C<-M> Operator
then a link to it would look like this:
L<somedoc/About the C<-M> Operator>
Formatters may choose to ignore the markup for purposes of resolving
the link and use only the renderable characters in the section name,
as in:
<h1><a name="About_the_-M_Operator">About the <code>-M</code>
Operator</h1>
...
<a href="somedoc#About_the_-M_Operator">About the <code>-M</code>
Operator" in somedoc</a>
• Previous versions of perlpod distinguished "L<name/"section">" links
from "L<name/item>" links (and their targets). These have been
merged syntactically and semantically in the current specification,
and section can refer either to a "=headn Heading Content" command
or to a "=item Item Content" command. This specification does not
specify what behavior should be in the case of a given document
having several things all seeming to produce the same section
identifier (e.g., in HTML, several things all producing the same
anchorname in <a name="anchorname">...</a> elements). Where Pod
processors can control this behavior, they should use the first such
anchor. That is, "L<Foo/Bar>" refers to the first "Bar" section in
Foo.
But for some processors/formats this cannot be easily controlled; as
with the HTML example, the behavior of multiple ambiguous <a
name="anchorname">...</a> is most easily just left up to browsers to
decide.
• In a "L<text|...>" code, text may contain formatting codes for
formatting or for E<...> escapes, as in:
L<B<ummE<234>stuff>|...>
For "L<...>" codes without a "name|" part, only "E<...>" and "Z<>"
codes may occur. That is, authors should not use
""L<B<Foo::Bar>>"".
Note, however, that formatting codes and Z<>'s can occur in any and
all parts of an L<...> (i.e., in name, section, text, and url).
Authors must not nest L<...> codes. For example, "L<The L<Foo::Bar>
man page>" should be treated as an error.
• Note that Pod authors may use formatting codes inside the "text"
part of "L<text|name>" (and so on for L<text|/"sec">).
In other words, this is valid:
Go read L<the docs on C<$.>|perlvar/"$.">
Some output formats that do allow rendering "L<...>" codes as
hypertext, might not allow the link-text to be formatted; in that
case, formatters will have to just ignore that formatting.
• At time of writing, "L<name>" values are of two types: either the
name of a Pod page like "L<Foo::Bar>" (which might be a real Perl
module or program in an @INC / PATH directory, or a .pod file in
those places); or the name of a Unix man page, like "L<crontab(5)>".
In theory, "L<chmod>" is ambiguous between a Pod page called
"chmod", or the Unix man page "chmod" (in whatever man-section).
However, the presence of a string in parens, as in "crontab(5)", is
sufficient to signal that what is being discussed is not a Pod page,
and so is presumably a Unix man page. The distinction is of no
importance to many Pod processors, but some processors that render
to hypertext formats may need to distinguish them in order to know
how to render a given "L<foo>" code.
• Previous versions of perlpod allowed for a "L<section>" syntax (as
in "L<Object Attributes>"), which was not easily distinguishable
from "L<name>" syntax and for "L<"section">" which was only slightly
less ambiguous. This syntax is no longer in the specification, and
has been replaced by the "L</section>" syntax (where the slash was
formerly optional). Pod parsers should tolerate the "L<"section">"
syntax, for a while at least. The suggested heuristic for
distinguishing "L<section>" from "L<name>" is that if it contains
any whitespace, it's a section. Pod processors should warn about
this being deprecated syntax.
About =over...=back Regions
"=over"..."=back" regions are used for various kinds of list-like
structures. (I use the term "region" here simply as a collective term
for everything from the "=over" to the matching "=back".)
• The non-zero numeric indentlevel in "=over indentlevel" ... "=back"
is used for giving the formatter a clue as to how many "spaces"
(ems, or roughly equivalent units) it should tab over, although many
formatters will have to convert this to an absolute measurement that
may not exactly match with the size of spaces (or M's) in the
document's base font. Other formatters may have to completely
ignore the number. The lack of any explicit indentlevel parameter
is equivalent to an indentlevel value of 4. Pod processors may
complain if indentlevel is present but is not a positive number
matching "m/\A(\d*\.)?\d+\z/".
• Authors of Pod formatters are reminded that "=over" ... "=back" may
map to several different constructs in your output format. For
example, in converting Pod to (X)HTML, it can map to any of
<ul>...</ul>, <ol>...</ol>, <dl>...</dl>, or
<blockquote>...</blockquote>. Similarly, "=item" can map to <li> or
<dt>.
• Each "=over" ... "=back" region should be one of the following:
• An "=over" ... "=back" region containing only "=item *"
commands, each followed by some number of ordinary/verbatim
paragraphs, other nested "=over" ... "=back" regions, "=for..."
paragraphs, and "=begin"..."=end" regions.
(Pod processors must tolerate a bare "=item" as if it were
"=item *".) Whether "*" is rendered as a literal asterisk, an
"o", or as some kind of real bullet character, is left up to the
Pod formatter, and may depend on the level of nesting.
• An "=over" ... "=back" region containing only
"m/\A=item\s+\d+\.?\s*\z/" paragraphs, each one (or each group
of them) followed by some number of ordinary/verbatim
paragraphs, other nested "=over" ... "=back" regions, "=for..."
paragraphs, and/or "=begin"..."=end" codes. Note that the
numbers must start at 1 in each section, and must proceed in
order and without skipping numbers.
(Pod processors must tolerate lines like "=item 1" as if they
were "=item 1.", with the period.)
• An "=over" ... "=back" region containing only "=item [text]"
commands, each one (or each group of them) followed by some
number of ordinary/verbatim paragraphs, other nested "=over" ...
"=back" regions, or "=for..." paragraphs, and "=begin"..."=end"
regions.
The "=item [text]" paragraph should not match
"m/\A=item\s+\d+\.?\s*\z/" or "m/\A=item\s+\*\s*\z/", nor should
it match just "m/\A=item\s*\z/".
• An "=over" ... "=back" region containing no "=item" paragraphs
at all, and containing only some number of ordinary/verbatim
paragraphs, and possibly also some nested "=over" ... "=back"
regions, "=for..." paragraphs, and "=begin"..."=end" regions.
Such an itemless "=over" ... "=back" region in Pod is equivalent
in meaning to a "<blockquote>...</blockquote>" element in HTML.
Note that with all the above cases, you can determine which type of
"=over" ... "=back" you have, by examining the first (non-"=cut",
non-"=pod") Pod paragraph after the "=over" command.
• Pod formatters must tolerate arbitrarily large amounts of text in
the "=item text..." paragraph. In practice, most such paragraphs
are short, as in:
=item For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world
But they may be arbitrarily long:
=item For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended
offenses
=item He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign
mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and
tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy
scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally
unworthy the head of a civilized nation.
• Pod processors should tolerate "=item *" / "=item number" commands
with no accompanying paragraph. The middle item is an example:
=over
=item 1
Pick up dry cleaning.
=item 2
=item 3
Stop by the store. Get Abba Zabas, Stoli, and cheap lawn chairs.
=back
• No "=over" ... "=back" region can contain headings. Processors may
treat such a heading as an error.
• Note that an "=over" ... "=back" region should have some content.
That is, authors should not have an empty region like this:
=over
=back
Pod processors seeing such a contentless "=over" ... "=back" region,
may ignore it, or may report it as an error.
• Processors must tolerate an "=over" list that goes off the end of
the document (i.e., which has no matching "=back"), but they may
warn about such a list.
• Authors of Pod formatters should note that this construct:
=item Neque
=item Porro
=item Quisquam Est
Qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci
velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut
labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem.
=item Ut Enim
is semantically ambiguous, in a way that makes formatting decisions
a bit difficult. On the one hand, it could be mention of an item
"Neque", mention of another item "Porro", and mention of another
item "Quisquam Est", with just the last one requiring the
explanatory paragraph "Qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor..."; and then an
item "Ut Enim". In that case, you'd want to format it like so:
Neque
Porro
Quisquam Est
Qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci
velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut
labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem.
Ut Enim
But it could equally well be a discussion of three (related or
equivalent) items, "Neque", "Porro", and "Quisquam Est", followed by
a paragraph explaining them all, and then a new item "Ut Enim". In
that case, you'd probably want to format it like so:
Neque
Porro
Quisquam Est
Qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci
velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut
labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem.
Ut Enim
But (for the foreseeable future), Pod does not provide any way for
Pod authors to distinguish which grouping is meant by the above
"=item"-cluster structure. So formatters should format it like so:
Neque
Porro
Quisquam Est
Qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci
velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut
labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem.
Ut Enim
That is, there should be (at least roughly) equal spacing between
items as between paragraphs (although that spacing may well be less
than the full height of a line of text). This leaves it to the
reader to use (con)textual cues to figure out whether the "Qui
dolorem ipsum..." paragraph applies to the "Quisquam Est" item or to
all three items "Neque", "Porro", and "Quisquam Est". While not an
ideal situation, this is preferable to providing formatting cues
that may be actually contrary to the author's intent.
About Data Paragraphs and "=begin/=end" Regions
Data paragraphs are typically used for inlining non-Pod data that is to
be used (typically passed through) when rendering the document to a
specific format:
=begin rtf
\par{\pard\qr\sa4500{\i Printed\~\chdate\~\chtime}\par}
=end rtf
The exact same effect could, incidentally, be achieved with a single
"=for" paragraph:
=for rtf \par{\pard\qr\sa4500{\i Printed\~\chdate\~\chtime}\par}
(Although that is not formally a data paragraph, it has the same meaning
as one, and Pod parsers may parse it as one.)
Another example of a data paragraph:
=begin html
I like <em>PIE</em>!
<hr>Especially pecan pie!
=end html
If these were ordinary paragraphs, the Pod parser would try to expand
the "E</em>" (in the first paragraph) as a formatting code, just like
"E<lt>" or "E<eacute>". But since this is in a "=begin
identifier"..."=end identifier" region and the identifier "html" doesn't
begin have a ":" prefix, the contents of this region are stored as data
paragraphs, instead of being processed as ordinary paragraphs (or if
they began with a spaces and/or tabs, as verbatim paragraphs).
As a further example: At time of writing, no "biblio" identifier is
supported, but suppose some processor were written to recognize it as a
way of (say) denoting a bibliographic reference (necessarily containing
formatting codes in ordinary paragraphs). The fact that "biblio"
paragraphs were meant for ordinary processing would be indicated by
prefacing each "biblio" identifier with a colon:
=begin :biblio
Wirth, Niklaus. 1976. I<Algorithms + Data Structures =
Programs.> Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
=end :biblio
This would signal to the parser that paragraphs in this begin...end
region are subject to normal handling as ordinary/verbatim paragraphs
(while still tagged as meant only for processors that understand the
"biblio" identifier). The same effect could be had with:
=for :biblio
Wirth, Niklaus. 1976. I<Algorithms + Data Structures =
Programs.> Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
The ":" on these identifiers means simply "process this stuff normally,
even though the result will be for some special target". I suggest that
parser APIs report "biblio" as the target identifier, but also report
that it had a ":" prefix. (And similarly, with the above "html", report
"html" as the target identifier, and note the lack of a ":" prefix.)
Note that a "=begin identifier"..."=end identifier" region where
identifier begins with a colon, can contain commands. For example:
=begin :biblio
Wirth's classic is available in several editions, including:
=for comment
hm, check abebooks.com for how much used copies cost.
=over
=item
Wirth, Niklaus. 1975. I<Algorithmen und Datenstrukturen.>
Teubner, Stuttgart. [Yes, it's in German.]
=item
Wirth, Niklaus. 1976. I<Algorithms + Data Structures =
Programs.> Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
=back
=end :biblio
Note, however, a "=begin identifier"..."=end identifier" region where
identifier does not begin with a colon, should not directly contain
"=head1" ... "=head4" commands, nor "=over", nor "=back", nor "=item".
For example, this may be considered invalid:
=begin somedata
This is a data paragraph.
=head1 Don't do this!
This is a data paragraph too.
=end somedata
A Pod processor may signal that the above (specifically the "=head1"
paragraph) is an error. Note, however, that the following should not be
treated as an error:
=begin somedata
This is a data paragraph.
=cut
# Yup, this isn't Pod anymore.
sub excl { (rand() > .5) ? "hoo!" : "hah!" }
=pod
This is a data paragraph too.
=end somedata
And this too is valid:
=begin someformat
This is a data paragraph.
And this is a data paragraph.
=begin someotherformat
This is a data paragraph too.
And this is a data paragraph too.
=begin :yetanotherformat
=head2 This is a command paragraph!
This is an ordinary paragraph!
And this is a verbatim paragraph!
=end :yetanotherformat
=end someotherformat
Another data paragraph!
=end someformat
The contents of the above "=begin :yetanotherformat" ... "=end
:yetanotherformat" region aren't data paragraphs, because the
immediately containing region's identifier (":yetanotherformat") begins
with a colon. In practice, most regions that contain data paragraphs
will contain only data paragraphs; however, the above nesting is
syntactically valid as Pod, even if it is rare. However, the handlers
for some formats, like "html", will accept only data paragraphs, not
nested regions; and they may complain if they see (targeted for them)
nested regions, or commands, other than "=end", "=pod", and "=cut".
Also consider this valid structure:
=begin :biblio
Wirth's classic is available in several editions, including:
=over
=item
Wirth, Niklaus. 1975. I<Algorithmen und Datenstrukturen.>
Teubner, Stuttgart. [Yes, it's in German.]
=item
Wirth, Niklaus. 1976. I<Algorithms + Data Structures =
Programs.> Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
=back
Buy buy buy!
=begin html
<img src='wirth_spokesmodeling_book.png'>
<hr>
=end html
Now now now!
=end :biblio
There, the "=begin html"..."=end html" region is nested inside the
larger "=begin :biblio"..."=end :biblio" region. Note that the content
of the "=begin html"..."=end html" region is data paragraph(s), because
the immediately containing region's identifier ("html") doesn't begin
with a colon.
Pod parsers, when processing a series of data paragraphs one after
another (within a single region), should consider them to be one large
data paragraph that happens to contain blank lines. So the content of
the above "=begin html"..."=end html" may be stored as two data
paragraphs (one consisting of "<img
src='wirth_spokesmodeling_book.png'>\n" and another consisting of
"<hr>\n"), but should be stored as a single data paragraph (consisting
of "<img src='wirth_spokesmodeling_book.png'>\n\n<hr>\n").
Pod processors should tolerate empty "=begin something"..."=end
something" regions, empty "=begin :something"..."=end :something"
regions, and contentless "=for something" and "=for :something"
paragraphs. I.e., these should be tolerated:
=for html
=begin html
=end html
=begin :biblio
=end :biblio
Incidentally, note that there's no easy way to express a data paragraph
starting with something that looks like a command. Consider:
=begin stuff
=shazbot
=end stuff
There, "=shazbot" will be parsed as a Pod command "shazbot", not as a
data paragraph "=shazbot\n". However, you can express a data paragraph
consisting of "=shazbot\n" using this code:
=for stuff =shazbot
The situation where this is necessary, is presumably quite rare.
Note that =end commands must match the currently open =begin command.
That is, they must properly nest. For example, this is valid:
=begin outer
X
=begin inner
Y
=end inner
Z
=end outer
while this is invalid:
=begin outer
X
=begin inner
Y
=end outer
Z
=end inner
This latter is improper because when the "=end outer" command is seen,
the currently open region has the formatname "inner", not "outer". (It
just happens that "outer" is the format name of a higher-up region.)
This is an error. Processors must by default report this as an error,
and may halt processing the document containing that error. A corollary
of this is that regions cannot "overlap". That is, the latter block
above does not represent a region called "outer" which contains X and Y,
overlapping a region called "inner" which contains Y and Z. But because
it is invalid (as all apparently overlapping regions would be), it
doesn't represent that, or anything at all.
Similarly, this is invalid:
=begin thing
=end hting
This is an error because the region is opened by "thing", and the "=end"
tries to close "hting" [sic].
This is also invalid:
=begin thing
=end
This is invalid because every "=end" command must have a formatname
parameter.
SEE ALSO
perlpod, "PODs: Embedded Documentation" in perlsyn, podchecker
AUTHOR
Sean M. Burke
perl v5.40.1 2026-08-30 PERLPODSPEC(1)
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