This section describes how a Perl program is used in hyPub to control the Web page files generation process
Introduction to Perl
Perl is the most flexible scripting language that you can use for managing text files and executing other programs.
If you want to try it, follow these steps:
1. Download ActivePerl from http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/.
2. Install it by following the installation instructions.
3. Try the hello.pl program:
print "Hello world!\n";
3. Try the dir.pl program with executes another program through the system function:
system("dir \\");
web.pl - hyPub Perl Program to Generate Web Pages
In order to perform the steps described in the previous section, I wrote a Perl program called web.pl as part of the hyPub.
You can run web.pl with 3 command options:
1. "web.pl compile" - It does the following steps to generate Web page files:
Validating the book source files to make sure they are well formed XML files.
Merging multiple book source files into a single source file, if there a single book is stored in multiple source files.
Splitting the source file into multiple Web page files with one file per chapter and per section.
Transforming Web page files to include page layout and other formatting information.
2. "web.pl link" - It works on all Web page files to evaluate variables and build hyper links.
3. "web.pl finish" - It applies the final XSL transformation with some final touches.
