Provided by: libmarpa-r2-perl_2.086000~dfsg-8build5_amd64 bug

NAME

       Marpa::R2::HTML - High-level HTML Parser

SYNOPSIS

       Delete all tables:

           use Marpa::R2::HTML qw(html);

           my $with_table = 'Text<table><tr><td>I am a cell</table> More Text';
           my $no_table   = html( \$with_table, { table => sub { return q{} } });

       Delete everything but tables:

           my %handlers_to_keep_only_tables = (
               table  => sub { return Marpa::R2::HTML::original() },
               ':TOP' => sub { return \( join q{}, @{ Marpa::R2::HTML::values() } ) }
           );
           my $only_table = html( \$with_table, \%handlers_to_keep_only_tables );

       The above works by turning the original text of the HTML into values and concatenating the values at the
       top of the parse.  The same logic works even if a table is very defective:

           my $with_bad_table = 'Text<tr>I am a cell</table> More Text';
           my $only_bad_table =
               html( \$with_bad_table, \%handlers_to_keep_only_tables );

       Delete all comments:

           my $with_comment = 'Text <!-- I am a comment --> I am not a comment';
           my $no_comment   = html( \$with_comment,
               { ':COMMENT' => sub { return q{} } });

       By default, text is passed through unchanged, so that the user need only specify semantic actions for
       those components she wants changed.  To change the title of a document:

           my $old_title = '<title>Old Title</title>A little html text';
           my $new_title = html(
               \$old_title,
               {   'title' => sub { return '<title>New Title</title>' }
               }
           );

       Delete all elements with a class attribute of ""delete_me"":

           my $stuff_to_be_edited = '<p>A<p class="delete_me">B<p>C';
           my $edited_stuff       = html( \$stuff_to_be_edited,
               { '.delete_me' => sub { return q{} } });

       Marpa::R2::HTML recognizes elements even if they have missing start and/or end tags.  Marpa::R2::HTML can
       supply missing tags:

           sub supply_missing_tags {
               my $tagname = Marpa::R2::HTML::tagname();
               return if Marpa::R2::HTML::is_empty_element($tagname);
               return ( Marpa::R2::HTML::start_tag() // "<$tagname>\n" )
                   . Marpa::R2::HTML::contents() .
                   ( Marpa::R2::HTML::end_tag() // "</$tagname>\n" );
           }
           my $html_with_just_a_title = '<title>I am a title and That is IT!';
           my $valid_html_with_all_tags =
               html( \$html_with_just_a_title, { q{*} => \&supply_missing_tags } );

       Marpa::R2::HTML understands the hierarchical structure of an HTML document.  Finding the maximum nesting
       depth in elements is straightforward:

           sub depth_below_me {
               return List::Util::max( 0, @{ Marpa::R2::HTML::values() } );
           }
           my %handlers_to_calculate_maximum_element_depth = (
               q{*}   => sub { return 1 + depth_below_me() },
               ':TOP' => sub { return depth_below_me() },
           );
           my $maximum_depth_with_just_a_title = html( \$html_with_just_a_title,
               \%handlers_to_calculate_maximum_element_depth );

       Marpa::R2::HTML tracks actual elements, however tagged.  The above code returns the same depth for
       $valid_html_with_all_tags as for $html_with_just_a_title.

DESCRIPTION

       Marpa::R2::HTML does "high-level" parsing of HTML.  It allows handlers to be specified for elements,
       terminals and other components in the hierarchical structure of an HTML document.  Marpa::R2::HTML is an
       extremely liberal HTML parser.  Marpa::R2::HTML does not reject any documents, no mater how poorly they
       fit the HTML standards.

THE Marpa::R2::HTML::html STATIC METHOD

       The interface to Marpa::R2::HTML is through the "Marpa::R2::HTML::html" static method.  It is the only
       Marpa::R2::HTML method not part of the API for the semantic actions.

       "html" takes one or more arguments.  The first argument is required, and must be a reference to a string
       to be parsed as HTML.  The second and subsequent arguments (all optional) are hash references with
       handler descriptions.  (See the synopsis for several examples of calls using the "html" method.)

   CSS-style Handler Options
       Handler descriptions in Marpa::R2::HTML are key-value pairs in a hash.  In each pair, the key is a CSS-
       style handler specifier, and the value is a closure, which is called the action for the handler.

       Specifiers are "CSS-style" -- their syntax imitates some of the basic cases of CSS specifiers.  No
       attempt is planned to implement the full CSS specifier syntax.

       Supported specifier syntaxes are as follows:

       Tagname Specifiers
                   table  => sub { return Marpa::R2::HTML::original() },

           If  a  specifier  contains no special characters it is taken as the name of an element.  (A "special"
           character is  anything  except  an  alphanumeric,  a  hyphen  or  an  underscore.)   Consistent  with
           HTML::Parser's default behavior, element names must be specified in lowercase.

       Class Specifiers
           A  specifier which is a dot or period followed by a name will match any element whose class attribute
           is the same as the specified name.  For example, the specifier "".delete_me"" will match any  element
           whose class attribute is ""delete_me"".

       Tagname-Class Pair Specifiers
           A  specifier  which  contains  a  dot  or  period  somewhere  other  than the first position (such as
           ""span.label"") is treated as a dotted tagname-class  pair.   Its  action  will  be  called  for  any
           component whose tagname and class attribute both match the specifiers.

       The Tagname Wildcard Specifier
           A  specifier  of just an asterisk (""*"") matches all elements.  Be careful to note that matching all
           elements is not the same as matching all components.  The element wildcard specifier will  not  match
           any pseudoclasses.

       Pseudoclass Specifiers
                ':COMMENT' => sub { return q{} }

           A  specifier  which  begins  with  a  colon  ("":"")  matches a pseudoclass.  Marpa::R2::HTML defines
           pseudoclasses to deal with terminals and other non-element components of the HTML hierarchy.

   Conflicting Specifiers
       At most one semantic action is called for each component.  Where an  element  component  matches  several
       specifiers, the action is picked based on the most specific match.

       1. Matches by tagname-class pair are the most specific.
       2. Matches by class are the next most specific.
       3. Matches by tagname are considered less specific than matches by class.
       4. The wildcard match is the least specific.

       Here's an example:

           my $html = <<'END_OF_HTML';
           <span class="high">High Span</span>
           <span class="low">Low Span</span>
           <div class="high">High Div</div>
           <div class="low">Low Div</div>
           <div class="oddball">Oddball Div</div>
           END_OF_HTML

           our @RESULTS = ();
           Marpa::R2::HTML::html(
               \$html,
               {   q{*} => sub {
                       push @RESULTS, 'wildcard handler: ' . Marpa::R2::HTML::contents();
                   },
                   'div' => sub {
                       push @RESULTS, '"div" handler: ' . Marpa::R2::HTML::contents();
                   },
                   '.high' => sub {
                       push @RESULTS, '".high" handler: ' . Marpa::R2::HTML::contents();
                   },
                   'div.high' => sub {
                       push @RESULTS,
                           '"div.high" handler: ' . Marpa::R2::HTML::contents();
                   },
                   '.oddball' => sub {
                       push @RESULTS,
                           '".oddball" handler: ' . Marpa::R2::HTML::contents();
                   },
                   'body' => sub {undef},
                   'head' => sub {undef},
                   'html' => sub {undef},
                   'p'    => sub {undef},
               }
           );

       Here is what $result would contain after the above code was run:

           ".high" handler: High Span
           wildcard handler: Low Span
           "div.high" handler: High Div
           "div" handler: Low Div
           ".oddball" handler: Oddball Div

   Details of the Specifier Syntax
       For elements and class names only alphanumerics, hyphens and underscores are supported.  Elements must be
       specified  in  lowercase,  but  they  will  match tagnames in the original document on a case-insensitive
       basis.

       Forcing element names to be lowercase follows the default behavior of  HTML::Parser,  which  coerces  all
       tagnames  to  lowercase.   This is consistent with the HTML standards.  It is not consistent with the XML
       standards, and an option to configure this behavior may be added in the future.

       Pseudoclass names special to Marpa::R2::HTML are case-sensitive, and must be all uppercase.  Lowercase is
       reserved for CSS pseudoclasses.  The  CSS  standard  specifies  that  its  pseudoclass  names  are  case-
       indifferent.  No CSS pseudoclasses are supported at this writing.

PSEUDOCLASSES

       Marpa::R2::HTML  uses  HTML::Parser  to  do  its  low-level  parsing.   HTML::Parser  "events" become the
       terminals for Marpa::R2::HTML.

       Besides terminals and elements, three other HTML components are recognized: the SGML prolog  (":PROLOG"),
       the SGML trailer (":TRAILER"), and the HTML document as a whole (":TOP").

   :CDATA
       The  ":CDATA"  pseudoclass  specifies the action for CDATA terminals.  Its action is called once for each
       non-whitespace raw "text" event that is not reclassed as cruft.  (Raw text is text in  which  any  markup
       and entities should be left as is.)

       More precisely, a ":CDATA" terminal is created from any HTML::Parser "text" event that has the "is_cdata"
       flag   on;  that  contains  a  non-whitespace  character  as  defined  in  the  HTML  4.01  specification
       (<http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/text.html#h-9.1>); and that is not reclassed as cruft.

   :COMMENT
       The ":COMMENT" pseudoclass specifies the action for HTML comments.  Its action is called once  for  every
       "HTML::Parser" "comment" event that is not reclassed as cruft.

   :CRUFT
       The  ":CRUFT"  pseudoclass  specifies  the  action  for  cruft.   Its  action  is  called  once for every
       "HTML::Parser" event that Marpa::R2::HTML reclasses as cruft.

       Marpa::R2::HTML reclasses terminals as cruft when they do not fit the structure of an HTML document.  One
       example of a terminal that Marpa::R2::HTML would reclass as cruft is a "</head>"  end  tag  in  the  HTML
       body.

       Reclassing  terminals  as  cruft  is  only  done  as the last resort.  When it can, HTML::Parser forgives
       violations of the HTML standards and accepts terminals as non-cruft.

       Cruft is treated in much the same way as comments.  It is preserved,  untouched,  in  the  original  text
       view.

   :DECL
       The  ":DECL" pseudoclass specifies the action for SGML declarations.  Its action is called once for every
       "HTML::Parser" "declaration" event that is not reclassed as cruft.

   :PCDATA
       The ":PCDATA" pseudoclass specifies the action for PCDATA terminals.  Its action is called once for  each
       non-whitespace non-raw "text" event that is not reclassed as cruft.

       More  precisely,  a  ":PCDATA"  terminal  is  created  from  any  HTML::Parser  "text" event that has the
       "is_cdata" flag off; that contains a non-whitespace character as defined in the HTML  4.01  specification
       (<http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/text.html#h-9.1>); and that is not reclassed as cruft.

       Markup  and  entities in ":PCDATA" text are expected to be interpreted eventually, but it can be counter-
       productive to do this during parsing.  An application may, for  example,  be  rewriting  a  document  for
       display  on  the  web.   In  that  case  it will often want to leave markup and entities for the client's
       browser to interpret.

       Marpa::R2::HTML leaves interpretation of markup and entities entirely to the application.  An application
       which chooses to do the interpretation itself may do it  in  the  actions,  or  deal  with  it  in  post-
       processing.  CPAN has excellent tools for this, some of which are part of HTML::Parser.

   :PI
       The  ":PI"  pseudoclass specifies the action for SGML processing instructions.  Its action is called once
       for every HTML::Parser "process" event that is not reclassed as cruft.

   :PROLOG
       The ":PROLOG" pseudoclass specifies the action for SGML prolog.  This is the part of  the  HTML  document
       which  precedes  the HTML root element.  Components valid in the prolog include SGML comments, processing
       instructions and whitespace.

   :TOP
       The action specified for the ":TOP" pseudoclass will be called once and only once  in  every  parse,  and
       will  be  the  last  action called in every parse.  The ":TOP" component is the entire physical document,
       including the SGML prolog, the root element, and the SGML trailer.  All the other HTML  components  in  a
       document will be descendants of the ":TOP" component.

       The ":TOP" action is unique, in that there is always an action for it, even if one is not specified.  The
       "html"  method  returns  the  value  returned  by the ":TOP" action.  The default ":TOP" action returns a
       reference to a string with the literal text value of all of its descendants.

   :TRAILER
       The ":TRAILER" pseudoclass specifies the action for SGML trailer.  This is the part of the HTML  document
       which  follows  the HTML root element.  Components valid in the trailer include SGML comments, processing
       instructions, and whitespace.  Cruft can also be found here, though for Marpa::R2::HTML that  is  a  last
       resort.

   :WHITESPACE
       A  Marpa::R2::HTML ":WHITESPACE" terminal is created for every HTML::Parser "text" event that is entirely
       whitespace        as        defined        in         the         HTML         4.01         specification
       (<http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/text.html#h-9.1>)  and that is not reclassed as cruft.  Whitespace is
       acceptable  in  places  where  non-whitespace  is  not,  and  the  difference  can  be  very  significant
       structurally.

VIEWS

       I  hope the synopsis convinces the reader that the action semantics of Marpa::R2::HTML are natural.  This
       naturalness is achieved at the price of some  novelty.   This  section  explains  the  ideas  behind  the
       semantic  action  API.   Depending on taste, readers may want to skip this section and go straight to the
       API.

       The components of an HTML document form a hierarchy, with the ":TOP" component on top, and the  terminals
       on  the  bottom.   The  traditional  syntax  tree method requires semantic actions to know precisely what
       children every component will have.  This processing model is not a good fit  to  HTML.   Marpa::R2::HTML
       gives  the  writer  of  semantic  actions  "views" of each component that better fit situations where the
       number and type of children is unknown or vaguely defined.

       Marpa::R2::HTML's semantics focus more widely -- on a component's descendants instead of just its  direct
       children.   (The  terms ancestor and descendant are used in the standard way: If a component X is above Y
       in the hierarchy, X is an ancestor of Y; and Y is a descendant of the X.)

   The Original View
       The original view sees the text of a component as it was originally passed to the parser.   The  original
       view never changes.  The original view is seen through the "Marpa::R2::HTML::original" API method.

   The Terminals View
       The  terminals  view sees the terminals corresponding to the original text of a component.  The terminals
       view never changes.  The terminals view is usually seen as part of other views.

       At this writing the API does not contain a "pure" terminals view method.  For a  terminals  view  of  the
       whole HTML document, HTML::Parser does the job with significantly lower overhead.  For views and sections
       of  views  with  no values defined, the descendants view (described below) is equivalent to the terminals
       view.

   The Values View
       When actions are called, they return a value.  If that value is defined, it becomes visible to the values
       view of its ancestors.  The values view of a component sees the visible values for its descendants.

       The values view is an array, with the values ordered according to the lexical  order  of  the  components
       whose  actions  returned  them.   If  no descendants have visible values, then the values view is a zero-
       length array.

       The values view is hierarchical.  When a component produces a visible value, it makes the values  of  its
       descendants  disappear.   That  is, whenever the semantic action for a component X returns anything other
       than a Perl "undef", it has two effects:

       •   That return value becomes the visible value associated with component X.

       •   All the values previously visible due  to  semantic  actions  for  the  descendants  of  component  X
           disappear.

       Values which disappear are gone forever.  There is no mechanism to make them "reappear".

       As a special case, if an action for a component returns a Perl "undef", not only do the values of all its
       descendants  disappear,  the  component for the action also will not appear in the values view.  When its
       semantic action returns "undef", a component permanently "drops  out"  of  the  values  view  taking  all
       descendants with it.  The original view is seen through the "Marpa::R2::HTML::values" API method.

   The Literal View
       The  literal  view  can  be thought of as a mix between the original view and the values view.  It sees a
       text string, like the original view.  But unlike the original view, the literal view includes the visible
       values.

       Values appear in the literal view in stringized form.  For sections of the original text without  visible
       values,  the  literal  view  is  the  same as the original view.  In all Marpa::R2::HTML's views, whether
       descendants are seen as text or values, they are seen in the original lexical order.  The literal view is
       seen through the "Marpa::R2::HTML::literal" API method.

   The Descendants View
       Just as the literal view can be thought of as a mix between the original view and the  values  view,  the
       descendants view can be thought of a mix between the terminals view and the values view.

       The  descendants  view  sees  an  array of elements with data for each of the component's descendants, in
       lexical order.  Where a value is visible, the descendants view sees  data  for  the  component  with  the
       visible  value.  Where no value is visible, the descendants view sees data for the terminals.  This means
       that when no values are visible, the descendants view is the same as the terminals view.

       The descendants view is implemented via the "Marpa::R2::HTML::descendants" method.  It is the most  fine-
       grained and detailed way to look at the descendants of a component.  The descendants view can do anything
       that  the  other  views  can  do,  but the other views should be preferred when they fit the application.
       Other views are typically more intuitive and efficient.

   Views versus Syntax Trees
       Views are a generalization of the traditional method for processing semantics: syntax trees.  The  values
       view is the view that most closely resembles a syntax tree.  But there are important differences.

       In  its  purest  form, the syntax tree model required the semantic actions to define exactly how many and
       what kind of immediate children each node had.  Each node in a syntax  tree  worked  with  its  immediate
       children.  Children in a syntax tree appeared as values.

       The  values  view, on the other hand, sees all its descendants, not just its immediate children, but only
       if they make themselves visible.  Because of this, the values view lends itself to being mixed with other
       views.  The values view allows pieces of the tree to decide when they will come into sight and when  they
       will fall out of view.

   Views and Efficiency
       In  most  applications,  views  are more efficient than syntax trees.  In terms of Marpa::R2::HTML views,
       traditional syntax tree processing corresponds most closely to the values view when  every  component  in
       the parse has a visible value.  For Marpa::R2::HTML this is close to the worst case.

       Marpa::R2::HTML  optimizes  for  unvalued  components.   Unvalued  components are represented as terminal
       spans.  Adjacent descendant spans are automatically merged.  This means the size and time required do not
       increase as processing rises up the component hierarchy.

       Terminals views are calculated on a just-in-time basis when they are requested through  the  action  API.
       The terminals view is produced quickly from the merged terminal span.

       Original  views  are also calculated on a just-in-time basis as requested.  Each terminal tracks the text
       it represents as a character span.  The original text can be quickly reconstructed as  the  text  in  the
       source document from the first character location of its component's first terminal to the last character
       location of the component's last terminal.

       When  a  handler  does  not  need to return a value, the most efficient thing to do is to return "undef".
       This reverts that component and all its descendants to the efficient unvalued representation.

THE SEMANTIC ACTION API

       Marpa::R2::HTML's semantic action API is implemented mainly through  context-aware  static  methods.   No
       arguments are passed to the user's semantics action callbacks.  Instead the semantic actions get whatever
       data they need by calling these static methods.

   API Static Methods
       Marpa::R2::HTML::attributes
           Returns  a  hash  ref  to  the  attributes  of  the start tag.  This hash ref is exactly the hash ref
           returned for the "attr" arg specification of HTML::Parser.  The "attributes" API  method  returns  an
           empty hash if there were no attributes, if there was no start tag for this element, or if the current
           component is not an element.

       Marpa::R2::HTML::contents
           For  an element, returns the literal view of the contents.  The contents of an element are its entire
           text except for its start tag and its end tag.  For an non-element component, returns undef.

       Marpa::R2::HTML::descendants
           This static method implements the descendants view.  It takes  one  argument,  the  "dataspec".   The
           dataspec  is  a  string  specifying  the  data to be returned for each descendant.  The "descendants"
           method returns a reference to an array with one element  per  descendant,  in  lexical  order.   Each
           element  in the array is a reference to an array whose elements are the per-descendant data requested
           in the string.

           The descendant data specification string has a syntax similar to that of  the  "argspec"  strings  of
           HTML::Parser.  Details of that syntax are given below

       Marpa::R2::HTML::end_tag
           For  an  element with an explicit end tag, returns the original text of the end tag.  For non-element
           components, returns undef.  For elements with no end tag, returns undef.

       Marpa::R2::HTML::is_empty_element
           For an element, returns a Perl true value if the  element  is  empty,  a  defined  Perl  false  value
           otherwise.  For non-element components, returns undef.

       Marpa::R2::HTML::literal
           The  "Marpa::R2::HTML::literal"  method implements the literal view.  Returns a string containing the
           literal view of the component -- its text as modified by any the visible values of its descendants.

       Marpa::R2::HTML::literal_ref
           Returns a reference to a string containing the literal view of the component.  This can be useful for
           very long strings.

       Marpa::R2::HTML::offset
           Returns the start offset of the component.  This is a zero-based location  in  the  source  document.
           Some  components  are  zero-length,  containing  none  of  the  tokens  in  the  physical input.  The
           "Marpa::R2::HTML::offset" method return "undef" for these.

       Marpa::R2::HTML::original
           The "Marpa::R2::HTML::original" method implements the original view.  Returns a string containing the
           original view of the component -- its text unchanged from the source document.

       Marpa::R2::HTML::start_tag
           For an element with an explicit start tag, returns the original text of  the  start  tag.   For  non-
           element components, returns undef.  For elements with no explicit start tag, returns undef.

       Marpa::R2::HTML::tagname
           For  an  element  component,  returns  its tagname.  There is a tagname even if there are no explicit
           tags.  Tagname is determined based on structure.  For non-element components, returns undef.

       Marpa::R2::HTML::title
           Returns the value of the title attribute.  For a non-element component, returns undef.  If there  was
           no explicit start tag, returns undef.  If there was no title attribute, returns undef.

       Marpa::R2::HTML::token_type
           For  a  token,  returns the token type.  The token types are the event types from HTML::Parser: ""T""
           for text, ""S"" for a start tag, ""E"" for an end tag, ""PI"" for a processing instruction, ""D"" for
           an SGML declaration, and ""C"" for a comment.  If the component is an  element  or  some  other  non-
           token, returns undef.

       Marpa::R2::HTML::values
           The  "Marpa::R2::HTML::values" method implements the values view.  It returns a reference to an array
           of the descendant values visible from this component, in lexical order.  No elements  of  this  array
           will be undefined.  The array will be zero length if no descendant has a visible value.

   Dataspecs
           Marpa::R2::HTML::descendants('token_type,literal,element')

       The data specification string, or dataspec, is a comma separated list of descendant data specifiers.  The
       "Marpa::R2::HTML::descendants"     method     takes     a     dataspec     as    its    argument.     The
       "Marpa::R2::HTML::descendants" method returns a reference to an array of references  to  arrays  of  per-
       descendant  data.   The contents of the per-descendant data arrays and their order is as specified by the
       dataspec.  These are the valid descendant data specifiers:

       "element"
           For an element descendant, returns the tagname.  A valid tagname is returned even if  there  were  no
           explicit tags.  For non-element descendants, returns undef.

       "literal"
           Returns a string containing the literal view of the descendant.

       "original"
           Returns a string containing the original view of the descendant.

       "token_type"
           If  the  descendant  is  a  terminal,  returns  the token type.  Token types are as described for the
           "Marpa::R2::HTML::token_type" API method.  For components with visible values, returns undef.

       "value"
           For element descendants with a value, returns that value.  In all other cases, returns undef.

   The Instance Hash
       Each  Marpa::R2::HTML  instance  makes  available  a  per-instance  variable  as  a  scratchpad  for  the
       application:    $Marpa::R2::HTML::INSTANCE.     Each    call    to    Marpa::R2::HTML::html   creates   a
       $Marpa::R2::HTML::INSTANCE variable which is reserved for that application  using  the  "local"  keyword.
       Marpa::R2::HTML::html  initializes  it  to  an  empty  hash,  but  after  that  does  not touch it.  When
       programming via side effects is more natural than passing data up the  parse  tree  (and  it  often  is),
       $Marpa::R2::HTML::INSTANCE can be used to store the data.

       Ordinarily,  $Marpa::R2::HTML::INSTANCE  is  destroyed,  with  the  rest  of  the  parse  instance,  when
       "Marpa::R2::HTML::html" returns.  But it  can  be  useful  for  the  ":TOP"  semantic  action  to  return
       $Marpa::R2::HTML::INSTANCE as the value of the parse.

   Undefined Actions versus Actions Which Return "undef"
       It  is  worth  emphasizing that the effect of not defining a semantic action for a component is different
       from the effect of defining a semantic action which returns a Perl "undef".  The difference lies in  what
       happens to any visible values of the descendants of that component.

       Where  no  action  is  defined for a component, it leaves all that component's views as they were before.
       That is, all values which were visible remain visible and no new values become visible.  When  an  action
       is  defined  for  a  component,  but  that  action  returns  undef, no new values become visible, and all
       descendant values which were visible disappear.

   Root Element versus :TOP Pseudoclass
       It is important to understand the very special function of the ":TOP" component, and to  avoid  confusing
       it with the HTML root element.  The most important distinctions are that

       •   The semantic action for ":TOP" pseudoclass is always the last action to be called in a parse.

       •   The  ":TOP"  component is always the entire HTML document.  This can be true of the root element, but
           it is not true in all cases.

       •   The  value  that  the  action  for  the  ":TOP"  component  returns  becomes  the  value   that   the
           Marpa::R2::HTML::html method returns.

       The  root  element  is  the  HTML  element  whose  tagname is ""html"", though its start and end tags are
       optional and can be omitted even in strictly valid HTML.  Tags or no tags, every HTML document has a root
       element.  (The ":TOP" component is not an element, so it does not have a tagname and never has tags.)

       The root element is always a descendant of the ":TOP" component.  The SGML prolog and  SGML  trailer  are
       always  descendants  of  the ":TOP" component.  The SGML prolog and SGML trailer are never descendants of
       the root element.

       If an action for the root element is specified, it will also be called once and only once in every parse.
       An action for the root element can be specified in same way as actions  for  other  elements,  using  its
       tagname of ""html"".  An element wildcard action also becomes the action for the root element, if no more
       specific handler declaration takes precedence.

       A  ":TOP"  action  will be called once and only once in every parse.  The ":TOP" action is unique in that
       there is a default action.  No other component has a default action.

   Tags versus Structure
       Where tags conflict with structure, HTML::Parser follows structure.  "Following  structure"  means  that,
       for  example,  if semantic actions for the "html", "head", and "body" elements exist, they will be called
       once and only once during every parse.

       Consider this short and very defective HTML document:

           <title>Short</title><p>Text</head><head>

       HTML::Parser starts the HTML document's body when it encounters the "<p>" start tag.   That  means  that,
       even  if  they  were  in  the  right  order,  the two "head" tags cannot be fit into any reasonable parse
       structure.

       If an action is specified for the "head" element, it will be  called  for  the  actual  header,  and  the
       original  view of the "head" element component will be the text ""<title>Short</title>"".  The action for
       the "head" element will not be called again.  The two stray tags, "</head>" and "<head>", will be treated
       as descendants of the "body" element, and reclassed as "cruft" terminals.

   Explicit and Implicit Elements
       If a semantic action is specified for a tagname, it is called whenever an  element  is  found  with  that
       tagname,  even  if  there are no explicit tags for that element.  The HTML standards allow both start and
       end tags to be missing for "html", "head", "body" and "tbody" elements.  Marpa::R2::HTML is more liberal,
       and will recognize virtual tags for "table", "tr", and "td" elements as required to  repair  a  defective
       table.

       Marpa::R2::HTML  is  more  even  liberal  about recognizing virtual end tags than it is about start tags.
       Virtual start tags are recognized only for the specific elements listed above.  For  any  non-empty  HTML
       element, there is some circumstance under which Marpa::R2::HTML will recognize a virtual end tag.  At end
       of  file,  as  one  example,  Marpa::R2::HTML  will  do  its best to produce a balanced HTML structure by
       creating a virtual end tag for every element in the stack of currently active elements.

EXPORTS

       Marpa::R2::HTML exports nothing by default.  Optionally, Marpa::R2::HTML::html may be exported.

Copyright and License

         Copyright 2014 Jeffrey Kegler
         This file is part of Marpa::R2.  Marpa::R2 is free software: you can
         redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser
         General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation,
         either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

         Marpa::R2 is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
         but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
         MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
         Lesser General Public License for more details.

         You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser
         General Public License along with Marpa::R2.  If not, see
         http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

perl v5.38.2                                       2024-03-31                               Marpa::R2::HTML(3pm)