10 Glossary

Analyser: A component of the FunnelWeb program that checks the macro table created by the parser for errors. For example, the analyser checks to see if any macro without a @Z has not been called.

Argument: A string delimited by blanks appearing on the FunnelWeb command line. Arguments are used to control options.

Directive: A FunnelWeb special sequence or cooperating group of special sequences that do not form part of a macro definition. A directive can take the form of a pragma.

Documentation: Descriptive text.

Documentation file: An output file, produced by the Weave component of FunnelWeb, that contains typesetter commands. When fed into the appropriate typesetter program, the result is a typeset image of the input file.

Free text: The text in an input file that remains if one were to remove macro definitions and directives.

FunnelWeb: This word has a number of different meanings all pertaining to the FunnelWeb system of programming. 1) The entire system of programming as in "Maybe FunnelWeb can help." 2) The computer program that implements the system as in "Run it through FunnelWeb and see what comes out." 3) The language implemented by the FunnelWeb program as in "I wrote the program in FunnelWeb." or "I wrote the program in Ada using FunnelWeb.".

FunnelWeb file: A file whose contents are written in the FunnelWeb language.

FunnelWeb language: The language in which FunnelWeb input files are written.

FunnelWeb proper: Usually, when FunnelWeb is invoked, it processes a single input file and then terminates. However, it also has a command language mode in which it is possible to invoke "FunnelWeb" many times. This leads to confusion between "FunnelWeb" the outer program and "FunnelWeb" the inner program. To avoid this confusion, the inner FunnelWeb is sometimes referred to as "FunnelWeb proper".

FW: An abbreviation for "FunnelWeb" that is used wherever appropriate.

Include file: A file read in by FunnelWeb as the result of an include pragma (@i filename).

Input file: Any file read in by FunnelWeb. The phrase "the input file" refers to the root input file (specified using the +F option).

Journal file: An output file containing a copy of the output sent to the user's console during an invocation of FunnelWeb. In other systems, this file is sometimes called a "log file".

Listing file: An output file summarizing the result of processing an input file.

Macro: A binding of a name to a string.

Macro definition: A construct appearing in a FunnelWeb file that binds a name to a text string. A FunnelWeb file consists of a series of macro definitions surrounded by documentary text.

Mapper: A component of the FunnelWeb program that reads in the input file and creates a copy of it in memory.

Option: An parameter internal to the FunnelWeb program which can be controlled by command line arguments or pragmas.

Output file: Any file written by FunnelWeb. This includes listing, journal, product, and documentation files. (Warning: During most of FunnelWeb's development the term "output file" was also used to refer to what are now called "product files". This turned out to be extremely confusing and so the term "product file" was invented to distinguish the generic from the specific. However, as this was a late modification, you may find some occurrences of the old use of "output file".).

Parser: A component of the FunnelWeb program that processes the token list generated by the scanner and produces a macro table and a document list. The parser mainly analyses the input file at the syntactic level, but also does some lightweight semantic checking too.

Pragma: Single-line directives that appears in FunnelWeb files. Pragmas control everything from maximum input line length to typesetter dependence. A pragma line starts with "@p"

Printed documentation: Sheets of paper resulting from actually typesetting and printing a documentation file.

Product file: An output file, generated by the Tangle component of FunnelWeb, that contains the expansion of the macros in the input file. Note: Other names considered for this were: generated file, expanded file, result file, program file, and tangle file.

Scanner: A component of the FunnelWeb program that scans a copy of the input file in memory and generates a line list and a token list to be fed to the parser. The scanner processes the input at the lexical level.

Script: A file containing FunnelWeb shell commands.

Shell: A command language interpreter built into the FunnelWeb program. The interpreter allows the user to invoke FunnelWeb proper many times during a single invocation of the FunnelWeb program.

Special character: A distinguished character in a FunnelWeb input file that introduces a special sequence. By default the special character is "@". However, it can be changed using the "@=" special sequence.

Special sequence: A special sequence is a construct introduced by the special character. Special sequences are used to define a structure in a FunnelWeb input file that exists at a higher level to the surrounding text. A FunnelWeb input file may be considered to be a sequence of text and special sequences.

Tangle: This is the name for the component of FunnelWeb that generates one or more product files containing the expansion of macros in the input file.

Typesetting directive: A FunnelWeb directive whose sole effect is to modify the way in which the input file is represented in the documentation file.

Weave: This is the name for the component of FunnelWeb that generates a documentation file containing typesetting commands representing the input file.