AidaDoc Files

The ''Aida'' project is twofold: it defines a simple common markup
language designed to describe structured text, and provides a command line
tool which translates the Aida syntax into various target formats (Html,
Latex, Trac, Mediawiki, Text, Markdown,...).

New features in version 1.3
===========================


The main new features are:

    * new command 'aida info license'. 

    * new global option '-L' to set the path to the library at run time. This 
    is useful to run aida with a different library than the default one. 

    * new option '-eval' (or just '-e') for 'convert' and 'split' to evaluate a 
    Tcl instruction from the command line. 

    * new configure option '--with-aidalib-loc' to set the path to the library 
    at compile time. 

    * support for the DESTDIR environment variable in the 'make install' 
    target. 

    * the command 'aida info attributes' accepts an additional argument 
    specifying a target to get the default attributes for this specific target. 

    * the command 'aida info mapping' accepts an additional argument specifying 
    a target to get the characters mapping for this specific target. 

    * the command 'aida info parameters' accepts an additional argument 
    specifying a target to get the default parameters for this specific target. 

    * the strings of the ((input and ((include tags are now parsed before 
    processing. They can in particular contain evaluation tags ((e e)). 

    * now the library is not loaded if a command does not require it. This 
    speeds up certain subcommands of 'aida help' and 'aida info'. 

    * there is now a complete test suite based on the Tcl package 'tcltest'. 



Compiling Aida
==============

Compiling the 'aida' command from the sources should not be a problem
on a Unix-like system, provided a 'C compiler' is present on the
machine, as well as a recent version of 'Bison' (version 2.4 or
greater) and 'Flex' (version 2.5 or greater). If 'Bison'
version 2.4 or greater is not available, then the tracing options will be
disabled.


The compiling process is driven by a Makefile. It is quite standard 
and can be performed by the following steps:

    1. retrieve the most recent aida sources (see the Download section [[1]]).

    2. go to the top directory containing the sources (i-e the directory 
    containing the file 'configure.ac').

    3. generate a 'src/config.h.in' file with the command:
        autoheader

    4. generate the 'configure' script with the command:
        autoconf
     

    5. execute the 'configure' script with the command:
        ./configure
     

    6. compile the sources with the command:
        make
     

    7. install the binary and the library with the following command 
    (you must have administrator privileges):
        sudo make install
     

By default, the binary is installed in ${prefix}/bin and the library in
${prefix}/share/aida/VERS where VERS designates the version number 
(currently 1.3).
The default for ${prefix} is usually /usr/local.



Executing the tests suite
=========================

The ''Aida'' test suite is maintained in a different module in the 
Subversion repository. It can be retrieved from the repository with the
following command:

    svn checkout http://svn.code.sf.net/p/aidadoc/svn/tests


In order to be able to execute it, you must run the configure script
with the '--with-tests' option. The value of this option is the path
to the 'tests' directory you retrieved from the Subversion directory
relative to the 'configure' script. For instance, if the working copy
is at the same level as the directory containing the sources (and the
'configure.ac' file), the path is '../tests' and the configure 
instruction would be:

    ./configure --with-tests=../tests


This will create a 'Makefile' in the 'tests' directory.
See the instructions contained in the 'README' file inside this
directory to learn how to use the test suite.



Links
=====

The official home page of the project is at SourceForge:

<http://sourceforge.net/p/aidadoc/home/>


The distribution comes with a help file called 'aida.html' 
located in the 'help' directory.


In order to report bugs or make requests about the project, please use the 
issue tracking system. [http://sourceforge.net/p/aidadoc/tickets/]


In order to discuss the usage of the Aida system or the Aida Markup
Language, there is a
mailing list. [http://sourceforge.net/p/aidadoc/mailman/]


The web page for users of the mailing list to subscribe or 
unsubscribe is: 
aidadoc-users [http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/aidadoc-users]


To post a message to all the list members, 
send an e-mail here. [mailto:aidadoc-users@lists.sourceforge.net] 


You can get info about using the list by sending a 
request message [mailto:aidadoc-users-request@lists.sourceforge.net]
with just the word 'help' as subject or in the body.


License
=======

''Aida'' is a free software developped under a BSD License: see
<http://www.opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.php>.

(c) Copyright: Bernard Desgraupes, 2010-2015

All rights reserved.

Last updated: 2015-05-20