Re: Query support

[Paul Prescod <papresco@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Richard Light wrote:
> >You could do this with a query construction rule
> >
> >(query
> >  (select-by-class (subgrove (current-root)) 'pi)
> >  (make paragraph-break))
> >
> >This isn't supported in Jade.
> 
> James,
> 
> Any plans to support query?

Another alternative might be to move easy-to-implement query feature
features into new construction-rule forms in the core language. Two
things I would love to do are:

(pi ***)

(character ***)

The first is important for processing processing instructions in context
(and doesn't seem difficult to implement). The second would be useful to
me in cases where I want, for instance, to print out all elements of a
particular type in a mode, without using complex SDQL. Here is what I
would like to do:

(mode TOC
   (default (process-children))
   (character (empty-sosofo))

   (element TITLE (data))
   (element HEAD (data))
   (element CAPTION (data)))

This allows me to surpress the character-containing elements that I do
not want to print out (paragraphs, footnotes, etc.) without explicitly
searching for titles, heads and captions. It also does not seem hard to
implement, though a dumb implementation might slow things down quite a
bit. Does someone else have a nice idiom for this operation that does
not require a new construction rule form? Or perhaps a more
performance-friendly new feature?

 Paul Prescod



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